Journal Entry: September 4, 2009

Big week for me, so yeah I should have been posting regularly. But, then, it was a big week for me, so I had other stuff to do.

Starting with getting sick.

Sunday
(Yes, I already did Sunday, just bear with me.)

Sunday morning I woke up with the sniffles and a severe, sinus-related headache -- harkening back to the Sunday only two weeks before, when I went through the same thing. That one was short-lived, though....

This one has lingered. And grown.

Monday
So, yeah, Monday morning I woke up feeling pretty out-of-it and miserable, but I just assumed (with my big first day of school looming) that it was a social anxiety thing. Every now and then I'd stop and think, "Wait, this feels more like a head cold than an anxiety attack," but then I'd just call myself silly because, after all, I had a big terrifying Event looming. Of course it was anxiety!

I went to work Monday, and then got home to an empty house because T-- had AB at the grocery store with her. D-- came over, and T-- brought a pizza home with her, and we all had a pleasant dinner. Then T-- took AB to go shopping with my little sister, and D-- drove me up to Full Circle Bookstore for social writing.

It was just the two of us this time, and we both got a lot done. We wrote about a thousand words each, in two hours at the coffee shop, then headed down to the restaurant for an hour of good conversation. I got home a little after ten, and went straight to bed.

Tuesday
Tuesday morning I went in to work, and spent most of my time there answering coworkers who started conversations with, "Today's the big day, huh? Are you ready?" And my answer was always, "Sure I'm ready! I've been doing this for seven years. All I have to do is show up, and start talking. I'll fill an hour like that!"

Noon rolled around, and I headed home. I took the afternoon off, so I wouldn't have to rush hither and thither on my first day of classes. Had lunch with T-- and AB, grabbed my laptop, and headed up to the school. I'll tell you all about my first class session in a separate post.

In brief, though, it didn't go well. And, on top of all that, I was sick. I still suspected at the time that it was a response to the stress of the day, but that certainly didn't lessen after class was over. I drove home, desperately glad I wasn't supposed to go back to work, and crashed on the couch, and did nothing else for the rest of the day. I did watch AB while T-- went grocery shopping, but that consisted mostly of stretching out on the couch, one arm over my eyes, and half-heartedly saying, "Don't make a mess" while she watched TV and played with her puzzles.

Wednesday
Wednesday morning I woke up early and went to work, then slipped out halfway through the morning to see my doctor for my annual physical. I haven't gotten any of the lab results back yet, but for the most part everything's good. He's got me back on Benicar for my blood pressure, but even that is much better than it was a year ago. He said if I can get my diastolic down by ten points, I can probably go off it altogether. So that's my six-month goal.

Anyway, after that I went right back to work. Mid-afternoon I was chatting with T-- and asked her about dinner plans and she reminded me that she was going out with Becca, and I was watching AB. So that was that.

I got home, and she left, and AB and I played in the living room for an hour or so before D-- showed up. Then the three of us ran up to Taco Bueno to grab some dinner. Afterward AB crawled up next to me on the couch while I was poking around on Facebook, and she jabbed a finger at the screen, at my little profile photo, and said, "That's you, Daddy!"

And I said, "It is!" and opened the photo up larger so she could see it. Then she started looking through all the little thumbnails on the screen, trying to spot people she recognized, and we played that game for fifteen minutes or so.

When she got bored of that, I set her up on T--'s laptop watching really, really old episodes of Sesame Street, and D-- and I played WoW. That carried us through to AB's bedtime.

Then D-- left and T-- and I watched some Lie to Me, and then it was tomorrow.

Thursday
My Tuesday-Thursday class is what we're calling a "hybrid online course," which means we're meeting in class on Tuesdays, and then on Thursdays the students go to the school's e-classroom website and watch a recorded lecture, get an assignment, and work on that over the weekend. Next Tuesday when we meet for class, we'll go over the assignment before I launch into my lecture.

Anyway, that meant I didn't have to go out to the school on Thursday, but I did have to get the online lecture put together. That...didn't end up happening, for technical reasons. I posted the assignment, and I put together a heavily-illustrated tutorial (How to Write a Business Letter) that I made available, and I sent them an email saying, "Sorry, but I'm having technical problems so your lecture won't be available until tomorrow. If you're in a hurry to get started, check out the tutorial posted online."

Not the best way to get started. In the process, though, I came up with a really great process for developing my online lectures. I was able to convert the illustrations in my tutorial directly into PowerPoint slides for the lecture, and use the text as a script for my voiceover. That lets me develop the lecture to my strengths (that is, tech writing), produce a useful lecture, and also have a well-made tutorial document left over when I'm done. That seems like a good thing all around.

Anyway, I took care of that yesterday, finishing it up in the early evening. T-- made sloppy joes for dinner, I played WoW, and after AB went to bed we watched the last episode of Lie to Me. It was intense.

Other than that, it's just things and stuff.