Beginning of the End

I've been meaning to write for a while. With school officially starting today, it signifies more than just the beginning of the semester for me. It's the beginning of the end. Josh is leaving for Washington DC in 12 days. Then returning for a month, possibly having to return to shift work (i.e. mid-shift, day-shift, swing-shift rotations) when he gets back. Then he will be moving to New Mexico with the dogs, while I move back in to my dad's house. Long story short, this first day of the semester is also the first day of major changes that are going to be happening in the next 4 to 5 months.

Josh and I are pretty sick of being jerked around about whether or not he will actually be moving to NM in April or waiting another year. We've discussed it and decided his orders are not going to get delayed, and he will be leaving in April. It's better to assume he's leaving than to assume he isn't. For me, it's a tough pill to swallow. For him, he's excited for the new adventure...and I really appreciate that positive attitude.

Student teaching is becoming a reality. The paper work is ridiculous. I'm crossing my fingers that I can student teach at my dad's school, but that's not a guarantee. My contemporary American novel professor has lost his mind. I have my first paper due for that class in two weeks already and we haven't even had our first class! And what he calls "Imitation Papers". We have 2 papers, 2 "Imitation" papers, a midterm (a series of short essays), and a final (another series of short essays). And at one point in the semester he expects us to get through two novels in a week. Granted, they're small-ish novels, but this class isn't the only one I have to read for! I do have work in other classes, and he doesn't seem to understand that his students take more than just HIS class. I have 15 hours of observations for my methods class. And I have to do a 30 minute lesson and video tape it. I really do not want to watch myself teach. I already know it's going to be awkward. Ugh. My business writing professor didn't put a class schedule in her syllabus, so I have no idea what to expect for that class. There are no reading or writing assignments listed in the syllabus. This makes me wonder if she's going to teach this class on a whim...which never turns out well.

Well, enough complaining. I have to get my day started. Breakfast, chores, shower, etc. Life.