Another tough week

 Partly externals, partly internals.

For one thing: it's the end of the semester and that's just hard. For now, I am caught up on grading, but I get another small stack of it tomorrow (some short papers, fortunately it is my smallest class - 8 people still participating). Next week is finals, I give four. One is machine-graded (my gen ed class) but the others I have to hand grade. 

I figured up "provisional grades" for all my classes (minus the work not yet due) and posted them on the class websites so people know. 

I've had people asking for the moon, though: one person who had low participation (i.e.: did not turn in a lot of the work when it was due) now realizing they are failing (and I talked to their advisor; I know him well and wanted him to be aware that this person who is a senior probably won't graduate and apparently after that the advisor had what we call around here a "Come to Jesus" talk with the student, and that's why they made the request). I said no. I am overwhelmed and also I have a general policy of not accepting VERY late work. I am more forgiving of things like "oh no, I left my lab report on my desk in my apartment!" and I will sigh and tell them "bring it to me tomorrow and I'll grade it with no penalty" or I gave generous paper extensions for a few people out sick. But not for a homework that was due in October and just didn't get handed in. 

I had another person e-mail me wanting a meeting. "I am very upset with advising" they said "there have been misunderstandings" but no other detail revealed. This is a first-year student, meaning their advising comes from the central center (i.e., not experts) and we've had problems with bad advising. Part of this is, they are down several people because of people quitting and at least one person on medical leave and like literally everything else in our culture, work is done more slowly and with more errors because the people remaining to work are stretched too thin and doing too much. But I am apprehensive: I don't like when people want to meet with me over vague complaints; I have very occasionally over my 20-odd years of doing this had someone coming in angry enough that I was a little frightened. (At one time, I actually called the student's advisor on them - looking the name of the advisor up and everything - with the thought of "if something really bad happens, I want a paper trail")

This person - the current one - has now missed two appointments with me. I don't know if they got their problem solved, or if they realized I couldn't help (I really CAN'T, not in the last week of classes) or what. I am not making another appointment, though - I have enough going on during exam week (including several of the folks on the sick-list coming in to make up hourly exams from this past week they missed) and I feel like I shouldn't have to at this point; I do not want to be someone's scratching post just because someone else did them wrong and they don't want to go talk to that person because I seem more approachable. 

Also today, did not directly affect me, but I got a text right after my class: "The active shooter lockdown has been cleared, no shooter was found" - this for the public schools in my town. Apparently that active-shooter hoax thing (social media, maybe?) is making the rounds again and MANY schools in my state locked down because of it. (My colleague in the next office said her kids had locked down). This stinks and this is one of several things I dislike about the current timeline. (Then again: I remember back in the late 70s/early 80s, my dad periodically getting a phone call around 7 am, and saying "okay, I understand" and then immediately calling the couple other faculty in his phone tree - because at the small university where he taught, a bomb threat had been called in. No bombs were ever found, but they shut everything down to be cautious. More than once my dad remarked "it's very INTERESTING how this always seems to occur right at midterm exam time" and I think that's the reason. But this thing currently, I think it's just to cause chaos and fear, just like the vague threats against the power grid [at least in a bit over a week I will be at my mom's, and if anything happens there? She has one of those whole-house generators running off the natural gas line so at least we'd have heat and some lights and the ability to keep food cool in the fridge])

The biggest thing though? I had food poisoning this week. Not sure what might have caused it but all the leftovers from the day before I had it have now been binned and the containers they were in washed with bleach. My colleague who did some of her graduate research on such things said my symptoms sounded like a toxin-based rather than an actual bacterial-infection one, and it was likely Staph aureus enterotoxins. The good news is that means it was over fast.

Essentially: about six to seven hours after I ate dinner Tuesday night, I woke up with HORRIFIC lower abdominal cramps. At first I thought "maybe I put too much horseradish on that sandwich" but I don't think that was it. Then I realized: "something else might happen, better get into the bathroom." And then I had chills and an absolutely drenching cold sweat, and was dizzy (to the point where a couple times I got off the loo for a minute and laid on the floor, out of fear I was going to pass out). Eventually the toxin, uh, left my body and shortly thereafter I felt better - though yesterday and a bit today I felt a little bit like I'd been kicked in the gut, and I didn't have much appetite yesterday. (I made biscuits for dinner, felt like the only thing I could stomach was those with a little jelly on them).

Anyway, as i said: I tossed all the leftovers, and the remaining horseradish in the jar (I'll have to get another jar next time in Sherman; it's hard to find here in town). I don't want to risk that again.

Fortunately I'm better enough, because tonight is the AAUW Christmas party. I made my usual meatballs for it, and I have the hat gift for the exchange. And I had bought a little stuffed-toy horse a month or so back for the "bring a small unwrapped toy for Toys for Tots" part so I should be ready. I don't LOVE that it will probably run to 9 pm or past on a night when I'm already tired and when I have an 8 am class tomorrow, but I could sleep in on Saturday (and probably will).