And So It Begins...

This is the post that I would have written on Monday, had I had time to blog, but I was frantically trying to prepare my "tele-teaching" class and freaking out about it and everything else. I'm writing it at 3 am, but scheduling it for tomorrow morning. ;)

Guess what? I was a pile of nerves because most everything that could go wrong on Monday during the day went wrong. And there were several things that went wrong on Tuesday as well.

I'm sure that's NOT how things will normally go, though, so I will take this rocky beginning as a sign that things will be just amazingly great once everything is sorted out. (that doesn't sound like me at all -- the realistic pessimist that I am, but I know it's the truth!)

After I decided to wash and blow dry my hair and I finally packed my things (clothes & necessities for overnight staying) the car frustrations started (more on said car in a future post): I couldn't get the trunk to open, I was hot without air conditioning (car doesn't have it) and I was upset at having my hair in the wind all day long.

These were nothing, though because I realized as I got the car keys and started driving away that my office key was in the other car's keychain, with my husband! And I also had mistakenly taken his laptop's power cord and needed to give it back. Of course he was teaching, so I couldn't talk to him.

When I was approaching the university the lady who is substituting me called, completely lost. I changed my plans (to get gas & the computer power cord I'd forgotten at the study abroad meeting) and went to meet her and take her around campus so she could get ready to go with me teach the first class (I got the class started for her, put a DVD & left).

Guess what else happened? The department secretary was sick (maybe pneumonia), so it was very hard to get everything she needed to get started -- an office key, the key to the classrooms where she teaches, etc. After some time we finally got into the office, I got her the books and I printed out the handouts. When trying to edit the syllabus, though, I realized that all the changes her daughter had made to help her were gone in the PC we were using. Sigh...

It was past 3 pm when I got on the road, needing desperately to get to new university to get a parking pass and to try and meet with people in the department. And... there was debris from an earlier accident on the road (glass jars/drinking glasses truck upturned, filling the road with shards of glass) which caused a considerable traffic jam. :(

In conclusion: I was able to get the parking pass, but not to go to the department. I still walked around and timed my walk from one class location to another and then went to my friends' house where they fed me a wonderful meal!

On Tuesday I got to the university early to go to the teleconference room and the class was surprisingly great. Even greater were my in-person classes afterwards! The only problem was that I spent several hours trying to figure out how to enable and access my email account and I finally got it with our dept.'s secretary's help! It was past 4 pm and I finally headed back home (70 miles).

I stopped at Costco & WM again and I couldn't wait to get home when not even 15 miles from home I hit yet ANOTHER huge traffic jam, this time due to road construction. It took me 45 minutes to get home. :(  So spent almost no time with my sons before they went to bed.

And my oldest has asthma right now... K has been managing just fine! Cooking for the boys, etc. So I know in my heart that my days, though packed and intense and full of driving, won't be as crazy as these past two.

At least I hope!!! And so it begins... my crazy adventure in "super commuting" (not really, I know that to be called that it has to be like 300+ miles, at least according to Time magazine ;)