Oh the weather outside is frightful

A long time ago in a temperate place, I got some advice about my future. Dr Athlete (from City U) used to live in our new home town and had much advice. "It's going to be cold" she said. She even gave us an ice scraper with a warm mitten handle. Dr Culture (who is from up north) says "No, it's not so cold. You'll be fine!" Peter just laughed and said "she's going to be cold. But she'll have to learn."

Well, I have been cold. So cold in fact that I bought some of these. They are so fantastic and I thank Em for suggesting them. Now my hands don't freeze while I grade! My office is decently warm, but I've been spending a lot of time in our department computer lab which they keep quite chilly (what with all the computers I guess). Various people walk in and out during the day and chuckle at my getup. It's not unusual for me to be wearing a hat, or coat, or extra layers to keep warm. Note that it is only the middle of November. I'm totally screwed.

Dr Athlete's parting words were, "Don't worry, you'll be so productive there. There's nothing else to do!" It's scary how right she was. This semester is winding down. I'm ending my time teaching 52 students (we actually only have one week of classes left as we have individual conference appointments after the holiday). My three classes are winding down too. I still have two group projects to finish, one research project of my own, and a few papers to write. Amazingly, next semester is already starting to take form. I'm only teaching one of my own classes next semester (but now have total autonomy- I even get to pick textbooks!). But I still need to write a syllabus, figure out assignments, order textbooks, get at least my first week of lesson plans written before the new term starts. I'm also a teaching assistant for a course in my field (yay!) with a favorite prof here, so I need to start reading the new text book and figuring out what this class involves (think more intro to my field than general ed requirement). New Prof and I are also doing a research study on some new things we're implementing in class. Hopefully we'll end up with a publication. And I'll have three new classes for next semester of my own. I just met with another prof (let's call him Testing Prof) to talk about a potential research study for next semester. It sounds promising, and even though we won't have any money, we might be able to get two publications out of it. A third prof (Teaching Prof) has invited me to go to Mexico to teach at some point over the summer. And I might be able to continue the research project I'm doing for one of my classes and turn it into the beginnings of a presentation or something.

I'm looking forward to this upcoming break. Farm U has resigned itself to students leaving for Thanksgiving, so they close the whole campus down all week. We'll be back in Rose City on Saturday to relax and recuperate (well, and catch up on all the stuff that I haven't had time for over the semester, and write paper, and collect data. But relax too). After that there's two weeks of school, a week of finals, and then four precious weeks of holiday. We're looking forward to a little time off together. And we're planning to make it up to Minneapolis (finally!) too!

It's amazing how quickly 4 months has gone by (and scary too). Perhaps the Middle won't be so bad after all.