Weekend energy! The students get it when they wake up Friday morning, me thinks. There have been worse days than today, but Fridays are always … difficult. I gave a bunch of quizzes and let my Foundations of English I kids do make-up work. As a result, I have a ton of grading to do this weekend. I made a huge dent in it during my planning period, but I still  have dozens of papers to do for all three classes. Essays, quizzes and a packet of punctuation worksheets, mostly about how to use our old friend the comma.

The Pigman final

The week of Shakespeare is planned out. The kids thought it sounded like fun. Until I told them they’d have to read one sonnet each in front of the class. It’s for two grades and a candy bar. “I’ll take the zeros,” a few said. They have no trouble making a spectacle of themselves whining for a pass to go buy Cheetos or just disrupting class, but tell them they have to do something educational in front of the class and they’re out. Well, the purpose in giving them their sonnets today was so they could look it over and get used to the idea before I call on them Thursday.

I learned a HUGE lesson this week. It’s pretty specific to one student, so I’m not going into details. It’s one of those things nobody tells you beforehand, but when it happens and you realize you could have prevented it, you really feel like crap. Well, I felt like crap over it, anyway. I did everything I could to fix it after the fact, but the last I heard it still hadn’t been worked out in the student’s favor.

I took Jake to the State Fair Speedway tonight to watch the stock car races. He’s still nuts over Disney’s Cars movie, so I figured he’d like it. He did really well through the first round of heat races and the first super sprint heat, but then the noise and the cool wind got to him. The super sprints were just too loud and didn’t look enough like Lightning McQueen to keep him interested. During the other races, though, he was so excited he couldn’t sit still. It was really cool when a car caught on fire. He has a very animated re-enactment of what the fire looked like.

So, I explained to the new manager of the campus bookstore at OCU why I haven’t been invited to the book festival the past two years. She thanked me for my candor and promptly rescinded her invitation. Oh well. I would have busted a gut laughing at Ann Lacy’s ridiculous fashion show, anyway. It’s amazing the stupid crap you can do if you have money.

A few days ago I contacted Scrybe Press asking for more copies of my books. And money. And a sales statement. And news about Seven Days in Benevolence. No response yet. Not even a read receipt for my e-mail. I also sent a second e-mail to Fine Tooth Press asking about my royalty statement/payment for Darkscapes. That should have arrived in late January or early February. Again, no response. It’s all very frustrating. No news on my other submissions, either.

Today is Kim’s last day to work nights. She goes to a day shift starting Monday, though technically she won’t get off until early evening. I think she’ll like that better. Selfish as it sounds, I know I will. Not only will she get home in time to share the burden of putting the kids to bed, but I won’t be up until midnight or later just to talk to her every night.