Last Day of Lollygagging

Even as I plan to spend the day watching football games, I know that the rush is coming. I know that tomorrow when school starts again, I'll start with a tiny snowball of activity and quickly be rolled into a giant avalanche.
I spent the end of last week preparing the syllabus and the online components of my classes. Then last night, I started on lesson plans. Sometimes I can re-use lesson plans from previous quarters, but I always need to tweak them. And this quarter I have a class I haven't taught since 2008, so the book has changed. That one took a long time to schedule and will take even more time to plan each week.
I'm teaching 19 hours at one college and 8 hours at the other college. Thus, the coming avalanche. However, I plan to swim steadily forward at the top of the avalanche, until I am forced to tread water and if I am buried by the avalanche, I'll stick up my ski pole so someone can dig me out.
After all, the quarter will end eventually sometime in March, and if I work hard and my students work hard, we could end up avoiding the avalanche. And the money that I make teaching all of these classes will cover my daughter's next semester of college.
How about you? Is the new year going to be a challenge?

Work Overload

Earlier this week, before the sun's heat became ferocious, Earl and I were sitting on the front porch when one of us mentioned iced tea. I volunteered to get some, but he shooed me away.
"Get your work done," he said. "How much more?"
And it seemed like such a simple question. How much work did I have to do before I was finished, able to read a book, walk to the coffee shop, have a glass of wine, relax?
For my husband, who works at a newspaper, each night he finishes his work. Sure, there's more when he returns the next day to put out another paper, but when he walks through the night or rides his bicycle along the bike path dodging rabbits, he has safely put the newspaper to bed.
For me, I see no end in sight.
I tried to list what was waiting in my paper grading cue -- both online and in person.
I had the 3rd essay for my in-person class, and most of them had already turned in their final essays. Then the two online classes had submitted assignments Sunday night. Plus their final essays were due Wednesday. Then I had the two classes from the other college and they had all submitted assignments Saturday night. One class did rough drafts, while another submitted two writing assignments, plus I had to grade their online discussions...
The number of students waiting to hear from me seemed too enormous to continue.
But once I slogged through those, I'd be finished, right?
Well, no, because more assignments are coming in on Saturday.
But the quarter is coming to an end.
True, grades are due Saturday for three of my classes, 9 hours worth of college teaching completed for Spring Quarter followed by a two-week break. Woo hoo!
The other college though meets during that two-week break and takes its summer break the week afterward, when I begin teaching again, 11 hours per quarter this summer.
So when will my work be done?
I think I get a break from both schools around Christmas time.
Let's do lunch then.