Exam week is the fiery pit of grading hell. All of my professor friends are in one stage or another of clawing their way out of the pit, and most of them are also looking hard for diversionary tactics to make the hell a little less brutal. I'm doing the same. I grade and then I shop. Or I grade and then wrap Christmas gifts. I reached a low point an hour ago. I got so tired of grading that it literally seemed more entertaining to go out in the cold drizzle and pick up stray nails on my driveway left by the roofers. That's just sad. Of course, some of my diversionary tactics are pretty entertaining.
On Thursday night, for instance, my friend, Wanda, and I went to the Zoo's Festival of Lights. I'd never been to anything like this, and it was a nice break from the usual exam week work. The Cincinnati Zoo is pretty big, and it turns out they put on a nice, big Christmas show. There were thousands of lights twinkling, dozens of decorated trees, and the pervasive smell of spiced nuts roasting. Of course, it is the zoo, so that smell was sometimes competing with the odors of animal mustiness and crap. Still, the lights were nice. My favorite part of the whole display was this lake with lights on trees and piers and on a big Christmas tree on an island. There were loud carols playing, and the lights flashed to the best of the music. Mesmerizing! Afterwards, we had a drink at a bar that always makes me feel like I'm in Chicago or New York--someplace where there are no students or student papers to grade. It was a nice night. I highly recommend it to any of you in grading hell.
Yesterday, the Learning and Teaching Center at school hosted a holiday gathering with wine and cookies and cheese and crackers, and I went wild. Well, by that I mean that I had some wine and spent a couple of hours laughing until I cried. Just blowing off some steam, basically. It felt great.
Today, I graded from 10-4. After the exciting nail search on the wet driveway, I'm sitting here with a gin and tonic, looking over the movie schedule at local cinemas. Those of you who know me will know how desperate I am for a diversion: I'm no moviegoer, I'm afraid. Still, a good movie is way better than a bad student paper. The pervasive theme to exam week (in this blog, at least) seems to be the occasional alcoholic beverage. Honestly, everything is better with a little gin.
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