School has started in earnest, and it has been more of a good week then a crappy week. My students seem to be intelligent and exciting people, even my eight am class was on the ball. So if, it seems, my students (or, let be honest, some of them) are cool what has curtailed my week? What has taxed my patience and intelligence? Well since you asked so nice I will tell you, it is one of the instructors that I am team teaching with. When I met her a little voice in the back of my head warned me of impending doom, but I dismissed said voice, probably because I did not want to face the truth, or I wanted to keep it far enough away that it would not intrude on my happy first week. Because usually I listed to Marvin (my little voice), he has served me well over the years. But unfortunately I ignored Marvin, hoping he was wrong and knowing in my heart of hearts that he was not. This woman is the most inept, ignorant and irritating person I have ever met in my life!!!!

If she were only irritating I could handle it, but it is the inept part that has me up in arms. She seems to know very little about the subject and insists on giving out incorrect information. She cares not one iota that the class be academically rigorous and pedagogically responsible. She would prefer not to give exams or have them write papers, and just pass them all on principle. Now I know that some people would cheer this, I am not one of them. I think that an education should mean something and let me but it this way, I have never failed a student who came to class and did the work, even if that meant that they spent more time in my office so that I could help them then they did in the class. And how the hell did someone with a masters degree in counseling pass muster to teach a humanities class? I am sure that she has much to add to the conversation, but she also seems to think that she can also lecture better on other people’s specializations then they can. One of the other professors is in the art department. Now I know a good deal about art and art history (this woman specialty), but I also know enough to know that she probably is much better suited to lecture about this subject then me. Our friend, lets call her Mona, does not seem to feel this same way, it seems she is superwoman. But the word on the street is that she misses so much class that she only causes some trouble, not a typhoon.

I am worried that if the semester continues in the vein this blog will become a months long vent about a woman that I must keep myself from throttling.

I recently moved, about ten minutes away, but I had to pack up all my shit and stuff, so it was a move. And as I am unpacking boxes and boxes of books, and running to the store to get another bookcase because I have run out of room I am left to ponder how exactly, at 30, I will live another 30 years without my books needing a house of their own. And the worse part about this is that I have also taken boxes and boxes to my office (now that I am gainfully employed and have my very own office) and I still have more books than I know what to do with. I could purge, but at this stage what I have is what I love and need, I do not have superfluous books lying around the house. I guess I will have to continually reclaim space wherever I can find it and hope that a tower of books does not, at some point in my life, fall over and kill me.

On a lighter note there is nothing I am dreading more than the two days of meetings that I will have to start on Monday. Someone please tell me why in the word we need all of the following: two general faculty meetings, departments meetings and college meetings and new faculty orientation? It would seem to me that about two are necessary, but no I have all of them. I am actually planning on taking some work with me and listening with one ear, at least for five minutes to decide if I need to listen at all. I heard that the new faculty meeting is literally about what to put in your syllabus and how to keep a gradebook. Pardon the French, but are you fucking kidding me here? If one does not know how to do these things, should you have this type of job? Yikes!

But I will write more about these on Monday and Tuesday when I am cranky and irritated by the bad coffee and pastries and the fact that I have not been let into my office as of yet.

So I know that I have not updates this blog in awhile, but I have a crazy reason. My summer school class, they were cool and smart and never gave me a lick of trouble. I was so happy that I did not have much to write about for weeks, but fall semester will start in a few weeks so I will solve that problem soon. My summer school class was a mere 11 people who all came to class all the time, who did all of the work that they were asked and never complained. In a word they were a miracle. I introduced a concept; they got it and applied it. They revised draft upon draft without it being asked or assigned, and they were thoughtful and sincere in their leaning. I figure a class like this comes along maybe twice in a lifetime and I am sad to see them go, I know that the fall will not hold the same, so I must gird my loins (metaphorically of course, I have no loins) to face yet another semester of some great students and some mind numbingly irritating ones. But I get my own office and a decent salary, so I think that I will get along just fine.

I did just receive my invitation to academic hell beginning next week, two full days of meetings! Why, I ask, is it necessary to have three general faculty meetings within two days time? What in the world could we possibly need to know that it takes three damn meetings to get it across? And then I have new faculty meetings, who I have been told, will be two hours of them telling me how I need a grade book and what to put in my syllabus. Are you fucking kidding me? I know I should sit and be nice but give me a break, I have been teaching for eight years, I know what to put on my syllabus. But I guess it will give me something to blog about! I will let you all know how it goes, particularly the financial stuff since I have no idea what the hell a 401K is nor what it does.