Sarcasm becomes what?

As an avid user of sarcasm, I appreciate it-- to a point. However, even I have an upper limit on my tolerance of it-- especially on line. I hate being lectured to by people, especially people who either a) have a silly soapbox to stand on or b) have lived quite a few years less than I have. Advice is one thing. You can take it or leave it. Lecture-- that's another thing. As a teacher, I know what lecture does to my students-- their eyes glaze over, they fall sleep, they go check their Facebook pages. (Hmm, maybe I should, oh, wait, I'm not done). So if you're going to post advice somewhere, please, make it friendly, calmly worded advice. Lectures get you flamed or ignored or both. I don't have the time for that and I know a lot of other people who don't either. But hey, I don't want this to be a lecture on not lecturing, so if you wnat to annoy people, feel free. I won't be among them though.

On the plus side, it's the last day of finals week, which means I am nearly done grading student papers, and manly have to input grades and start prepping for spring (yes I'm going to start early this year-- but I say that every year, so I wouldn't be surprised if I don't get too far). So that frees me up to write, to get a tree (if there are any left) and to just chill and enjoy the season-- for a week or two. Then it's back to work.

Happy week before Christmas.

Finals!

Oh yeah it's that time again. Final exam time. For my students, not for me. I get to grade 'em.

The good part is, I get 3 weeks off afterwards. Can't friggin' wait.

Old friends, former friends

Reconnected with an old friend tonight and confirmed that a recent friend is no longer a friend. I've never understood how people can just decide to not be friends. Yes, friendships fade away gradually. But how do you wake up one day and say "I don't want to be friends with him/her any more"? That is just so foreign to me.

But then again, this person was probably never a true friend to begin with. I'm just going to move on. I've got tons of other friends-- I don't need to regret losing one person off my list. There's plenty more out there to gain, too.

Random wondering

It's been one of those days-- I feel like I woke up and hit the ground running and it's not going to stop till I get home this evening. Between issues at the Writing center, web page stuff at work, worries over friends, trying to find time for my writing, wondering if I'll ever get published-- it's not been an easy week. I guess I need to work harder at taking things one day at a time, one issue at a time,. But it's frustrating to sit here and look back over my life and realize that so many people have been published when they were a lot younger than me-- and here I am still plugging along and trying to get something accepted. Ever time I submit, I hope that maybe this time will be THE time. And every time, I'm disappointed. But I;'m still in there trying and I guess that's what counts.

And I am working on not feeling just a twinge of envy at my other writer friends' successes. Anne Lamott suggests that this isn't good, and I know it isn't, but it's hard to help sometimes. But I;m working on it.

Monday on Friday

Yes, folks, it's one of THOSE days. It began this morning when the dogs woke me at 4:30 am. That's right, 4:30 am-- for breakfast? Rught, that's not even morning yet in my book. Then my printer spit out a bunch of sheets of blank paper instead of what I wanted to print this morning Our school e mail went off line for a while, meaning I couldn't get anything done. Class was a bit of a joke this morning and I can't seem to focus on writing-- instead I;m blogging, you see? Plus I have an all day meeting Saturday which kills my weekend (at least half of it) and a ton of stuff that a colleague wants me to do for the writing project site. I don't have time for all of this and for my writing, but I'm not going to let my writing slide. No way! I'll either have to create more hours in the day-- or start learning to say no. It's such a little word, so why is it so hard to say?

Maybe I need to get up at 4:30. Maybe the dogs have the right iea after all.

Monday

Oh, yeah, it's really Monday. but at least I managed to sneak in some writing time. I'm plugging away on my adult level detective novel and hoping all the while that I can find a publisher for it at some point. I usually write for children, but this novel's been simmering for a long time so here goes. But I'm not as familiar with the adult level markets or with how important it is to have an agent, so I'll have to dig into that once this is ready to send out-- which wont be for a while yet.

On a related note, I've become fascinated with one of my bad guys in this novel. This happens a lot. I'm not sure why I get that way-- enamored of the bad guy who's not really as bad as everyone thinks, who walks that line between good and evil like a tightrope. But he keeps bugging me so I'm guessing he'll end up part of this story. Whether I like it not.

Rainy Friday

Well, it's pouring rain and I'm procrastinating from heading back to my office to get ready for my 1:00 class. Normally, I like rain, but not when I have to walk from the Library to my office building in it. Especially since the construction here has left us with only soggy grass to walk on in places. Oh well. Guess I better run. But I wanted to update this, even if it's only with drivel.