almost there

One more day of summer school. Plus giving & grading a final exam. I plan to kick back and read Blink and Thinks* during the exam in celebration of being done. I usually try to use that 3-hour block in some super productive way -- grading or reading articles. Though trying to concentrate while watching my students writing their tests is rarely that successful for me. So this Friday I'm going to just enjoy my reading.

*Blink is the book on mental processing that was making the rounds many months ago. Thinks is the title of a David Lodge novel I've been reading this week -- also, oddly enough, about cognitive processing, but also about academic types having love affairs and social intrigue.

I am really looking forward to establishing some sort of different routine for the rest of the summer. I've been really trapped in some bizarre makeshift arrangements of both space and time created by our moving house plus summer school. Add to that two scoops of isolation and a handful of depression and you get a tired cranky me. It's all been viciously circular -- I'm isolated because I can't see anyone because all my weekend is spent either sleeping or dealing with house stuff. (Well, and the fact that most of my local friends have proven themselves to be (1) unreliable, (2) liars, (3) tormented by their own life choices, or (4) busy with kids. I'd be looking for new ones but I've been kind of busy.)

So this weekend I'm going to face up to setting up my study at our new house -- our respective studies are for some reason the scariest rooms for us to organize. (At least my gf is in this neurosis with me, to some extent.) I've even been subconsciously punishing myself I think by not setting up my computer fully -- I had to set it up in a very minimal way just to get our internet up. But no sound, no peripherals, and I don't even have my table adjusted properly. All of which has been a big obstacle to blogging. Never mind anything else fun online. It's either punishment or a purposeful block -- because if computing were too comfortable and easy, maybe I'd never get this room properly set up.

On the flip side: we all really love our new house. Even the dogs are happier here. And my gf and I have been watching the 5th season DVDs of the Sopranos nearly every night, which we'd been waiting a long time for (no spoilers please, we don't have cable so we DON'T know what happened). And after I get through next week (which involves a trip to the eye doctor, a trip to the dentist, and moving to a new office at the U) Summer Will Be Mine, All Mine.