Where did the day go?

It is nearly 5:30, and I have literally been working NON STOP stince 7:00 a.m. - except for two short breaks to 1) drive myself home from Marty's, and 2) take a shower and get dressed before leaving for school.

∙ Last night: Get this - ONE trick-or-treater, his neighbor's kid, showed up at Marty's door. Marty was rather crushed, because he had spent time putting up decorations, lighting up the jack-o'lantern, and bought cool candy bars (kit-kat bars, and Reese's peanut-butter cups [yuck!].)

∙ So, we had some take-out Chinese food, watched NCIS and surfed the tube until about 10:00, and called it a night. Boston Legal was taped, and I hope to see it soon.

∙ We got up this morning at 6:55, I immediately proceeded to grade that one set of exams that I had not been able to get to since last Monday, so that I could turn it back in today. We had some breakfast, and I left for home at a bit after 8:30. I checked my e-mail, got dressed, and left for work.

∙ I taught my two French I classes from 10:00 to 12:00, and then had some students take make-up exams during my office hour. Marty stopped by to drop off some leftover Chinese food that I could have for lunch (great idea, I would probably not have had any lunch otherwise.) I taught my French III class, and then gave another makeup exam, and met with an advisee about his spring semester registration. When that was done, I scrambled to get the evaluation reports for two colleagues (with accompanying materials) compiled since they were due to the Dean's Office today. I had to do this, by the way, because I am the Chair of my Department's Evaluation Committee - hell, I am the whole damn committee! I hand-carried those evaluation packets to the Dean's Office, where I needed to fill out another form (new this year), a checklist of steps to be taken in the non-tenured faculty evalution process (and, believe me, there are many!). By the time I was done, it was 4:30, and I decided to skip entirely the Women's Commission Meeting (which was probably nearly over anyway), and e-mailed its Chair to ask her to excuse my absence from that monthly meeting.

∙ After that, I attended to a few matters having to do with my duties as Chair of the "European Popular Culture (except for the UK and Germany)" area for the Popular Culture Conference. This kept me busy until just about now.

∙ Needless to say that I am pooped, but I have yet another duty today - observing, at 8:00 p.m., a special "Transition" session for first semester freshmen which is taught by an upperclassman (a faculty has to be there to observe those sessions, and I ended up volunteering because the person organizing this program was litterally begging for volunteers. I now regret to have volunteered, actually.)

∙ By the time I get back home at about 9:00, I will be ready to collapse. I really really hate being this crazed!