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Month: September 2003
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I’m an Aunt (again!)
My big sis finally popped, well, they induced her to pop, 8 days over her due date.
Sloane Charlotte Williams was born around 2pm today, she is 7lbs 7oz and approximately 20 inches long.
I am very happy to welcome her into my happy little niece dom…and just as happy that I do not have to have children! Keep on poppin’em out, Karen, save me the stretch marks!
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On a scale from one to ten…6:30AM SUCKS. Add in 41 degrees, a brisk wind and a three mile bike ride, and you have a whole big bag of YUCK for a Monday morning.
I hate Mondays anyway. I have a lab meeting that runs from 9am until we all finally run away (anywhere from 1.5 hours to 3 hours), then at 11:30am, I have another meeting for the lab that I teach that lasts until whenever (again with the 1.5 to 3 hours), then at 1:30PM, I have my BIO101 Lecture that I must attend and ride herd over 700+ students (and I don’t get a chair!)
*sigh* Administrative BS. Yack.
Today’s goals, aside from all that fun-ness…
1.) Run one PCR reaction
2.) Start 14 DNA blood extractions (old blood STINKS! and this blood is from 1994…back when I was a freshman…IN HIGH SCHOOL!)
3.) FINISH! Draft two of my research proposal…I’ve been putting that off forever….
Ercch. Wish me luck. #1 is done…but now it is time for administrative bullshit!
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*squeak*
*phew*
I had my first lab. I made them laugh (but I don’t remember what I said) and I made them groan and do group work.
I’m fairly sure they didn’t learn a damn thing.
But I learned to make sure to wear the heavy-duty deodorant on lab days…
I have to teach the same lab to a new group of kids on Tuesday. Hopefully, they will be lucky to have such lovely (70, breezey and sunny) weather…
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Classes start Wednesday.
My 714 person Bio101 class is having a catered event…of “eat your way through the phylogenetic tree.” Riiiiight. We TAs are confused, the course coordinator guy is confused. In general, we hope SOMEONE else knows what that means. (and that we don’t have to clean up after 714 other people!)
My first lab is Thursday at 1130am. I would adore prayers. I don’t care who you pray to, so long as you are sending good vibes. I am utterly terrified. I don’t think I’ll eat that day, for fear I’ll puke on a student.
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Tomorrow…my last “free” day. And by free, I mean, I’ll be finishing up my abridged version of Darwin’s Origin of Species (which I found FREE and online! yay internet!), organizing and finishing up my papers (I’ve got like 10 left to read, and probably 50 or so to organize), revamping my proposal (which needs to be done hopefully by the end of next week, my prof is riding my ass about it – cuz really, I’ll do it in my free time!), finishing data analysis and then determining how much more I should do (if any!).
Quite the free day! I’m theoretically hoping to get about 1/3 of that list done. I’ll be leaving at about 745am (sunrise is 730, and as I don’t yet have a bike light, I can’t bike in the dark) and I’ll stay no later than 7pm (same reason, only sunset as opposed to rise). yay for 11hour days! (but only because they are shorter than 12 hour days!)
It is amazing how much of a difference teaching a class is going to make in my life. Ergle.
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I want a grownup apartment. I feel like I live in a glorified dorm room. Well, except for one thing! I bought this nifty satin-y scarf to serve as a table cloth for my bedside table…it’s very 70′sish, with green and gold and copper and red and white designs on it. Sometimes, I feel like it’s the only grownup thing in the whole apartment.
Someday, if I ever have non-garage sale furniture, maybe this will not be a problem anymore.
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I learned today that squirrels make really really really good brakes. For your bike.
Ick.
The story behind that is probably just what you are thinking. Skippy the squirrel did survive said encounter, but I’m not sure in how good of shape. He scampered away…AFTER I DISENTANGLED HIM FROM MY BIKE. Like, not a little entangled, like, he got sucked inbetween my bike frame, my back tire and my brakes. Or at least his head did…so he was dangling, upside-down, by his rounded little arse. He never made a sound…and he left behind a LOT of fur….So I fear he might die. I also noticed that his foot looked all squashedy…but I don’t know if Skippy’s always have flat feet or not? No blood though!
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My day was in general like being hit by a bike. Information overload…and I finally got my text book and lab manual for the class that I start TAing for IN 6 days. jeezus!
I have two 3 hour lab sections to teach. Each has 24 students in it. One of those 24 is a bio major…the rest are business majors and the like…people who have to be there. None of them will want to learn a damn thing. All I heard today was how I’m supposed to take them and make them get excited and interested in science.
Now. There is a problem with this. I adore science, I really do. But only certain areas. I find some parts as ungodly boring as most people – i.e. the acaraolgy guy…he studies ticks and mites (though, I will admit, hearing him describe the best ways to eliminate mites from your mattress was very useful…he says VACUUM your mattress and get rid of 55% of dust mites, and then FLIP it, and get rid of 75%…using both together, he claims you can eliminate 95% or so from your sleeping area, so hey, you allergy sufferers! find yourself an acarologist).
Rrrrr. How to motivate them when I find what they are going to study boring? Also, HOW HOW HOW to remember names? I hated it when profs couldn’t remember mine, so my goal is to learn all 48. I will have pictures (in theory at least)…but I don’t know how well that will work…Any good tips?
I’m thinking of stupid icebreakers…so that they are not bumps on a log students all that first day…I am personally leaning towards, ” Tell me about your pets. (I can remember fluffy and all her kittens, just not the person).” or “Tell me why you don’t want to be here.” or else “Tell me your ….” well, I had one and I have now forgotten it.
Does anyone have any that they really liked in school? Or that they’ve used and really found worked well?
Any advice on how to NOT freak out in front of 24 students?
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TA training
Day 1.
What a bloody buggering waste of my time. I would have found my time better spent licking mildew off my bathroom tiles or shaving my bikini line with glass.
Urgh.
The only redeeming feature – a fellow bio TA in the “Teaching for the Inclusive Classroom session” (aka, how to be PC all the time and also to be warm and fuzzy without touching). His “gender” issue worry was about hot TAs. He then changed his statement to “really, really healthy” TAs…and said something along the lines of … “What if you’re a really, really healthy TA and your students are all checkin’ you out? I mean, that’s an issue. Or what if they’re the healthy ones…and you’re checking them out? Or what if you know that you’re really healthy…and that is a distraction. I mean, somedays I am much hotter than others, man!”
This made up for the previous hour’s worth of pain.
This still left a good 5 hours worth of pain though.
LeSigh.
Three days left. And on Friday, I’m in two different classes, both at 1pm. I’m an amazing, amazing women.
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There is an orange tabby tom kitty hanging-round my back door. I should feel guilty, I do vaguely. He is thin and hungry and I am tempted to feed him, even though I know better.
Except. Yeah, I know why he’s really here. HE WANTS MY SWEET LITTLE GIRL PUSSIES. He’s all swaggering and sauntering in front of my windows all the time, bein’ a big ol’ Cassanova, trying to sweet-talk the ladies into a tryst…or maybe he’s even going for a foursome…
horndog!
I guess nobody explained that two of the ladies here don’t even have playpens anymore and have no interest in his spikey little member. And #3, well, If she does have hers, that bad boy is GONE.
