Aaaand THAT’S Why You Don’t Procrastinate!

So, that paper I had due last night? I worked on it most of the afternoon/evening, and had it all written up by about 8:15. All I had left to do was to add citations in the text and then transcribe the interview and type up the works cited page. Easy peasy, lemon squeezy. No problemo. Except, as soon as I pulled up the Online Writing Lab to figure out how to do the citations, the electricity went out.

In the whole year and a half that I have lived here, this is the first time I can remember our power going out. The poor boys. Little J was down in the basement, afraid to move, and Big J was in the shower, thinking that someone just turned the lights off on him in the bathroom.

Luckily, I always work on my laptop, so I didn’t lose all my work, but my battery was almost dead. I quickly saved what I had (once the boys were rounded up and accounted for) and then fretted over what to do. Even though I had it mostly done, no electricity = no internet connection. Plus, I still had to do all the citations.

I tucked the boys into bed with their mp3 players for comfort (and a little light), and headed to the coffee shop. To say the weather last night was strange is an understatement. For a few days, the temperatures had been very mild, almost in the 60’s, and rainy. Last night, it was rainy with very strong winds, and as I was sitting there, sipping my hot chocolate, it began to snow. Huge, wet flakes blowing sideways across the parking lot. Weird.

I quickly got online and looked up what I needed to, tried to make sure everything was in order to submit, and then logged on to the class page. I was already not a fan of this professor, mainly because of the way the class page is laid out. You have to hunt and search for information regarding assignments (I had to email him just to find out where the instructions were for this paper), you can’t message the other students, and if you want to email him, you have to leave the class page to do so. In online courses, student interaction is important. Apparently, he doesn’t want us interacting unless he can observe it in the forums. Grrrr. These were our instructions for submitting this paper:

         For Peer Edit weeks, your draft should be posted—preferably as an attachment—to the appropriate forum by 11:59 PM on Wednesday of that week. Your two responses should be posted—also preferably as attachments—by 11:59 PM on Sunday of that same week.

No big deal, right?  Except when I went to submit the paper, there was no forum for this week.  There was one for last week and one for next week.  There were about 6 other students who were logged in at the time, but none of them were in the “chat room” area, and there was no way to message them directly.  So, I sucked it up and emailed the professor (who by now probably thinks I’m a little “slow”) asking how we were supposed to submit a paper to a non-existent forum. 

Email sent, I went back to the class page again and searched for more clues like I was Velma from Scooby Doo.  At this point, it was about 10 pm.  There was a high school aged girl sitting behind me yapping on her phone as if there was no one else around, and the word “like” came out of her mouth every 2 seconds.  My mother kept texting me asking if I was done yet.  I was so completely exhausted and frustrated I wanted to scream.

After about ten minutes, I went in and checked my email to see if the professor had gotten back to me.  Lo and behold, he had.  Apparently, there is a separate set of forums for peer edit papers, which is down below everything else on the page.  Okay, so now I look like a huge asshole.  I do that a lot.  Oh well, I never have to see him in person. 

So, I got it all turned in by about 10:30 and was able to head back home for the steamiest, most relaxing shower ever.  Threw on my jammies and got into bed to watch some Arrested Development.

Today I have to recite a poem and teach it to the class.  I’ve gotta go put on makeup and get all purty.  We also have to have a “serious discussion” in our discussion group today, too, which I’ll explain either later or tomorrow.  Later, babies!