Punching my time card

In the past 24 hours, I have:

1. Taught a class. (Dismissed early...because we were done.)

2. Read and commented on 34 student drafts ranging from superficial drivel-fests to well organized, beautifully written, appropriately documented masterpieces. About one-third of the drafts open with two sentences lifted directly from the assignment sheet. (Those are my sentences, students! Go write your own!)

3. Attended a Faculty Forum, where I nibbled on cheese and crackers while colleagues reported on their research, including an interesting foray into the junior high school reading class in rural Appalachia and another into the mathematics of complex polar spaces, and frankly, if they're giving away free vacations to either location, include me out.

4. Read a New Yorker article by Michael Kinsley titled "Mine is Longer than Yours," which is not about what you think it's about. It's about...six pages long.

5. Spent some quality time with my beloved spouse, who could not knead bread dough last night because he was substitute-teaching in an old building yesterday and a sticky window fell right smack down on his thumb, which now looks quite festive. He's stuck on the injured/disabled list without a pinch-kneader.

6. Slept. Not much, but still, it was something.

7. Expressed disbelief when the alarm clock rang at 6 a.m. and my husband insisted that I get up. "You've got to go do that thing today, remember?" It's Saturday! Let me sleep. "You told me to remind you about that history thing. " Oh yeah, that thing.

8. Served as judge for a district event at which junior-high-school students demonstrated their mastery of various historical concepts, such as the concept that Pearl Harbor ushered America into the Civil War. The students were bright and articulate and enthusiastic and polite and I am delighted that they are interested in history, but...it's Saturday! And I have another 14 drafts to read before Monday!

9. Written this blog post...which takes me right about up to the starting line for the next 24-hour marathon.