Laurie White’s Blog

So, I finally got a test graded for my Concepts of Programming Languages class, very very late last night.

In a way this is good. Now, of course, the teacher in me says it’s good because I will be able to give feedback to my students in a timely manner and all that good teacher stuff. But most of them won’t read it. This test sorta gives me proof of that. Three questions came, almost completely verbatim, from the last test and the quiz the week before. And they still got those questions wrong. But I didn’t feel bad for them as I was grading it.

But no, this is good because it’s another sign of normalcy. I had a horrible habit of staying up late to get grading done before I got sick, and I’m back to it.

Of course, it’s bad also. It could be a sign that I haven’t learned a damn thing. (But really, I have; I saw my doctor this week for a physical and I’m doing everything right as far as preventative tests go.) And getting 4 or 5 hours sleep isn’t all that good either. (And I’m sitting in on an Honor Council hearing this evening and it doesn’t look good if the faculty advisor falls asleep, but the kids are so energetic, that won’t be a problem.)

But staying up late has other advantages. I walk Linus right before bedtime and by the time I got to bed last night, nature had reclaimed the neighborhood. Usually, this just means a neighbor cat is prowling our sidewalk (and Linus, watchdog that he is, almost never notices) or an armadillo is strolling around. But last night, it meant there were three deer grazing across the street. I kept Linus from running across the yard and we ended up at the corner, with me watching them and him sniffing things out, and both of us wondering why the other wasn’t fascinated by what we were observing. The deer watched us carefully, but weren’t scared by the small wolf I had on a leash, so didn’t run away.

It was a beautiful moment and almost worth the exhaustion that’s going to hit this afternoon.