random bulleted things
* Tomorrow, my students will turn in their first essays. I expressed to one of my fellow TAs that I was really stoked for my students. My fellow TA looked at me like I was insane. "But...the grading!" she said. "That's what we
do," I said. She still thought I was nuts. But some of these students have good stories to tell, and these are narrative essays, so I think they'll all start out on a positive note—and I'm excited about that. They all had their drafts with them on Monday when we did a mini-workshop. I glanced at them all, just briefly since they were doing peer review, and all the essays looked like Cs or better (at first glance). It'll be nice not to fail someone on their first essay.
* Most of my stress right now (re: school) is related to things of an administrative nature. For instance, until today I was in this zone of the unknown regarding conflicting dates between comprehensive exams, GRE subject tests, the departmental final exam for comp classes, and inconsistent publication of important dates. Everything has worked itself out, thanks to a flexible and accomodating grad coordinator (plus one other person in the same predicament). Two of us (so far) will sit for a specially-proctored exam the day before the rest of our pals take the exam, and when they're taking it we'll be taking the GRE subject test. Then the next week we can all sit for part two together, and this other fellow and myself will be able to proctor our class during the final in December. All is well. But all was very stressful until today.
* The next bit of administrative stress involves interesting and unique ways to clear my foreign language requirement. If I could get any sort of answer from the person in charge of signing off on language requirements (not in my dept), all would be well. But I haven't been able to track her down via email or in-person yet. Frustrating.
* I set a deadline of the 25th for a draft of my thesis proposal. I'm not exactly sure of the precise thesis of my thesis, but I have research out the wazoo to support whatever it is I decide I'm doing. I just have to decide what that is, then write my 10 pages of proposal, meet with my adviser, then make changes and send it along to the committee.
* I'm a little angsty about my composition studies paper. I feel I should write something related to a particular subject, given that I know a significant amount about the subject, but I
really and truly don't even want to get involved in it. But then—and yes, I've had this feeling before—I think it would insane not to tap into the knowledge and experience I already have. But then I remind myself just how much I hate discussing the subject. Repeat ad infinitum. This is similar to just how much interest I have in building digital archives—zero, if not less—despite the fact that I can build those things in my sleep. No joke...and no interest. Um, anyway. So yeah, I have a little angst about my composition studies paper. [But I will note that it's neat to read around a topic and mentally note the articles written by people on my blogroll.]
* I haven't even discussed the awkward rift in my study group. Let's just say that three of us are on the same page and it's a good page, but there are more than three people in the group.
