BOYZ weekend is not as cool as GIRLZ weekend

This post is brought to you by Brain Break 2016. I am so over this theory paper. When I sit down to work on it my brain just crosses her arms and stares me down. She's not cooperating.

G is at a BOYZ weekend in honor of the new Captain America movie. Oh, and friendship.

G has found his people, his tribe, and he may never come back.

And if he doesn't come back that's eventually going to be problematic for me. Even assuming the best - that this paper gets finished and I pass this semester - my paychecks are about to dry up.

Somebody's gotta pay the bills around here.

TGIF, people!

The First of the Last

Yesterday and today were the last days of my classes this semester.

Halle - frikkin - lujah.

Several students hung around after class and told me that they thought Comp I was great, and that maybe it was their favorite class, and they actually learned some stuff about writing. Many of them - an alarming amount, actually - are registered in my Comp II classes in the fall.

And they are precious. These students who I may or may not have referred to (behind their backs, of course) as my needy students and their needy needs for months and months. They warm my heart.

Until I have to grade their finals.

The Great Purge of 2016

Here's proof that the end of this crazy semester, the craziest season in my life for quite some time, is almost here.

I present to you The Great Purge of 2016. In between grading papers (always, the grading) this morning, I have slowly gone through this hellacious mess:

This means that I have finally arrived at a point of mental breathing room. I have effectively been able to ignore this mess for the last three months because I just haven't had the psychological or intellectual bandwidth to make it a priority.

Now, though, all that remains is a bit of school and research stuff, and the start of my summer reading list. In between the grading I'm also reading for fun. I spent Friday and about half of yesterday writing the final theory papers of the semester (save the last big one for next week) and I'm so, soooooo happy to report that my weekly readings for that class are done and done. As in, stick a fork in me.

The Pay Off

Do you know what this is?

It is the tired and beleaguered face of someone who has been invited to publish in a humanities journal!

The invitation doesn't secure publication, but my advisors are optimistic. Which means I'm optimistic. Which means I may or may not have alternated between Taylor Swift, Nicki Minaj, and Lady Gaga while running errands today.

I needed this. It has been an unbelievably long and stressful semester. I took a chance on this journal and I'm really, really hoping it pays off. Maybe it already has.

Harshin' My Buzz

Real life has come crashing in on me and it's harshing my buzz. Can you even say "harshing my buzz" in Denver? The buzz is such a real and concrete thing that I'm not sure citizens are allowed to speak in metaphor about it.

Anyhoo.

I presented at a local conference yesterday and it went really well! It's been in progress for the whole semester and I just about floated out of the room afterwards, I was so happy it was done. My group received some amazing kudos. I ended up working at the event the rest of the day, smiling and chatting away while inwardly hyperventilating about the amount of work I have to do before Monday.

This is what I want to do all the time:

Lucy loves to hang out behind the couch, close to a window we keep cracked open when the weather is nice outside. She hunkers down and snoozes the day away, which, to me, sounds like the best plan ever.

Here's a side view:

All I have done today is grade for the side job and work on one of my last weekly papers for the theory class. I've been in High Pissy Mode for several hours, but then I finished everything and became human again.

I have to make it three more weeks.

And then I'm going to sleep and read and eat and do yard work all summer long.

It's Friday? Already?

I tell you, when you're not working the week absolutely flies by! When I woke up this morning, I was like, "It's Friday? Already? Where did the week go?!" Trust me when I say that's never, ever, what I think on Friday mornings.

The peeps leave tonight and I don't even want to think about it. So let's talk about something else.

Yesterday was Garden of the Gods and exploring Colorado Springs.

Obviously the weather was hideous, as usual. We ended up spending so much time wandering around that we got sunburned. I didn't notice until later last night when my face started hurting and itching.

Garden of the Gods and Pikes Peak in the background.

Things got a little cray cray out at Balanced Rock.

 

We met up with G (you know, the one person who's managing to hold down a job and bring in income) for dinner at THE PLANE RESTAURANT. Remember that? When I took G to eat there as a Christmas present one time? Wife of the year and all that?

We had dinner inside the plane. It's probably the most relaxed I've ever been inside a plane, I'll tell you that. 

Time for a second cup of coffee and the teensiest bit of grading before we're off to explore some more. Do you think they'll notice if I just don't take them to the airport? Ever?