Thursday, March 24, 2016

In Which I Lament/Praise My Own Planning

Another thing I excel at, since you asked, is planning. I am a planner. I like to plan things.
So, back three or two weeks ago or whenever, I decided (for reasons which are now lost in the haze of my brain) to schedule four days of un-interrupted, hellish consultations with students. Oh yes, I planned it. For myself. Of my own free will. For myself.
What this means, in practical terms, is that for each day of this week I had to read two drafts for each student. That's right, TWO. This I also planned. Which means that the days leading up to this week, and IN FACT, this week was the definition of No Fun.
Luckily I discovered the joy and ease of copy and paste commentary, because, I discovered, even though each student wrote their own draft, they all faced the same challenges. So I wrote very detailed comments, and then I pasted them for each student, customizing them for a students draft. This made my life EASIER.
So what I did I learn from this marathon, no holds barred, few breaks in the schedule, schedule?
First, NEVER DO IT AGAIN!! I say this knowing I will forget the pain and that I will, in fact, construct for myself a similar hell. What can I say? I vacillate between boundless optimism and hard-edged cynicism.
Second, for some students, it actually does work. (Dammit!)
ALSO, re:planning, I was a super-genuis this weekend and prepped food for both breakfast and lunch, therefore making the morning/day portion of my eating life a BREEZE.
The upshot, therefore, is that while sometimes my planning bites me in the ass, sometimes it is an asset.
Thereby, the theme of my planning = ass.
The end.

Wednesday, March 23, 2016

I still have a Blog!

You guys, I still have a blog!
Which sits here, dormant, like a piece of white paper that, for some reason, is growing mold.
BUT
Poetry Month will soon be upon us and Hightouch and myself made a somewhat informal pact to revive our Poem A Day project during Poetry Month, which is April.
So, I decided I would write a poem a day but BY HAND. That's right. Like, in a notebook and shit.
With that in mind, I decided having a daily writing project (a la Hightouch) is a good idea. I have been Facebooked into brevity, but, my dear readers, I have more to say.
Yes, I will not be contained in a mere Status Update.
No, my words will be many and my sentences will be convoluted.
I HAVE ALL THE BEST WORDS.

and out