Friday, October 8, 2010

Three Beautiful Things 10/07/10: Mirthful Tedium, Yuks with Past Students, Tequila and (Mild) Euphoria

1.  I busted my butt in WR 121 helping students understand the most boring, tedious elements of writing research:  paper format and documentation.  I busted my butt in fun ways.  I was theatrical, melodramatic, even falling to my knees and mock pounding the floor with my fists when a student gave a wrong answer about a citation.  I mocked myself, mocked documentation, invited students to mock me (turns out they didn't need the invitation!) but still maintained my dignity and authority and I think my students will remember much of what I presented today.  Some students thanked me.  They didn't know about documenting a paper, giving credit to others when the ideas are not one's own.  They didn't know how to format an essay.  Now they didn't have to guess and they learned it all in a two hour meeting filled with tedious details as well as mirth, laughs, dumb jokes, and good cheer.  I busted my butt in WR 121 today.  I enjoyed it thoroughly. 

2.  Stacy came by my office and told me about her 35th high school reunion -- she was in charge -- and we swapped stories and impressions about what it's like to be in our fifties and to get together with high school classmates and she told me about her success in WR 123 last spring and we had a really good talk.  I'm very happy she stopped my.  Oh! And Patty stopped by, too.  She did really well in WR 227 after she took WR 122 from me and she was inspired from our reading of Into the Wild to pick up Under the Banner of Heaven and read it, too.  She's just getting started.  I enjoy it thoroughly when students from past courses drop by and pay the old man a visit and we have some good laughs and make sure we are all doing all right.

3.  I left Billy Mac's feeling the warm sense of euphoria I get from a couple of margaritas and from gabbing with friends and eating a pretty good cheeseburger with fries.   I really like that warm euphoric feeling.  I know that tequila comes through every time, but tequila alone is far from satisfying.  The deep satisfaction and the real euphoria comes from being with friends on Thursday night at Billy Mac's

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