Our Long National Nightmare is Over.

Actually, my long national nightmare. Well, not 'national', per se, but it sure as hell was a nightmare. Grading papers. I know what you're saying: "Dale, you self-centered jerk! You're complaining about grading?! I have to wake up at 4AM every single day to sort and pack hay bales, work with tar on a blisteringly hot roof, lead camels through the desert, hang from a thin cable while I wash the windows of the Empire State Building, or some other such shit. Where do you get off? You're grading students papers! You got it easy!"

Think again.

There is nothing more brain-melting than thirty portfolios of 22-odd pages of freshman writing apiece. Really. Don't say it's not that bad until you try it. It's really horrible. Here's hoping that when I finally get a professorship somewhere, it's at a place where I can have TAs for these introductory classes. Ugh. It's complete drudgery. Of course, about twice a semester you get that awe-inspiring student paper that makes you think you're doing something good by being a teacher, but those are few and far between, my friends.

Of course, I don't have to go to the desert (unless I want to), and I sure don't have to hang from any thin cables, 700 feet above the streets of Manhattan. And I never have to look at a hay bale ever again. Or work with tar. (Actually, the last one is a misnomer, given my recent adventures.)

Thanks to everybody for being interested in my little opus I've been working on. Sorry it's taking so long. I have a few parts to rerecord, but after that, I think it should be (close to) finished. Spring break begins now.