In Which I Remember How Much I Love the Rain

Because, when it rains, the temperature drops.

Autumn is here in Iowa City again! Thank you. When the leaves are yellow, it should not be 80 degrees outside. And after a torrential downpour on Wednesday evening (which resulted in a legit 45-minute flooding of the intersection outside my apartment), the temperature took a lovely little swan dive down into the low 60s, where it has remained during the daytime. I welcome cardigan weather with open arms and the following outfit:






cardigan: Gap
top: thrifted
jeans: Gap
boots: gifted
belt: via my mum
necklace: also via my mum
scarf: ALSO via my mum
blazer: Eddie Bauer, like 6 or 7 years ago

This week I finally finished grading the 38 student papers that had been plaguing me. I haven't actually sat down with a calculator to figure this out or anything, but I would estimate that the average of my two classes together is probably something like a low B. I was a tougher grader than I expected to be--but can I help it if my students often neglected to include a thesis statement in their introductions after we specifically discussed the concept the week before their final drafts were due?

The correct answer is no.

Meanwhile, I have begun my first cross stitch project in years. I'm stitching a nerdy little TARDIS with "TARDIS SWEET TARDIS" inscribed beside it. I've got a nice little spot on my wall picked for it already, above my squishy red armchair and next to the little white cube that my mini-Who resides in. (The mini-Who, in case you weren't aware, is the little Doctor plushie that Zach made for me back in... oh, May or so).

Thia upcoming week shall be my week to get ahead in my classes; my students are giving their speeches on the rhetoric of a song of their choice, for 3 out of the 4 days that we meet. We're beginning Middlemarch in Victorian, which I am so thrilled about that I volunteered not only to offer up discussion questions for Book II, but also to find and present a critical article on the novel. Sometimes I think that my boundless enthusiasm gets me into trouble?

Next week: possible paper topics, student impromtpu speeches and MIDTERM EVALUATIONS, and the season of letter-writing.

For now, here are some photos of me (with a slight glimpse of my new Anthropologie skirt) and my office.