A precious day off...

Whew.  Just breathe.  The first week is over.  That's the hardest one, right?

...right??

*eyes dart around in paranoia*

.

.

.

Ack.  Well, I've started school again.

And, despite my complaining, it really hasn't been that bad.  A lot of work.  No doubt about that.  It is a Masters program, after all.  I've left the world of the undergraduate and ascended to that of something higher, better, more pompous and haughty, and much more difficult.  Supposedly.

Although it really wouldn't be that bad if I wasn't teaching.  Not that teaching itself is bad . . . but here's the rub:  I was under the impression that I would have a lot less control over my class than I really do. Which, I admit, I was complaining about a few months ago.  How dare they ask me, a Creative Writer, to teach a class without being Creative?  I got over that rather quick, though, when they showed my the shiny stipend I would be receiving, and when I realized how great teaching of any kind would look on all the resumes and applications that I'll be needing to fill out soon*.

Everything was dandy after that until, during the First Year Teacher Training Week (which also happens to be the week before school starts), I'm informed that I actually have a lot more freedom with my class than I had originally thought.

At first, I was excited.  Whipee.  I get to be Creative, after all.  Then depression slowly started to kick in as I realized that, in order to be Creative, I had to Create stuff.  Horrible, nasty stuff, like lesson plans, and schedules, and syllabi, and all manner of monstrous things that masticate my time away.  Eek.

So, in case you were wondering (as I'm sure all of you were) why I've been scarce on the old blogosphere for the past few weeks--thats why.  My brain was bleeding from overload (not counting the one brief blurb on Mockingjay that I couldn't help but post--still reeling from that one, although now I'm working my way through The Way of Kings...if you've seen or hefted that one, you know I'm a sucker for punishment...).

But--I think its safe to say it now--I'm Back.  With reservations**.

Sure, the first week was rough.  Lots of reading, lots of lesson-planning, lots of little assignments (both to do and to grade), and lots of classes.  But, overall, it was a good week.  Teaching was fantastic.  I was a little nervous before the first day of class, but as soon as the bell rang I just kind of slipped into the persona.  Its been going well ever since (all three classes...yeah).  And the Labor Day weekend has been a lifesaver--I've been able to get caught up in all my classes from the first week, and even get ahead in a few (and in creating my lesson plans, which feels positively AWESOME).

The only thing that has really bothered me about the past week is that I haven't gotten ANY writing done.  Thats a bit scary.  But, for now, I'm attributing it to the first-week-of-school-busies, and won't read too much into it.  I think that, now that I'm all caught-up and ahead in things, I'll find some time to do some writing.  Of course, by writing, I mean revising TR 1.0.  My YA project I'll already be working on for a class, and the same goes for some nonfiction.  So there's some mandatory (but much-anticipated) writing right there.  But yes, one of my main goals for this semester, other than to produce some great stuff for my classes, is to get a complete revision of TR done and send it out to some alpha readers.  I think I can do it.  I'm terribly excited about doing it.  It will be a rough semester, a busy one, but it can be done.  Raych, I might add--and this is important--has been an absolute gem this past week.  Very helpful and understanding of my ridiculous busy-ness, and all around supportive of everything.  I couldn't ask for more from her.  I think that, with her help, some nice things will happen this semester.  Hopefully, some very nice things.

So, all that being said, "Bring it on!" I say.  Do your worst, first semester.  (Well, you don't have to actually, not if you don't want to...sorry if that offended you...nice semester....niiiice semester...)





*  Creative Writing PhD, anyone?


**  "Back" meaning I'll hopefully start posting consistently once again, and "consistently" meaning, hopefully, about once a week. With school in full swing nowadays, I'm afraid my blogging will suffer slightly.  But hey...better that than my writing.