The Laursonian Institute

The Laursonian Institute

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Posts tagged class

Freitag

Oh beloved Friday, you have come to bless me again.

Class was great today.  We started semantics and it was really bueno.  I haven’t done semantics formally before, so it’s great to get a little primer before I take semantics next quarter from the same professor.  I’m really looking forward to it!

Had a delightfully social day after that.  Dionne came by my office hours to chat about our plan for next week to see if we needed to prep anything this afternoon.  We didn’t – hurrah!  Lewis came by shortly thereafter, and then we met up with fellow grad student Ariel to chat a bit about how classes are going and set up a Friday drinks plan for one of the upcoming weeks.  She’s in our 260 class with us, so it was nice to comisserate about certain things together.  She also is TAing this semester, and we’ll be TAing together in the spring.  Woot.

Sessions actually did pretty well!  Much better than Wednesday, despite feeling like it was going to be a flop.  Seems like maybe the Friday kids are whittling down to just the few who want to participate whereas maybe the Wednesday session still attracts those who feel like they should attend but don’t really want to.  Not sure.  Anyway, it’s always relieving to have another week behind us, and moving on towards the weekend.  Next week in sessions we’re talking about semntics, so that’ll be a bit of trouble, but after blazing through syntax today and for once feeling like I know what I’m doing, I’m read to tackle semantics for sure.

Came home and had some vino with Lewis while watching out most recently netflixed movie, Buster Keaton’s “The General”.  How much do I love Buster Keaton?  A lot!  I laugh so much more in his silent movies than I do most of the contemporary “comedies”.  It’s really amazing how much he can do with his face, and how acrobatic he is!  Good times had by all, for sure.  I’m hoping to get a few household-type projects done this weekend in addition to the regular work load.  I think I worked too hard last weekend and it really burned me out this week.  So I’m going to make cider this weekend, and attempt Clare Hall Soup #1.  Really not sure what I’m doing there, but it’s always worth a go.  Maybe some day I’ll figure out their secret daily-changing-but-always-sort-of-the-same recipe!  Also have a little home maintenance to do with the landlord/inlaws, and maybe my first sewing fix-it project.  Oo – and if we can borrow a car — to the you-pick pumpkin patch!!

What good stuff I have in store!  Yay!

Crushing (tiny) dreams

Well, Laurie, it’s Monday.  Night.  You made it!

Sadly, Mondays are my easiest day.  I only have TA stuff to do today, no sections, and no classes.  But for all that, I got a heck of a lot done.  Woke up early-ish, and got a paper read.  Made a reaaaaally good roast beef sandwich and got myself to campus.  Class went well, and I got a chance to finish grading the homeworks this afternoon.  Had our weekly TAs meeting, which at least left me feeling like I’ve got a bit of an idea what to do in sections this week.  We’re moving our meetings to Wednesdays, actually, which makes me a little worried about getting instructions for that weeks section right before we meet… but I think we’ll be fine.

Came home just in time to go with Lewis to take the Boo to the vet.  We were going to get him all vaccinated for his outdoor activities these days.  Got a little distracted by the vet, though, who confirmed my suspicions that Mr. Boo shouldn’t be an outdoor kitty without claws.  So Lewis and I hemmed and hawed for a while and finally decided it was time to curtail his outdoor activities, mostly for his own safety, but a bit (I must admit) for our pocket book as well.  Can’t afford much in the way of expensive vet visits or vaccine regimes… but I think it’ll all be okay.  Boo wasn’t “utilizing” the outdoors much when we weren’t out there already, and what little he did outside of our yard has so far been getting in trouble and getting into fights.  No es bueno.  Compound this with the worry I was having about him being an outdoor kitty and Lewis’ mom’s cat Myles just having been diagnosed with FIV… I’m feeling okay about this decisions.  It is going to be a little heart breaking trying to get Boo to understand he can’t go outside any more.  He was awfully cute prowling around out there.

Post-vet, I made dinner and chatted up Lewis about Trubetzkoi.  Got our laundry folded (we’re going to be all wrinkly this week… oh well).  I also made pumpkin chocolate chip cookies!  They’re rather tasty.  All cakey and chocolatey.  Got the grades uploaded into the gradebook, Lewis finished our draft of the homework for tomorrow, and all I have left to do is print that out, and get myself to bed.  And lo, it’s sounding pretty great right about now.

I Never Had It So Well

Can’t manage any more than a good bad list tonight.  I’m tired, frustrated, nervous, resigned, excited, aprehensive, defeated, and at the moment a bit taciturn.  Anyway:

The Good

  • got the laundry done
  • got my sewing machine delivered
  • finished chapter one of the LIN 1 reading
  • had a nice walk & talk this evening

The Bad

  • see above list of tumultuous mood swings
  • couldn’t figure out how to thread sewing machine
  • something happened to Boo outside today (something peed on his neck? maybe?) and he’s been sad all day
  • Lewis is maybe getting the flu
  • failed to make dinner, or pumpkin bread, both of which I had big plans for
  • spent an unjustifiable amount of time futzing with new email programs trying to get something to check my two addresses non-buggily
  • additionally: something in my wordpress is fucking up, so I can’t even post this blog.

Tomorrow = first day of classes.  Happily, I’m not nearly as nervous as I could be about this.  I know most of the 1st years now, and I already know and like the professor.  We’ve been doing orientations all week, so I already know where the building is and all that, and I feel a bit like an “old hand” around the department.  I even have my “own” (read: shared with 6 other TAs) office.  Also, I only have one class tomorrow, and one class Friday, which seems like a nice small load.  Now to go to bed so I can get up at an appropriately early hour.