Ahhhh. I am graded.

Or maybe that is grated. I certainly feel pretty grated right now, like my brain has been run through the cheese shredder.

Or maybe I am not graded, but degraded: I no longer have grades because I gave them to the students, and now I feel horrible about that. Nope; that doesn't work! I feel fiiiiine!

Of course, this all just means I have a new pile of things to tackle. Since coming home I have been dad-sitting (he's such an ornery cuss) and dad has been "putting me to work" which involves him insisting I am doing something wrong and he has to demonstrate how to do it correctly --- which is how I managed to make my brother come out early and hang the Christmas lights. I could not handle my dad insisting on climbing up the ladder to fix my efforts. Then dad made my brother unpack the artificial tree, so I got out and set up all the holiday decorations and prevented dad from getting down any heavy boxes, and then my sister came over and my brother put us both to work "fluffing" the tree as he put it together. And then we put the lights on the tree with much complaining and grumbling. My sister points out that this is our family tradition, which made me feel a little better. Good, I said, that means you can't put on the stupid Christmas carol music because that would drown out the sounds of our bitching and moaning family togetherness.

Today's task (apart from all the grading) was a) humoring dad and b) not letting him get in the car. My aunt and uncle will be coming in for Christmas and my dad has remembered a certain item at a certain store in the middle of a nearby downtown place that my uncle loves. I don't want him to drive into all that craziness. Frankly, I don't want him to drive to his usual haunts around town, but really I don't want him dealing with crazy traffic and complex one-way streets. Dad keeps remembering that my uncle really loves going to that shop, so he wants to drive out there and get my uncle a gift. I got the idea that we call the shop and order a gift certificate and have it on hold, since my uncle always wants to go see the shop. That way my uncle can take a trip in and see all the geeky goodness and then pick out his own Christmas gift as well as buy himself whatever treats he already had in mind. (and my dad is not driving around crazy downtown.)

Every ten minutes or so, then, my dad would remember his Task, and either tell me to find the address of this place or announce that he was going to drive off and see where it was. And every ten minutes or so I would have to convince him that really he should call and ask for a gift certificate to be put on hold and just put it on his credit card and not drive there. Sheesh. He's not forgetful as in not understanding what's going on or where he is, he just has such a drive for getting stuff on to his to-do list and then off his to-do list that he is kinda insufferable. It's kinda fascinating, thinking about what the "go-go-go Type A business personality" mutates into with age; it's also really depressing, thinking about getting old.

Which brings me around to: my to do list! Tada! I need to make up for getting completely buried in grading --- I took an Incomplete in my Another Dammed Notorious Writing Group and need to finish my article over break. I sure hope I brought everything I need.

However! I still haven't gotten Christmas gifts, for the most part. And my sister in law had been saying she was going to take a day off work and take us all shopping in The City (not the one with the specialty shop) and I believe she has planned that day to be Monday. This makes checking in for the Winter Writing Workshop difficult. Hmm.

Anyway, a partial list:

- yoga! (I did some today! back to the habit! yay!)
- shopping in The City
- reread my article
- make to-do list for revising article
- buy and wrap all Christmas presents
- give myself a manicure/pedicure as I have gotten all dried out and disgusting what with winter and grading
- apply for some late job postings


other break to-dos include cleaning out my reading magazine/book pile, updating classes for spring,  hopefully some last-minute interview prep but more likely completely reimagining a future career trajectory, and probably being forced to make the Christmas cookies. And dadsitting. I'm sure there will be a lot of that.

Edited to add this from the Writing Group page: Ok, I plan to put 2 hours a day this week towards my article! Today I read and took notes on an article I might want to include, and I still have to reread my latest draft and make a full-on to do list. And I still have a bunch of other things that have been added to my list! Oy.