It is glorious. I am completely caught up on grading in my introductory biology course, and the website shows no pending items awaiting my perusal. That feels so good, even if I know it is fleeting.
I’ve already started pounding on my genetics backlog. I have once again given myself a goal of getting it completely done today. I will persist and overcome. I will taste the heady joy of a brief freedom from obligation late tonight, no matter what. I might even have a few days this week with a little time for the spider work.
Although I do have the students launching a new fly cross this week, so lab will be busy. It’s weird how I find working in the lab relaxing and not at all stressful, but sitting at home in front of my familiar computer just reading and judging student writing is agonizing. I’m already getting a headache contemplating the rest of today.
Grading was the bane of my teaching existence. I empathize from afar.
Good luck clearing the decks; hope you get to enjoy clear decks and lots of spiders tomorrow PZ! (many happy 9ths of March, btw :-) (going to celebrate with a whisky myself)
The empty in-box: This too shall pass.
My dad was a biology teacher (b. 1912), so I have some inkling of all the lab work. I’ve been an English teacher for most of my career, so no small amount of work there, and I’ve been a site and district administrator (Superintendent), so no small work there. Liking that I’m “only” an independent study teacher now. (I’m clearly not a careerist).
Stuff to read when you have time? “Research illuminates embryonic stem cell fate” https://phys.org/news/2021-03-illuminates-embryonic-stem-cell-fate.html
Totally OT, but something to read during the brief moments of spare time:
“Another Now: Dispatches from an Alternative Present” https://www.goodreads.com/book/show/49098225-another-now An interesting utopia: Communicating with another branch of space time where the 1% percent did not win in 2006