One day at a time

I feel really swamped right now:

Grad School: I wrote the 27 pages of my two papers over the weekend, and turned in my paper within my extended time. The next on the horizon is the midterm due for my other class on Wednesday. It's a take-home midterm, and I finally downloaded and printed it out today, and it seems like it's written in another language, with symbols that I don't even recognize. I don't remember feeling this clueless about a test (the class is Educational Research, but it might as well be called Research and Methodology) since Organic Chemistry my sophomore year of college, when I decided to throw in the towel for the class after a couple of months of trying and failing to get help from this particular professor (in a class of 500) and just decided to go on exam days and get the tests for study next semester. Somehow, though, randomly guessing gave me a "C" for the course - must have been a heavy curve, and I'm guessing most felt as clueless as I did - and that was the moment I decided to switch from being a Science major to being an English major. I don't think randomly guessing will get me to pass this Educational Research midterm, though. I should just thank my lucky stars that I can learn the answers (somehow?) in the next 48 hours, and that it wasn't a closed test taken in class. I also have a 2-3 page paper to write for that course, also due on Wednesday, on some sort of project that apparently we'll be doing soon and is due at the end of the course. I have vague ideas about it, but feel so disassociated from this particular course that I barely realize what it is.

School: It's a weird week. I was expecting to have Monday and Tuesday with my students, though, so I could get a ways into The Odyssey and feel alright about sending them home to read over their long weekend. However, I found out at at 8:03pm that all of my classes would be taken up by Picture Day. No notice of this was given at all, and, for the second time in five days, all of my classes were taken over (the first time was because the guidance counselor had to come). This frustrates the hell out of me, because it made for a stressful day of bringing kids down and getting ID cards and walking through the halls with 14-year olds, when I could have been reading about Telemachus setting sail. Hopefully tomorrow will be a regular day, and then the rest of the week is shot: the PSAT Wednesday, and professional development on Thursday and Friday. Maybe I'll be able to catch up with grading, though.

Second Job: The boss asked me if I wanted to come in and do some marketing for him. Sounds really interesting and intriguing, but how in the hell can I find the time to do that? I'm already working three shifts a week!

Personal Life: Back on April 15, I filed a six-month extension for my taxes. I'm a procrastinator, though, and didn't end up doing them for the entire six months. A friend helped me tonight, though, and I'm supposed to be getting a bunch back. But I doubt I'll see a penny of it. I'm sure the IRS will figure out a reason why I shouldn't get any of it, and my ignorant, too-busy ass will just end up eating it. Dealing with money makes me think/realize I'll just never catch up and just depresses the hell out of me. That's why I procrastinated six months.

Stitches and biopsy report on Thursday.

Somehow, though, I managed to read the 561-page graphic novel Blankets over the weekend. All on the eliptical machine, in two 45-minute workouts. It's no Fun Home, but it's still pretty good.