What knitting I did over the weekend was to work on Thermal. I was greatly hopeful that I would get up to the point where I divided for the placket. But this sweater seems to have been designed by Penelope: no matter how long you work on it, it seems not to grow any longer. And it makes me sad. I hate the "Groundhog Day" feeling where every day seems the same and no progress gets made.

(I don't aspire to greatness. I just aspire to being satisfied with what I can do. But then again, for me, that may be as unattainable as true greatness.)

I also came in this morning to a very demanding e-mail from a student who (a) interpreted my "you must notify me in advance if you are missing an exam, unless it is a documented medical emergency" to mean that being sick with the flu for over a week is a medical emergency. (I guess I have to reword for next semester to say, "UNLESS YOU ARE IN A COMA"). And who interpreted my "you have to make up the exam - after I OK it - before the next exam" to mean "As long as you ask for a make up any time before the next exam, you're golden." And who finally, he as much as told me, "You will be giving me the make up exam after class Tuesday."

Seriously? I want to weep. Or throw up. Or something. I let the guy live because I'm not prepared to deal with the butthurt that telling him that he has violated no fewer than three of my syllabus policies would cause. And because I already had an essay form of the make up written from a prior semester. So I told him: Okay, but you will be taking an essay test. Just not after class Tuesday because I have things I have to do.

I don't know. I became a professor, in part, in the hopes of being treated with a little respect. Apparently I was lied to when people told me being a college professor was a respected career. I feel like a servant a lot of the time, and not in the good "Faith based" way, like when you serve food at a soup kitchen or something - where you are genuinely helping out and making a difference. A lot of times I feel like my "service" is just letting already entitled people feel more entitled. I know, I have to get tougher, but like I said: I just don't have the energy to deal with the whining, the complaining, and the "I'll take it to the DEAN! I'll have your job for this!" that sometimes calling someone on their behavior causes.