It's still going...

But how is it going? Why, thank you for asking, dear Internet.

The term is advancing. I'm over the half way hump and staring down the end, although I still have quite a few weeks to go.  I'm tired, yes. I work a lot of hours, but I also seem to have developed a bit of an insomnia thing. I wake up about an hour after going to bed, and work starts circling through my head, so I toss and turn all night. That certainly doesn't help me be more productive...

I have to take a day off per week. I have to, because this city is so shitty that if I try to entertain myself for a day, I get bored, and then I'm ready to go back to work. That makes me more productive. It's hard to remember that though, when I have SO much work to do.

I'm plugging away at my weekly courses and trying to build courses for next semester, all while also building application packages for better jobs. Research? What research? Who has time for that?

My courses are going well. I'm pretty confident I'll get pretty good evaluations for a first year. Not perfect. I've had a few bad classes where I kind of dropped the ball. That is due to 1) insomnia and fatigue, 2) focusing too much on building my courses for next semester, so not preparing as much as I should for this semester. Yeah, gotta remember to focus on now, especially since THIS semester's evaluations are what will count for getting next year's job.

Do I love what I'm doing?

Well. There are aspects I like. I do like the students and the teaching. I have interesting material to teach (most days) and I like that I have the freedom to do it as I want to.

On the down side, it's way freaking too much work. I would like to have a job that I don't have to take home with me every single night and weekend. I would like to be able to just turn it off. But, that's not academia, apparently.  I do sometimes question my commitment. I really don't want to work THIS hard. Eventually it's supposed to get easier though, or so they say.

So, yeah. Nothing new to report. I'm just reporting on it anyway, for reference sake when I'm trying to figure out what's next.

G'nite, dear internet.