a week in the life of rhonda

There's a reason I usually post on Tuesdays, Thursdays, or weekends: my schedule is crazy. Today, I thought I'd give you a glimpse into my life.

This Sunday, I actually slept in until 10:00, something rare for me. I watched a couple of episodes of La Femme Nikita, one of my favorite television shows (Netflix dvds = wonderful). But by 12:30, I was working. Now, work for me these days is reading, writing, and preparing to teach class. So I read The Discourse on Language by Michel Foucault, Rethinking Genre and Society: An Activity Theory Analysis by David R. Russell, and some information on interview techniques by Wendy Bishop. Except for the Bishop, this is not light reading--Foucault is a bunch of postmodern theory, and Russell was combining theories from several different fields and applying them to writing. Next, I spent several hours responding to my student's first assignment of the semester. By the time I got done, it was about 9:00 or 10:00 pm--I don't remember which.

Monday, I was up by 7:30, and started the cycle again. You can substitute other readings, just as heavy, and eliminate the responses to student work--I didn't get through the entire cycle that day. I went to dinner by myself at Dublin Bay, the local Irish pub, but I brought a reading with me. I finished working at 7:30 pm when Stephanie showed up for our weekly tv night. Dana arrived shortly afterward, and we watched Heroes. They left by 9:15 because we were all exhausted, and I managed to watch half of a foreign movie (Like Water for Chocolate, which was interesting, but disappointing in the end) while waiting for Al to call so I could go to sleep.

Tuesday I was up by 4:30. That's normal for Tuesdays and Thursdays this semester, because I'm best at working in the morning and want to get in a couple of hours' work before Dana and I work out at 7:00. (We do cardio on T/Th in the "gym" here at my apartments.) Let's see, what did I do? I got a reading done and did my lesson plans for that afternoon's classes, and after we worked out, I...hmm. It's all blending together now. More work, though, until my 11:00 research methods class (taking). From 12:30 - 2:00 I held my office hours--no one visted me, as usual, so I responded to student writing--and from 2:10 to 5:00 I taught my two technical communication courses. And then I went home and crashed. Oh, and watched the rest of Like Water for Chocolate and then watched another foreign movie, Life According to Muriel, which drove technical-communicator me insane because the subtitles were in white type and unreadable for about one-third of the movie because they were over light footage on the screen. Don't these movie people think about readability? Not a bad movie, though.

Tuesday night dream: My brother, Erik, dies. I don't know why or how, I just know he does. And me, Beth, Ryan, and Rachel gather at my parents' house (with them, of course) to mourn him. Beth calls Meaghan, but gets her voice mail; a few minutes later, Meaghan's mother calls and says that Meaghan's not coming over and only Beth is allowed to visit her. She is too distraught with grief and can't bear to see all of us. This dream, which lasts all night, was (I'm sure) an anxiety/much too busy/stress dream. It leaves me sad most of the day on Wednesday, and makes me realize how much I love my brother and would miss him if he were gone.

Wednesday was a "sleep-in" day--I think I got up about 7:30. I was checking my email five minutes after I woke up, and was reading theory (again) by 8:15. I read all day, even into my office hours between 4:30 and 5:30. Then I went to my research theory class (Ethics in Representation), which lasted until 9:00. Again, home/crash to La Femme Nikita (the last two episodes of the last season). There's a theme of dvds before bed, and that isn't a mistake: I have to wind down or I can't stop thinking and I can't sleep. I already have a hard time sleeping (see "to sleep, perchance to itch" from earlier this month) and don't need to lie awake about everything I didn't get done during the day.

Wednesday night dream: My sister, Beth, is getting married. It is the morning of her wedding and she is in her wedding dress and black leather boots. She is worried that her Harley Davidson won't be ready (cleaned? gassed up? decorated with "just married" signs?) for her to ride off on after the reception. She spends all morning making sure it will be. I have no idea who she is marrying, because he wasn't in the dream.

Today, I was caught up enough to sleep until just before working out (yippee!), but worked from 9:00 - 5:00 (it almost sounds like I'm normal!). Tomorrow I will fly home, but I'll be reading on the plane--and all day Saturday, and all day Sunday, with breaks for writing. So that's the boring life that many of you ask me about when I see you, and now (I'm sure) you understand why, when you ask, "How's Iowa?" I reply, "It's Iowa." And this probably wins the MOST BORING POST EVER award.