Busy days now

I was on campus from about 7 am until just about 5 yesterday - collected a take-home exam and got them graded, gave and graded another exam. Calculated the grades and posted them on the class webpage (have not formally submitted yet, because people ask questions and it's possible I made a mistake)

Also posted the final grades for my intro class. Came in to a couple of e-mails about "but you closed the grading period for the last homework too early" and yes, I did, as it turns out, but I told people during the exam to send me a screen-capture of their score (the homework is all online) and I would update.

None of the people e-mailing me did that.

And one prefaced their e-mail with "What are you going to do about this?" which, while I know Tone Policing is Bad, that's really not a cool way to talk to your prof.

But whatever.

So I tried, just for the heck of it, entering full-credit for each missed homework for each of the people.

As I suspected, it doesn't change their letter grades one bit. So, whatever. If it makes them happy, fine. They still earn the grade they would have earned without the homework. Sometimes when you get closer to a certain hill you decide it's the one you don't want to die on, or even take an arrow to the knee on.

I gave my last exam this morning, am grading it now. So far people are doing OK....I hope that continues.

Phones are out on campus. We got the e-mail about it and I admit my reaction was "You say that like it's a problem?" (The last thing I need while grading is people calling me. At least e-mails I can ignore....

And now, I have to do more grading. I have the lunch with the guy who does some of the small-scale publishing of lab manuals for us at 11:30 and I'd really like to have these at least mostly done by then...

****

And back from lunch. (a lunch-sized portion of good lasagna, two garlic knots, and a raspberry tea). The publisher always seems happy to see us, we have fun eating and talking together.

He shook my hand (well, he shakes everyone's hand) and called me "dear" and I don't care if it's not very feminist of me but I LIKE that kind of thing (even though it's possible he also didn't remember my name at the moment). Sometimes I feel like there's not enough casual affection in life. (One of the reasons why the congregation I'm a part of is SO important to me is that that casual affection - the friendly greetings, the nice nick-names*, the occasional hugs - is a thing with them)

(*I am "Dr. Erica" to them. That became a thing, oh, nearly 15 years ago when the secretary found out I had a doctorate and was jokingly "angry" with me for not telling her before. But I've known enough people who have been rudely insistent about "That's DOCTOR so-and-so to you" that I never, ever press the issue unless asked).

But yeah. I miss that kind of thing. Sometimes I think we all get so busy, and also the having to be "professional" stuff means things get weird sometimes. But sometimes it is just nice to hear someone call me "honey" or "dear" (And yeah, the dynamics can be weird. This is a 70-something man, so he is older than I am, and I admit I am happier hearing it from someone who is my senior than someone who is my junior for some reason).

So now I need to total up my grades, and do a bit of syllabus prep. Once my lunch settles I may just go and do the workout I was too tired (again) to do this morning.

And tomorrow - submit the grades, maybe meet with my student if she can, and then, if the weather's okay, antiquing and another lunch out, and then this weekend I get to prepare for a long break.