Ten Things Tuesday, the headache edition

1. I canceled my class today because I have something nasty brewing.  I have a headache that directs me to be still, as moving my head or neck is stupidly painful. Why am I blogging?

2. I still have to grade papers, even if I have to be careful as to how I move my neck. Last night I got through papers about, among other things, Whales, Living in Rome in 1 AD, Jeffrey Dahmer’s Psychosis, and Women in Gangs, but have to get through the last 8 or so before I can seek out the couch and the blankets.

3. I just read a “research” paper/screed about how this country may or may not have too many doctors (his argumentative paper doesn’t really choose a side). Sentences like this one, while good for a laugh, do not help my head:

“A common procedure that pathologists perform is a Pap test, where a mole is removed from a patient and then the pathologist will examine it to determine the best treatment option for the patient.”

or this one:

[Steroids] made the normal man who appeared to be scrawny, look like a strapping lumberjack.”

4. Yesterday, as my head began to pound, and I had had just about enough of bad papers, I got punchy and  launched into a stupid game 12 year olds of all ages like to play. My kids play it at camp – the PENIS game. So, there I was, whipering PENis, PEEEEEnis, peeeNIs, until my kids turned from their desks and stared at me.

Boo, laughing, put her head in her hands and moaned, “I hate when you get like this.”

“PEEEEEEEEEENis!” I shout.

“Mum, doesn’t your head hurt?”

“Well, yes, but maybe it’ll stop if I keep saying penis.”

Grinning. “Hasn’t stopped yet, has it?”

“No, but maybe I’m doing it wrong?  PPPPPPPPPEEEEEEEEEEEEnnniiSSSS!

Laughing with my daughters is always a treat.

5. One bright spot on my horizon is a new cellphone that will arrive today. I checked tracking (don’t we all?) so I know it’s on a F*dex truck somewhere around here, and will be delivered before 4:30.  I’m trying not to move too much as I froth in anticipation.

6. My new brainline:

from www.3g.co.uk

It’s the HTC Touch Pro 2, and with it, I will join the 21st century (my current phone is 7 years old) and  be able to TEXT my friends, kids, husband, write word documents, watch streaming video, blog, and I’m just about inarticulate with glee and anticipation.  Lots of EEEEEEEEEE!

7. I love it how some things, like the wasp? and the marigolds (calendula), hold on until it pretty much snows. This was taken on Sunday.

8. Tomorrow, I will see my student who got back into my class after having plagiarized, which I am enough of a professional to handle by not acting any differently. I don’t like this student, and because I doubt my ability to be suitably impartial, had someone I trust to give me a fair assessment read it for me. We agreed that the paper landed just in the D category, bringing this person’s all around grade in that range. He may yet pass. Maybe.

9. Boo’s been working on one of the book covers and in depth review projects Freshman English teachers like to assign. My daughter is often reticent to try new books, new authors, so when she was dashing out the door three weeks ago and needed, by the way, a book to read, I handed her The Beacon at Alexandria, by Gillian Bradshaw. She devoured it, s I knew she would, and despite thinking the assignment dumb, learned to write expansively, with informed detail about her topic in a way she’d previously derided as bullshit. I helped her see that writing for any topic, for any audience, is filling in the gaps, analyzing, and extrapolating, and a vital skill for academia, and life.

She rolled her eyes, kissed me and then told me she wished I were her English teacher.

Aww.

10. Fall at night sure is pretty.