checked out

last friday night during the post-eggers bar gathering (a completely overwhelming, pretentious and hysterical group of primarily english faculty, english grad students, with the occasional theater-history-me person thrown in for good measure), a colleague from another department started complaining that her students had totally "checked out" for spring break (THIS STARTS IN THREE DAYS NOW, BTW).

she went on to say that it's ridiculous because we still had so many days left (well, she was talking about last week, and yes, there's this week, too ... but does this week even count? the week of classes before spring break IS ROUGH) and the students should be more focused and what's wrong with them, blah blah ... i could barely focus myself on what she was saying.

BECAUSE ONCE SHE SAID THE WORDS "SPRING BREAK" I, TOO, CHECKED OUT.

i just nodded at her words sympathetically. like i could see where she was coming from. even though now i was just staring at her mouth move, bless her (it was a very neat mouth, to be honest: big lips and teeth). i was miles away already ... on the beach, on the beach mansion's (where i'll be, thanks to my dear friends) ginormous deck-with-infinity-pool facing the ocean, drinking mimosas and coffee for breakfast, then a little fresh fruit ... i'll live in my swimsuit during the daylight hours, not caring about make-up, getting sunburned and taking my dogs for long beach walks ... oh, I COULD GO ON. I COULD. JESUS. BUT I'LL STOP TO SPARE THE REST OF YOU THE AGONY.

but to be honest, my students have seemed pretty "checked in" last week and this week so far. i'm impressed overall. and also: i've had important stuff to cover in our course this week, and they're all engaged and present in the classroom. even me (uh, because i'm teaching it and have to be? no ... because it's important. sigh).

ahhh ... and once i start thinking about spring break during class, fuck, it's all i can do to stay checked in and focused. i think in this instance i sympathize more with the students than the teachers. i don't know. maybe that colleague has weird students. i love mine more every week ... they have seemed a little more excitable than usual in class, but this is generally good. and they listen when they need to.

[but who knows? maybe their eyeballs look to be paying attention, and their questions reflect they've been listening, when REALLY THEY'RE JUST COUNTING THE SECONDS IN THEIR HEADS LIKE FREAKY LITTLE AUTISTIC CARD COUNTERS until class is over. one more class down, only a couple more to go ... not that i'm counting or anything, jesus ...]