20150721.0645

The summer bridge program started yesterday. For it, I teach an hour a day, four days a week, through the first week of August. The schedule is congenial and the work not terribly difficult; there is a programmatic syllabus, and the teaching materials are all available online. All I need do is pull them down--and because I am in some ways still old-fashioned, I tend to print them out for my ease of reference. I will be going back in this morning to take care of more paperwork before my class begins; the start of an instructional term, even one so brief as the bridge program, is always rough, and it needs more and more attention.

When I go, though, I will have a bit of weather with which to contend. Rain has moved into the area around Sherwood Cottage again, with forecasts calling for storms throughout the day and into tomorrow. The rain looks to hold down the day's temperatures, which I account a good thing; born in Louisiana and raised in Texas though I was, I still hold warm weather more pleasant than hot weather, particularly on days that oblige me to appear somehow professional. Doing so obliges more layers of clothing for historical reasons of which I am only dimly or partly aware, and more layers do not interact optimally with high temperatures, after all.

At the moment, I have no freelance work on my docket. I completed a job yesterday and have been advised that the work was accepted; the money is waiting for me. I appreciate it greatly, and I try not to be in a position to turn away work. Doing so distresses me. But it is good to have a bit of a break from the freelancing. I have other work to which I likely need to attend, and having some more open time in which to do it is helpful. Cramming it in alongside a classroom gig and freelance work and child care and domestic chores is not optimal. I can do it, of course, and I have done it, but it goes far more slowly than I would prefer.

Many things go far more slowly than I would prefer. Perhaps I am spoiled by my years living in The City, and perhaps I am spoiled by being a Millennial, but I do like to have a number of things and quickly. Some of the delays, however, are my own fault. As I noted last year, I do not do as well with journal-writing as I ought to do (I am only on my twenty-eighth volume, and I am a month behind in it). Rarely do I spend my time optimally for that writing task; I play stupid games more than should be the case (some decompression is necessary and helpful, but I am certain I exceed that amount greatly). Even this webspace has not done as well as it should this year; I am far behind last year's performance, particularly in February. And if my journal-writing is a problem, my journal-reading is faring worse. I suppose, though, it is a common enough occurrence; how many are actually in the places they thought they would be and wanted to be?

There is more work to do.