Monday afternoon things

* Still no word. I had kind of been praying, "Whatever is best for this person, but You know how I *want* it to turn out" (that is: she gets totally better and has a couple more years of good-quality life at least) but I also recognize that what I want may not be what is best for her.

* Last lab in one class and I had to call someone out on a safety violation in lab. Something I've harped on for every week. It makes me tired and it makes me wonder how some of these folks are gonna make it in the so-called 'real world' if a simple instruction like my three or four Safety Rules isn't something they remember.

* Discussion today in faculty meeting about some of the challenges we've had with students. I didn't say, but wanted to, that I blame cell phones for part of it. I've given up harping on "DON'T TEXT IN CLASS" because for some people, I'd be stopping class every 10 minutes to call them out and that gets demoralizing for me (and for the students who ARE paying attention) quickly. The frustrating thing is that when the texting students come in and gripe about their grade, they don't believe me when I talk about how dividing your attention is a bad thing.

* Simple solution: make cell phone jammers legal for institutions like universities and hospitals and movie theaters. (I'm sure there's some unintended consequence I'm not seeing but in most of the rooms where I teach, it would be possible to step outside to make a call.)

* And no, I don't think that it's that I'm terribly boring and need to teach differently; EVERYONE I know who teaches who doesn't go to the extreme of making students leave their cell phones on the front desk or in a cubby complains of this. I dunno. I just hope it eventually sorts out, where people wake up and realize that (a) checking their friends' FB status updates is neither that important nor an appropriate classroom activity and (b) if they want to make something of themselves, they have to pay attention to life. 

* It's very humid here today and that is making me slightly cranky.

* I think a lot of my frustration (and maybe even some of my GI tract issues) this spring has come with the fact that a lot of the big things going on in my life are totally out of my control. If I'm worried about a looming deadline I have, I can manage it by working hard on whatever has to meet the deadline. If I feel stressed because I have a ton of grading, I take it home with me, sit down, and do it....when I feel like I have control I can juggle stuff, but when literally the only thing I can do is pray about stuff, I feel like it's all beyond my control (Well, it IS). But it's nice to have a few things you control.