diversions of varying success

We're hurtling toward the end of the trimester at school, and that usually means digging myself out of some huge stack of grading.

I do have one - ok, two - things to grade this weekend, but neither is that big a deal.  I've done well keeping my resolution to stay on top of the grading this term, and it is paying off in unexpected ways: I actually read a book last week, and I watched the entirety of season 3 of Dare Devil. (I don't think that's how you spell it.  It doesn't look right. Don't care.)

The book: Terry Pratchett's Snuff, one of only a few of his I'd not read before.  In a way, it makes me sad, because there won't be any more, but I thoroughly enjoyed it, and somewhere in the back of my mind, a plan is percolating to start at the beginning and read them through again. Ah, Discworld, how I love you.  Especially Sam Vimes.

Dare Devil, however you spell it, was (upon reflection) the best of the three seasons so far.  It focused on the main characters almost exclusively, and the new main character (FBI Agent Nadeem) was excellent, and the new villian character (also, not coincidentally, an FBI Agent) was also very good. I could watch it all again and enjoy it.

It's nice, this having time for leisure pursuits.  I also thoroughly enjoyed and highly recommend Maniac, the Jonah Hill-Emma Stone Netflix series.  It was superb in a way that's difficult to describe.  Some parts were very funny, some parts were touching, some parts were harder to take, but all of it cohered into something really terrific. Part of me thinks the entire series is worth the single line of dialog, "I heard you took the fall for the lemur caper." On reflection, I believe that's correct.  Not all love is Eros, and it's good to see there are people out there who recognize that.

Some days, I have a sense that I literally have no idea what I'm doing: that shadow of Everything is just too hard, give up give up give up is continuously lurking.  But most days, I don't notice it. Much. I like the people I work with, and I love my family.  My cats are mostly sweet and only occasionally really annoying. The Great Ant Infestation of 2018 made another incursion last week, and honestly I'm too worn out by that entire (apparently never-ending) situation to even go look and see if they're gone yet. The holidays will soon be upon us, and everyone will be home again, and maybe then the shadow will recede completely for a while? Doubtful, but it's nice to contemplate.

I never did get that sleep I needed. (Ha!) And I've been battling a cold -- more or less successfully -- for about a week now.  Perhaps that is the source of my sense of impending doom. That, or the fact that we won't have a math teacher come January.  We'll manage somehow.  We always do.

break

Such as it is: an in-service day followed by a 3-day weekend. 

Things are going... well. I'm being very disciplined about keeping on my grading, and it's making everything else easier.  For example, this weekend the only grading I have to do are the drafts of my students' research papers. 

Which is not to say that things are perfect.  Issues pop up and are resolved, and we go on.  I like the absence of drama. 

I do, however, need sleep and plan to get it!