“I think your wife is faking her psychosis”

I am sitting at the kitchen table, ignoring the CBS soap that I have turned on for the background noise (see title), making lesson plans, and watching it snow.

Boy, is that snow pretty today. A soft and slow snow.

We’re now on our second week of classes, but praise Allah, I do not teach on Mondays this semester. I wake up on Sunday morning and love the two full days I have ahead of me. I’ve got a good batch of students this Spring, I think. I’m teaching a couple sections of basic writing this semester, and am already in love with it. I’m working with people who actually want to talk about the placement of a comma; eager people who tell me the difference between there, their, and they’re.

Dreamy, dreamy.

Happy New Year! by the way.

This week will go by fast, as did all of 2005, 2006, 2007, and 2008 did. I am headed to Fargo this weekend. My brother has gotten his orders; his all-expense paid trip to the desert. (Thanks Bush. Thanks Rummy. Thanks Cheney. So glad you jokers are out. ) So, we’re having a big going-away bash with lots of friends and families. Keep him close in your thoughts, ok?

I’ve been waiting for the new Wally Lamb novel, The Hour I First Believed. By waiting, I mean I’ve just been hanging around the new release shelves at the local libraries. I finally snagged it on Friday. I love it. I love how Lamb and others like John Irving are like, “yeah, I write these 800 page novels that end with the most perfect lines ever, and yeah, they weigh 7 pounds and your arms will get tired, and yeah, they redeem and sweep and wrench. But you know what? You’ll wake up early just to get another 50 pages in.” I imagine they just walk into their uberfamous publishing houses, throw the manuscripts on the desk, and say, “you’re welcome.” Lucky bastards.

I’ve got about 1/3 of this final lesson plan done, so I best get back to it. I can’t wait to get to the point in my career when I can just get up there and talk, relevantly and coherently, for hours. When I don’t babble and tell my students things like, “I watch my neighbors all the time” and “I’m pretty good with chopsticks” and “Harry Potter is king.”