fretful

[ljgeoff]

I woke up at about 3am from a fretful dream and couldn't get back to sleep. In the dream, I was with some of our family and there was some kind of natural disaster going on, and Mike had got separated from us. On his dog sled. Thinking about it kindof reminded me of The Day After Tomorrow, which led me to the list of the The Five Worst (Hard) Science Fiction Movies Ever.

I had a good meeting yesterday with the faculty mentor at Career Quest. My schedule has been rearranged a bit, so that now I am teaching 3 classes of Business English. The goal of this class is for students to be able to write a business letter, email or memo that makes sense to the reader.

I have about a gazillion things that I need to make payments on, I need to invest a bit in my garden (seeds, growing medium and grow light) I need shoes or I need to go to duct tape, and I want to go to FOGCon and Wiscon. It is hard to explain to Mike how important going to FOGCon and Wiscon are -- he just doesn't get the whole need to feed the soul thing.

After fulfilling my obligations to the house up north and to this house, I'll have about $300/mo to spend on these 2nd tier things. I've got to prioritize. It's just all so complicated -- I don't want to even look at it.

I'm still mourning nursing school. When will I be over that? I keep falling into vague anxiety. I should be thrilled about this new job, and I am, but it's a kind of dull happiness.

Comments

[hobbitbabe]

I was still feeling sad and wounded about what happened to finish my previous job, a couple of years into this one. I was still having complicated feelings about the relationship and household well after I realised that I loved my new life. I think it hasn't been very long since you were completely caught up in the twin enthusiasms of nursing school and homesteading.

Also, I haven't said anything yet about your college-teaching job. Dunno why, because it's the kind of thing that's right up my alley. My first piece of advice is to assume that some of your students are already traumatised about writing, and to think about how to support them in their first brave steps. Is the course part of the required or recommended curriculum of programs, such that they haven't really made a choice to take it?

[ljgeoff]

I dream about them both -- being in class, seeing my classmates, being a nurse and my little house in the hill, the fireplace crackling, the smell of earth, being cold and then warming up. It confuses me because it is so real. It is the realest nonreality that I've ever experienced.

Yes, I can really see what you mean about traumatized students. Most of these students are coming in after dropping out of high school. And yes, this is a required course for all of the business students who will go on to work in some kind of office as an administrative assistant or medical receptionist/coder.

So many of my flisters are teachers or instructors. It's kinda cool, like I'm joining a sisterhood. I like it.