Aurora Sinistra (![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png)
alt_sinistra) wrote2012-09-07 02:32 pm
alt_sinistra) wrote2012-09-07 02:32 pm
The first week back
Congratulations, all our first years, on making it through your first week. I promise, it does get easier to figure out how to manage it all.
Now that I’ve seen how some changes to my schedule have shaken out, I have posted a chart of my office hours in the usual places (my classroom and office doors, and duplicated copies in the house common rooms.)
In short:
- various daytime hours on Monday, Wednesday, Friday when I am not teaching.
- 7 to 9pm on Monday, Wednesday, and Thursday.
- by request at other times.
In the past, I have offered hours - often very relaxed and conversational - on Sunday afternoons. Between changes to the YPL schedule and my own commitments, it makes sense to schedule these week by week. I also expect to be unavailable on most Tuesday afternoons and early evenings and am generally unavailable in the late afternoon. Additions to my regular hours will be announced in class that week, and posted on Mondays.
Advance warning, fifth, sixth, and seventh years, I will be asking you to make some brief (about two hours total) but specific observations and measurements during the Draconids (October 7-8), Orionids (October 20-21), or Leonids (November 16-17). All three include at least one weekend day, and the Draconids are best visible just after sunset, but your actual options will depend on the weather. (Fifth years: we will jointly pick a midnight session to skip in exchange, and I have a thought about evening sessions and bad weather that might please you - we’ll discuss next week.)
Now that I’ve seen how some changes to my schedule have shaken out, I have posted a chart of my office hours in the usual places (my classroom and office doors, and duplicated copies in the house common rooms.)
In short:
- various daytime hours on Monday, Wednesday, Friday when I am not teaching.
- 7 to 9pm on Monday, Wednesday, and Thursday.
- by request at other times.
In the past, I have offered hours - often very relaxed and conversational - on Sunday afternoons. Between changes to the YPL schedule and my own commitments, it makes sense to schedule these week by week. I also expect to be unavailable on most Tuesday afternoons and early evenings and am generally unavailable in the late afternoon. Additions to my regular hours will be announced in class that week, and posted on Mondays.
Advance warning, fifth, sixth, and seventh years, I will be asking you to make some brief (about two hours total) but specific observations and measurements during the Draconids (October 7-8), Orionids (October 20-21), or Leonids (November 16-17). All three include at least one weekend day, and the Draconids are best visible just after sunset, but your actual options will depend on the weather. (Fifth years: we will jointly pick a midnight session to skip in exchange, and I have a thought about evening sessions and bad weather that might please you - we’ll discuss next week.)
Private message to Raz
I knew it was going to be hard not to sleep with you regularly after this summer but I hadn’t realised just how much. It’s not even the more euphemistic pleasures (though those too) - just missing having you there. Good sign for the future, I suppose, if entirely tedious for the next seven months. I can’t wait for tomorrow.
Also, my recent mail, now in the wedding planning edition. Besides the usual lot of letters implying I’m nowhere near good enough for you (ignoring those, truly, but there’s two you should look at because they’re a little odd), I have:
- Six invitations, one we should discuss. Oh, and Mum’s set Dad’s 75th birthday party for 18th November. Best chance to introduce you to the extended family we’re going to manage. (Plenty of other distractions for the aunts and cousins. And Nana.)
- Seven unsolicited prospectuses (prospecti?) from wedding vendors, mostly dire. (Charmed lovebirds. Far too twee pastel cakes. Two horrific sets of robes. A caterer whose prices make no sense - must ask Temp what they’re hiding. Rather pitiful table decorations made from Scottish sea shells. A hall in the back of beyond. Only half-decent one is decoration charms, but I want to see what you think.)
- The latest round of pamphlets from Wizarding Repopulation. The “You are engaged, congratulations!” set is rather a piece of work, with new pamphlets about wedding charms, managing one’s relations with in-laws (all I can say, love, is that given your family, it would be more use if I did the exact opposite) and so on. And exhorting me to come for an appointment.
(On family wedding charms: been working up the nerve to discuss something since Mum got me enough detail. We needn’t make a decision until much nearer spring.)
- And finally, a note from a “longtime reader” of In The Soup drawing my attention to the retraction in this week’s issue. (I’d not got that far in my pile yet.) Doesn’t say much, just admits they trusted an unreliable source, and rather carefully apologises. Quite curious, actually.
No plans for the weekend other than whatever time you’ve free for me, and tonight with Antosha. (Though if you want time on your own, there is always research to amuse me.)
Re: Private message to Raz
And speaking of, I worry when you say you're not sleeping well. Please feel free to bless my sheets with your presence if you think I can be of any help at all. You did say we needn't be as discrete as last year, yeah?
Other things: I'll pencil in the 18th of November; I'm sure that whatever wedding charms you want will be much the same as what I want; and I can look at the two letters from divs first thing in the morn. For the last, I suppose Soup might have had a sudden insight similar to Rod's? Good to know that having a shady reputation has some uses.
Re: Private message to Raz
Deeply fascinating. And don't worry, he was notably less worn when we finished than when we started.
Brill conversation - not just the astronomy, but the rest of it. Books. Peter and Wendy. Other things we read. I got him laughing too hard to breathe twice. I did end up explaining - briefly - Stint. And Cassie Calderwood. Nothing he'd not have been able to figure out himself given half a chance.
You do realise the temptation, don't you? And that I will take you up on it at least sometimes, annoyances of having my wardrobe and things flights of stairs away and all. This week - well. Partly shifting back to my entirely odd schedule and not having you right at hand. Partly thinking through that book. (But I like thinking, on the whole.) Nothing near as bad as it might be, promise.
On the rest - you're amazingly agreeable, we can talk more, and I'll leave the letters on my desk if you want to come up in the morning before I'm up. As to Soup, it rather did sound like that.
It... Look. I'm glad I know. Even if I was so carefully not asking. If it had been you, it would be so hypocritical of me to complain now, when yes, your reputation has historical teeth.
I don't know. I think mostly I'm having trouble with the fact I'm so glad he's dead.