This past week was frantic. It was filled with work on the last steps towards creating an anthology of student writing and art that a co-worker, Randy Mann, and I proposed as a project last fall. We had hoped to have it to the printers on Monday morning, but as you will soon see, that did not happen. Seriously, I scarcely recall what I did last week because since last Friday I was preoccupied with the following activities:
Took edited files from Randy and tried to lay them out in Word using a booklet template. I started Friday night and worked through-out the day Saturday. I thought it was pretty good. I emailed Randy the file so he could finish editing. He worked hard on this Sunday only to find out the editing didn't save! Six hours worth of work was lost, but he gamely tried it all again. WOW!
On Monday, I worked all day trying to get the pictures not to float, often over or under text, to random pages! I even called in the big guns and asked an instructor who teaches with Word, but she also could not make it work. It wasn't for a lack of trying! She tried text boxes, anchors, different text-wrapping, changing alignment, etc.
Since that didn't work, I sent it to the graphic artist who created our cover art. She completed it around midnight! I should have sent it to her much earlier; a graphic artist, I am not!
Then, on Tuesday, Randy and I printed it, caught minor editing errors and some inconsistencies with layout, so we called the artist in Tuesday evening and worked for a couple hours to iron out some of the glaring errors; trust me, there are still errors.
Finally, on Wednesday morning, we had the files saved to CD and we dropped it off at 9 am. At 2 pm we got the call that the proof was done. Whoo-hooo! I ran to get it, brought it back to campus and showed everyone. It's very striking! We gave it the thumbs up, and we should have copies to sell the week of Dec. 10 or early during finals week.
In the midst of all this, I graded 40 example essays for 0050, planned class, and so on. I did take Friday night off from all things school-related. Today, however, I got back on the horse.
Activities accomplished today:
- Slept in until 10 am. An unexpected treat as hubby was at work and daughter was at Grandma B's. Outcome: a totally rested me who should have been able to grade all day long.
- Tried to teach daughter, who returned early due to predicted snowstorm, how to pick up the cat properly (as opposed to using the tail). Result=one scratch on foot and several tears and no papers graded as planned.
- Graded last blog posts for three classes. Consequence: I feel like I accomplished SOMETHING today despite not getting 0050 comparisons, 1101 Hybrid research papers, or my 1102 poetry essays graded.
- Made sloppy Joes for supper. The effect? Family with full bellies and FINALLY, a non-fast food meal this week for me.
- Played Tomb Raider legend on Xbox 360 for an hour. My impression? Too much fun. I simply must have hubby hide the controllers from me so I get some work done.
- Read 20 more pages in The Poisonwood Bible by Barbara Kingsolver. Accomplishment: it's like sighting an island after being through a storm at sea. It calms me. It's like it reconnects all the fragmented parts of my life: mom, teacher, student, wife, colleague, daughter, etc. In short, it's rejuvenating to read.
