20150506.0724

This morning has gotten off to a later start than is usual. I slept in until nearly half past six, an hour later than my norm, and when I staggered into the kitchen after my shower, I found I had not turned on the coffee pot as I usually do--it normally happens during my first walk around the house, when I check to see if things have gone Horribly Wrong while I was asleep. The pot has finally brewed, and I have a cup, but I am somewhat superstitious, and so I have to wonder if the...errors are going to carry forward through the day.

I rather hope they do not. I am slated to give an exam today, and given the constraints imposed by my travel schedule, I will have to grade it today, as well. While I expect that some of my students will opt out of the test--some are in such a position that taking or not taking the exam will have no effect on their overall grade, an artifact of the strict ABCDF system, and I cannot say I blame them for opting out who are in such a position--I know that not all will, and so I will have work to do before attending to other work. Interference with either work will not be particularly welcome.

Among that other work is no longer writing my paper for the International Congress on Medieval Studies, to which I will be heading at this time next week. (And I do mean "at this time," as the drive to the conference from Sherwood Cottage takes some fourteen hours.) The paper was completed yesterday, which pleases me. I will doubtlessly find other things I want to put in it, other things I would like to say; I always do. At this point, though, the paper is deliverable, and that is what I need it to be for the purpose. It is not as if I have not got enough other activities to handle at the conference, what with presiding over sessions and all...

What is among the other work, as ought to be expected, is more freelancing. I am more than halfway through a novel I will be writing up for pay (not bad for only starting the reading last night); I anticipate completing the read today and beginning the write-up either later today or tomorrow, with scheduled completion tomorrow. The extra money will take a little while to get to me, given the constraints on how my payouts work, but it will not be the less welcome for it. I imagine that I will be getting more such work done before terribly long; with the end of the term, I will have more time to work on such work, even if I will also be doing more to take care of Ms. 8, as was the case last year. She moves more, now, and so needs more attention--but that is far from a bad thing.

I can hope the day will also be thus removed.