It's Friday...

Friday afternoon is such a pleasant time of the week. I wouldn't say I feel RELAXED, exactly, not with 56 papers needing to be graded before Monday. But it's Friday. We don't have anything special planned this weekend, but I imagine there will be some bike rides and some meals out. Maybe an impromptu playdate with the little boy down the street. It will be warm on Saturday and cool and rainy on Sunday. It all sounds so pleasant, but the most pleasant part of all is that I don't have to go to campus for approximately 64 hours.

It's not that I don't like my job.

It's more that I feel so anxious all the time. So many bad things can happen. When you're a teacher, it's as though you have to write and deliver a presentation every day -- even if the "presentation" involves getting everyone in a circle to have a discussion, or watching them as they work in groups. I still have to facilitate everything, plan the day, be sure that all the pieces come together. I have to keep all the balls in the air.

Today, each of my classes featured a presentation by one or two students. Very nice to be able to sit back for a few minutes and observe. However, before the third class, it occurred to me that I hadn't heard from the student in that class who was scheduled to present. He'd been absent a lot. I'd emailed him, but hadn't heard back. About 15 minutes before I had to leave for class (I was sitting in my cubicle, eating a small lunch), I realized I'd better have a back-up in case he didn't show.

He didn't show. So I gave the presentation instead.

I thought it went pretty well, considering I'd had 15 minutes to prepare. Furthermore, if I hadn't realized he wasn't coming until he actually didn't come, I could have gotten up in front of the class and given the presentation with NO preparation. This is why I'm the teacher. Still, it's stressful.

I felt a little better, today, though, and that does help. I see I've neglected to mention my latest illness: as soon as I was starting to feel better from the cold, I came down with strep throat. Wednesday's classes were very interesting, to say the least. I know from experience that antibiotics don't always knock strep out (I'm remembering Ridgecrest, the year I had strep 3 times in a row), but you don't find that out until after you stop taking the antibiotic. I have another week of peaceful pill-popping until I have to worry about strep coming back, so I'm good with that. I've also started taking a probiotic (6 hours after I take the antibiotic each day), and once the antibiotic is done, I'll increase the dose of probiotic, try to repair my intestinal flora before I catch something else.

But for now it's Friday afternoon, nobody's mad at anyone else, and I feel pretty good. All we can ask for.