Still Got It

4/4 - I'm not entirely proud of this story but I am mostly proud of
myself so I will tell the story good and bad. So, the kids have been
writing exams (teachers set exams, learners write them) all last week
and will continue through Monday. Grade 10 wrote for me on Friday and
grade 9 was this morning (Tuesday). When the exam schedule was posted
there were also due dates for the teachers to submit their exams to
the secretaries to be typed and copied. I quickly figured out that
those due dates meant nothing because no one hit the first three
deadlines. My grade 10 exam was a little late but since I type my own
stuff I didn't feel bad about it at all. And I had it in early enough
to be able to staple it the night before the test instead of the
morning of like most teachers. I got a little busy last week and
started procrastinating setting the grade 9 exam but planned to finish
it Wednesday or Thursday once I finished marking (grading) all of
their homework. The homeworks took a while to mark, so I resolved to
stay up as late as I had to on Thursday to finish the exam before I
left for Windhoek. Well, one thing led to another and with the
uncertainty of the trip and the proliferation of insects around 8pm, I
went to bed on Thursday without starting the exam. I reasoned that if
the track meet was Friday and Saturday we would be home mid-afternoon
on Sunday and I could set the exam on Sunday so I could turn it in on
Monday. The day before the exam is plenty early, they won't duplicate
until the day before anyway. Well, we didn't get home until 11:30
Sunday night and I wasn't about to stay up working, so after my class
finishes their exam in the morning I'll go to the library and get my
exam ready for tomorrow. Except that my refrigerator and cupboards are
bare so when I found out I could get a hike to town at 11AM I had to
take it. Going to town normally doesn't take that long, but with all
the rain the direct route is impassable so it takes an extra hour each
direction taking the long road. I got home a little after 7pm with the
exam 12 hours away and not a question prepared yet. And I was already
planning to watch the NCAA championship game at 2AM. I confirmed the
time of tip-off, wrote half the test, set my alarm for 1:45AM and went
to bed around 9:30. After four hours of sleep I ate some granola and
yogurt and made coffee to take with me to the library. I watched the
first half and then during halftime started working on the exam. By
about 4AM I was done with the exam and got to relax for the impressive
although not dramatic finish of the game. I still can't get over the
Florida player hustling after a loose ball with 30 seconds left and a
double digit lead. Once I watched a little more ESPN, CNN and MTV I
went home to shower, change clothes and have some more granola, yogurt
and coffee. Having been gone the entire weekend I missed my laundry
day so I put enough clothes to get me through the week in a bucket to
soak during school. I still had to get back to the library by 6:20 to
get the exam onto a floppy and take it to the office for final editing
and printing. Luckily everything went off without a hitch and now I
have 125 exams to mark. I've been out of school for almost a year, but
my procrastinating abilities are still sharp. This one felt a little
different than putting off that big paper though, because it wasn't
just my grade at stake, I had to show my work to 125 kids who never
need to know when I finished setting their exam. Now I'm ready to
catch up on marking grade 10 exams and go to bed early tonight, once I
get my clothes off the line.

My birthday was quiet and relaxing. I left school an hour early to
take a nap and didn't do any more work the rest of the day. I made
myself pizza and chocolate cake with Coke for dinner which was
wonderful. I bought mozzarella cheese and made my own crust, sauce and
topped it with hamburger and the most important ingredient on a pizza,
crushed red pepper. The cake turned out really well but I was worried,
after the prescribed 35 minutes of baking it wasn't even close to done
but after 55 minutes the knife came out clean and I added my makeshift
frosting (condensed milk, sugar, carmel flavor and vanilla). Now I
just have to eat it in the next few days before it goes bad, poor me.
My cell phone antenna got installed yesterday but it doesn't seem to
be working properly. Progress is nice though. Thanks for all the
birthday greetings.