Ah, Monday.

Because of the timing for our summer session, I have 4-day weekends right now. They're great, but damn if Monday isn't even worse than usual. Today I need goals, or I will get nothing done.

• 11am - bike: 30mins. - I have been out of the habit since my change in schedule two weeks ago. Must get back into habit.
• 1pm - work on dissertation: 30mins. - I know it's not much, but see above about "habit." ETA: why is this so hard to do? Seriously, I cannot seem to make myself open the file and work on it, even for 30min. Have decided to have a bit more coffee, take a shower, and start the day over.
  
• re-read articles for course (1/2 done)
  
• go into office at 5pm
  
• grade three papers - must not fall behind on these - added office time because it's easier to grade there.

Things I've done that weren't on the list:

• One load of laundry (I really needed to do that).
• Cleaned stovetop.
• Drafted odd email begging for scheduling change.
• Cleaned balcony (see below).
  

I was intending to go into the office for the dissertation work, but I think I'm going to clean up the balcony a bit (sometime between 11.30 - 1!) and start working out there. My father is passing along last year's laptop to me, so I'll finally have something with battery life.

ETA #2: Okay, I'm fucked. I decided to put everything together for dinner because... well, because I didn't want to be angry at Mr. Squirrel, later, for not remembering to make something. I figured I would shower afterward, but as I was beginning to cook a friend of Mr. Squirrel's dropped by.

At times, this guy will stay for HOURS. He's already been here an hour, and I WANT HIM TO LEAVE. I can't take a shower while he's here, as the set-up of our flat doesn't allow for much privacy in cases like this. (It's private enough that I could shower, but... I'd basically have to take all my clothes into the bathroom and dress in a cloud of steam afterward.) Why Mr. Squirrel hasn't realized this and at least taken this guy into another room or out on the front balcony is beyond me.

I'm in a fucking horrible mood, now.

Bullets, with updates!

See what happens when you draft? You end up with updates to points that no one even saw...

• Apparently blogging about blogrolling fixed the problem. Who knew? This must be similar to blogging about lost objects.
  
• My car is refinanced, barring any weirdness. I'm happy, and I have one less thing on my plate. Update: Er, there were some issues with this later in the day, but they only resulted in an extra $11/month, and I'll go with it for now.
  
• Mr. Squirrel is calling PsychoCollege today to try some stalling tactics. I spent a good half hour talking with our new grad chair (I do love him) about the possible ways to fix this situation. I believe Mr. Squirrel is going to take the "honest" approach and say that this was not what he was expecting, and that he must wait until the other interviews play out. Update: PsychoCollege basically withdrew the offer. Apparently they wanted him to decide today, and when he wasn't willing to do that (actually, he hadn't talked that far... this happened after about five minutes of discussion about details of the offer) the Dean cut him off and said something to the effect of 'this isn't likely to work, because we need a decision NOW.' Mr. Squirrel is a wee bit morose, because this is a sucky way to have your first official offer play out.
• Oh, and the loan money that finally went through (after the registrar lost my paperwork for the fourth semester in a row) is dwelling in a black hole somewhere. The bank has transferred it electronically to my college, but it's not in my account. Contacting the bursar has resulted only in my frustration (and some choice swear words at home). Now they're "not promising" it will reach me by the 27th, and I have started a steady stream of polite but really pissed off emails to various places. As if that has a chance in hell of helping.
  

Last night was my last class of the semester. Or, at least, the last class of mine this semester -- I agreed to guest lecture in Mr. Squirrel's class tonight while he leaves for his job interview.

I forgot last night was the last class. How lame is that? They've generally been a very good class, and I didn't say a word to them about the semester overall. May have to write a nice email, encouraging them to continue what they're doing. Two of the six ended up being slackers, but the other four were always prepared and very into the readings.

So, tonight, I go into a three-hour night class with absolutely nothing prepared to say. Even though that's okay - the alternative was cancelling the class - I still have a little wobbly feeling in my stomach.

It doesn't help that it's snowing, and that I don't have my snow tires on the car, and that it's a 45 minute drive on icy roads... Ack!

Oh no!

I feel horribly, horribly guilty for requiring the book we're covering in class, today.

It was new... it looked interesting... the author is someone I hadn't read before, but seemed up-and-coming...

It sucked. It essentially characterizes all "western feminists" as dumb-ass racist bitches who write for Vogue and spend their spare time picking flowers to decorate the goddess statues in their white, middle-class communes.

We've covered some really difficult modern feminist thought in this course, and this is some retreat into brow-beating Carol Christ and Mary Daly.

Sigh. That'll teach me to end with new text.

Vibes needed...

In a couple days, Mr. Squirrel has an on-campus interview for a tenure-track job about four hours away.

I have no idea what we would do, if he got this job. It's close enough that I could stay here and teach, if my chair would give me a Tu-W-Th schedule and a contract... I'm not opposed to renting a studio (or a room) and spending two or three nights a week by myself.

Eek!

I've just been asked to replace my usual summer course offering (at Small Private College) with another course. This is fine... except that this particular course is fraught with issues and I'm a bit scared of it. I teach the 400-level version of the course at Large Private University, but it's super-specific and relates very easily to my other interests. Teaching the intro. version of the course requires a lot more general knowledge, as most intro. courses do.

Now, I've been explicitly told that I can morph it as desired, and turn it into something closer to my usual "speciality course." I don't actually want to do that -- obviously my interests will show in the texts I choose (she says, rubbing her hands together in glee!) but I don't want it to be the same course. Summer courses always seem like a good time to stretch my comfort zone: we have no official course evals during the summer at SPC, and the students are usually somewhat interested.

Teaching this course also adds nicely to my CV. This particular field is currently white-hot, and though it's likely to cool off in the near future it will still serve me well.

Tonight's wine.

Yes, it was a special night in the Squirrel household. Opening a bottle of wine valued at more than $10 always marks some kind of important occasion.

Summer classes have been assigned, and we both ended up with at least two (assuming students register for them). Many professors, I'm sure, would cringe at the idea of losing most of their summer to teaching... for us, it means keeping food in the cat bowls and in the refrigerator. And not even the same food, at that!!

Seriously, it's a load off both our minds. And since we didn't get through the whole bottle, I can have a nice relaxing glass of wine tomorrow night, too. (Thanks in part to the wonders of the Vac-U-Vin. If you ever wondered whether this particular item was worth $12.99, let me assure you that it most certainly is.)