I thought that I had had a pretty good week. I wrote over twenty pages, which for me is amazing. I even did work on Saturday until my brain literally gave out. I had planned on taking today off and doing some art and finishing up my immigration application but then I received an e-mail from my advisor. She wants to meet tomorrow. Those twenty-plus pages are not ready for the real world yet. I need a couple more days for them to smell good or at least to not stink to high heaven. I first read the "elsewhere," i.e. "Would you rather meet elsewhere?" in her message as "at another time." Wishful me. So, what had started out as a nice, pleasant day of dicking around with acrylics and finishing up my immigration application (which never EVER seems to end), has since gone sour. The anxiety is back and I'm cranky because of it.

I e-mailed my advisor back and asked her to meet on Tuesday instead. I also attached the syllabus for the course I'm teaching. Yes, my advisor is also my supervisor. I'm expecting that my desire to have all tests be take-home tests will cause her to blow a gasket. Frankly, I can see no other way to structure the course at the moment. I'm teaching a first-year Slavic-language course that only meets twice a week. Each meeting is two hours. Factor in holidays and reading weeks and I lose some meetings. I don't have time to sit on my ass and watch a bunch of freshmen write a test. I'd much rather use that class time to do something other than babysit. I'd much rather teach. Hopefully the time argument plus the fact that these tests are going to be composition- and translation-oriented, as opposed to rote grammer exercises will sway her. Also, if students rely on outside sources for all of their take-home tests, I'll nail them on the in-class quizzes and the final. Problem solved if you wait for Karma to do her thing.

Now, I should probably get back to my intro. Ack!

ETA: My supervisor liked my syllabus. Phew! Now I can get worked up over something new!