So it turns out that it wasn’t really so much optimism that was in the air as schadenfreude, and lord knows the universe always manages to kick me in the ass whenever I run up close to doing anything unseemly like gloating.

Maybe it’s just that it’s Monday, and that I’m dreading this week.  Maybe it’s just that waking up at 5.15 am to Steve Inskeep’s reminders about the nuclear option was somewhat suboptimal.  But consider that optimism hereby retracted.  I’m beginning preparations, instead, for kissing what remains of the Bill of Rights goodbye.

Sigh.  When I began this here blog, it never occurred to me that I’d find myself, three and a half years and 680 entries down the line, desirous of a better organizational system.  I had this cutesy tag line—novels, networks, and some stuff inbetween—and I thought, well, there’s your categories right there.

But now I long for real categories.  Categories like “teaching.” Like “running.” And so forth.  And I’ve created such categories and gotten them all ready to use.  But here’s the rub:  there is no way, at least as far as I can figure out, to do batch category changes in ExpressionEngine.  And what that means is that if I’m going to change my category structure, I’m going to have to do it one entry at a time.

The mere thought of this is enough to make me start contemplating an engine change.  And a site redesign, while I’m at it.

None of this could have anything to do with the batch of papers I don’t feel like grading, could it?

Planned mileage for week: 9

Actual mileage for week: 9

Number of run days: 3

Long run for week: 4

Aches, pains, complaints: None so far, or nothing pressing, in any case.  Getting started again after two months of non-running is a bit tough, and a little hard on the various joints, but not enough so to make me complain, much less quit.  I do have one pretty serious knot in my left shoulder, which is causing a bit of stiffness and an intense ache throughout my neck and upper back, but aside from that, all’s well.  On the positive side, my stress levels are abating, about which, thank god.

Meg’s recent hints of students in crisis over at xoom raises a question for me, one I’ve been wondering about for some time.  This really is more hypothetical than actual, at the moment, but it’s had moments of actuality, and I’m just kinda wondering how to handle it should it arise again in the future.

Say, for instance, that one of your students, or former students, gave you her LiveJournal URL—she reads your blog, and invited you to read hers.  And say that, through her friends list, you come upon a community composed of many students from your institution.  And say that, perhaps, you peek into that community from time to time, just to get a sense of the campus vibe.  No judgments.  No real sense of what LJ belongs to whom.  Just a curiosity, as I say, about the general sense of things on campus and an enjoyment, mostly, of the writing.

Say, though, that through a series of circumstances you sorta accidentally figure out who the author of one such journal is—not a student of yours personally, perhaps, but a student of whom you are aware.  And say that you become familiar enough with this student through her LJ to get the impression that, of late, she’s become massively depressed, and that her academic life is suffering because of it.

What do you do?  You’ve come to this conclusion via information that you’re sorta not supposed to have, and through a source that might indicate more venting and hyperbole than actual factual representation.  On the other hand, if the student really is in crisis, you ought to tell someone, right?  Someone who can at least do a subtle check-in and see if everything’s okay?  But what do you say?

After two martinis and a glass of wine, I found it extraordinarily funny that Marion Barry pled guilty to tax evasion on Fitzmas.

But that’s undoubtedly just drunken me.

Somebody found this site the other day by googling “fitzpatrick investigation.” And oh, man, do I wish I’d had something to do with it.  Patrick may be a Fitzgerald, but I’ll happily claim the brotherhood nonetheless.

Readership maps, that is.  Go add yourself to mine.

[UPDATE, 10.28.05, 4.37 pm:  Thanks to those of you who are playing along.  The rest of you are making me look bad.]

Not blogging regularly.  Not practicing.  And as a result, the world looks deadly dull to me, with nothing offering itself up as deserving to be recorded.

Classes are good.  Reports are getting written.  Stress level is still way too high, but better now that running has recommenced.  But the old brain does not seem to be producing the thoughts worth sharing these days—it simply isn’t getting sufficiently interested in anything to go through the motions of pondering.  And thus little posting, which leads to even less posting, which leads to an intensified desire to post, but without the ability to get it started.  I begin to feel as though I need one of those little blue pills for the brain.  Either that, or some time off.

This useless post brought to you by the need to kickstart said thoughts by writing anything, anything at all.

This is the official announcement of the return of the running log.  The announcement comes in no small part because I have discovered, much to my dismay, that I have become one of those people who is incapable of doing anything without a specific future goal, and without some potential for public shame to enforce my work toward that goal.

So, the goal:  the Mardi Gras Marathon, February 5, 2006.  It’s a little sooner than I’d ideally like—I could use about five more weeks to train—but you take what you can get.

And while I’m admittedly doing this largely for my own wellbeing—more on which later—this particular marathon has the benefit of forcing me to reach outside myself, to others who need support.  The race organizers have announced that the net proceeds from the marathon will be given to Katrina relief funds.  I will also be fundraising as I train, more information about which will be forthcoming soon.

I’ve just completed what, if my running log is to be believed, is my first run in almost two months.  An easy two miles.  I had to force myself not to go further.  An auspicious start, I think, for the marathon ahead.

After long struggle, with numerous setbacks, I have at last gotten myself entirely caught up on Lost.

That is all.

(No, seriously:  that is all.  That and making a big pot of red beans.  It has been a lovely, lazy, non-traveling weekend.  And now I’m working really hard on not panicking about the week ahead.  Off to do some reading.)