Today has been exhausting in an unparalleled fashion.  To begin with, both Brian and I are in total grading frenzy mode, which means we've not been sleeping enough, and when we do sleep (or at least, when I sleep) it's pretty poor quality.  The chamomile tea is helping. 

*sigh* 

I gave my last final (probably ever) today.  It was bittersweet.  I already miss teaching a bit.  I doubt I'll ever teach at the college level again; even if I hated every second of it, it would still be a bit disconcerting. 

We had Alex's annual case conference review today, which went... well... tensely?  They're pushing for more interventions, and we're pushing back, but only limitedly.  They are concerned, fairly, about Alex's ability to succeed without more one-on-one attention and time out of the chaotic classroom.  We, on the other hand, are worried about Alex's ability to learn to cope with conditions he doesn't want to be in, and his ability to work on his own.  I don't understand how he will ever learn to be focused and self-directed if he's given excessive one-on-one attention because he can't right now.  Are we giving up on his ever being able to do such things?  I mean, if we wanted to take this to its logical conclusion, we could just pull him out of school entirely, homeschool him in a quiet, non-overwhelming environment replete with near continuous one-on-one attention.  I'm sure he would succeed delightfully at his academics in such a situation--anyone would.  But how is that going to help him cope with non-custom-tailored-to-Alex's-needs situations?  How will that help him become self-directed?  Focused?  Coping with chaotic, loud, overwhelming environments?  I guess we could engineer such things--that seems a bit psycho to me. 

*sigh again* 

I guess I'm just tired, and confused, and exhausted, and tired, and I need to grade and cook and make a schedule for tomorrow's Terre Foods activities, and on and on and on... 

*sigh*

Brian is grading his religions midterms.  Gaaaa.  So, here's a treat for you:

(A question from his test):  Christianity is the #1 religion in America according to census data.  Not counting non-religious categories, what is the second most populous religion in America?

Guess what one of the most frequent answers was.

Go on, guess! 

.
.
.
.

Well, I said Judaism, and then changed my mind to Islam.  Turns out I was right the first time.

And his students said????

Catholicism.

Yup, Catholicism.

And the ones who didn't say Catholicism--what did they say?

Protestantism.

I believe a few said "athiesm" (which, apparently, is not a non-religion to them).

I couldn't make this up if I tried.

*headesk*

Erg.

No, nothing bad, K, don't panic!  =)

I be currently a goatherd for my friend K, who is away at a church convention.  I was nearly finished milking when, bugger it all and despite the wicked leg-belt thingies they've got, the gods-damned animal kicked over the bucket.  Milk everywhere.  My milk!  That was gonna be chevre, damnit!

Sidenote:  if you ever milk goats, make sure that when you release them from the milking stand, you remove the leg-buckles first.  This is important.  I didn't do that the first time, instead unfastening the leash & other assorted neck apparatae [can I get a plural on that?], and the poor thing damned near killed itself trying to jump off the stand.  Fortunately, neither she nor I were injured, and I learned an important lesson.

And K-- if you get this, and I've not already talked to you, call me when you have a chance.  Nothing serious, but I've got some questions.

In completely non-goat-related news, I need to update my resume & CV.  I might get tapped to teach a class or two of philosophy here at ISU.  That really sounded like a great idea until I thought about it for a second, and I got The Fear.  I've never actually taught a class by myself before--although I've TA'ed more than you can imagine.  Ah, I've got plenty of time to gear up for it, though.  Were I to get a position, it wouldn't be until next fall at the earliest, I think.  I'm sure I can remember everything I know about philosophy in that amount of time (really, I probably never knew that much to begin with).

First:

I just picked Alex up from his first day of Kindergarten, which seemed to go very well indeed.  *sniff* My son is in school now!

Second:

Brian just got a conditional acceptance for his Logic paper!!  There is now a very good chance indeed that we will keep our jobs here (although hardly a done deal--psycho University Admin....)

Oh yeah, and appropo of nothing, I made more mozzarella today.

Basking in the glow...

The husband has gone off to see Bread and Puppets playing here.  I'm glad he gets to go and see this--he really needs some stress relief, and to finally spend time with a friend of his own.  So I've got the kids solo tonight, but that's fine--bread & circuses, man, bread & circuses.

And this brings me to my latest rant about the wonderfulness of intracollegiality and how the ISU administrati is killing it...



I wonder if my children will ask to go to bed tonight?  Yeeeaaahhh, riiiiight--pull the other one, it's got bells on.

For my faithful blog followers (and man, you guys need to get lives), this is what I have been alluding to for the better part of two weeks now.  The following is a more-or-less public release email manifesto from my husband's head of department.  Read it if you have the chance, but don't go sending it to newspapers or anything (that might really piss off our administrati).

 Just FYI, any decision here probably does not jeopardize my husband's job here in an immediate sense (i.e., if the program's cut, he isn't out of a job in a month or anything), but it certainly jeopardizes any long-term plans we have here, as well as the long-term viability of the whole fricking university.

R.