phrase I just said to myself: there's probably the death of an author in my office. ... time to go home.

I don't have to be good at matching faces-to-names in conversation to be a good teacher. I just have to try, and I do. #idieonthishill

Somehow I have a 2-inch wide horizontal slice at the top of my forehead that is healing awkwardly. Chances are equal it was a cat at night or my mountain bike helmet when I crashed on Sunday (I'm fine). If it were a couple weeks later I'd just enhance it for Halloween effects.

My training in teaching (20 yrs ago) consisted mostly of ways to run discussions on literature and make writing assignments. Now, I give more mini lectures w/slides and organized related activities, bc I am concerned that students can otherwise miss the technical + historical details that matter.

this is still darn cool.

I always think of Fall term as exciting, full of energy, not burned-out-yet, but in reality the first 3 weeks of the term are always so bananas and full of deadlines that all the adrenaline erases the memory of how hard they actually are.

I miss summer and being less bonkers. Yesterday I submitted a grant proposal + wrote sabbatical proposal + met with 5 students. Climbed from 6-8am, done with work by 7pm to make pizza w/ spouse. Today I'm prepping 2 classes, teaching 2 classes, plus meetings in between. Biking to/from for workout.

at 5:20pm yesterday, in the last 10 minutes of my literary theory course, we were wrapping up reader response when a spider (small, white) dropped from the ceiling on a line, as if on some gravity ride, and stopped directly in front of me. I froze mid-sentence. Student rescued both me and spider.

grant proposal submitted. 1 down, 1 to go, and that sabbatical proposal goes out on Monday, too.

writing goals done for the day! heading out of my bike ride, then back to do all the service and teaching things I can fit in before giving up. This week and next week are completely bananas.