September Already?!

Ack! Here it's been another week since I posted anything on my blog.

The big time consumer at work this past week was teaching classes. Though I'm very happy not to be teaching classes on a regular basis, I do thoroughly enjoy dropping in on some of the classes to talk about what I know and love--the library. :) The classes I talk to regularly are the Research & Writing classes (required for freshmen) and the Historical Research class (upper-level class for History majors). This fall, there are five sections of the Research & Writing class and four students in the Historical Research class. I taught in all six of these classes in three days--Tues-Thurs.

The Research & Writing classes are easy to teach, because just about anything I tell them about the PHC library is going to be news and useful for them. The hard part of those classes is choosing what I can talk about in 50 minutes and organizing it in a cohesive manner that will help them remember it.

Historical Research takes a different approach, since these are students that have been using the library for 2-3 years and they are wanting to work on researching specific topics.

What eased the teaching of all the classes was being able to pull out my notes from last year. That was especially valuable for Historical Research, where I was even able to use extra copies of the handout from last year.

Thursday afternoon was the first official PHC picnic. There was a good turn-out that was a great time of fellowship and food. Of course, mostly it was families. The president did take the time to establish an award to be given annually (an employee of the year type honor) and recognized the first recipients--a retired couple that have been working on-and-off for the college since before students arrived in 2000.

Friday night, JM and I went out for supper at Tuscarora, a nice restaurant in Leesburg. It was a wonderful evening as we took a wandering walk around Leesburg's historic district afterward and just spent time talking. Fortunately, traffic wasn't heavy, as we didn't always remember to check the stoplights before walking out into the street. :)

I did have to go into work for a few hours on Saturday afternoon. After that, I met up with Ee and another friend for an hour of cosmic bowling--black lights, colored globe lights, etc. My bowling skills are woefully lacking--didn't make a strike all night, made a spare only 2-3 times, never broke 80 with my score. Still, it was fun. I wouldn't mind going a little more often to get back into practice. I've never been particularly good, but at times in my past, I've been able to score over 100 pretty regularly.

I did have supper with my landlord Saturday evening before bowling. After his deliciously grilled chicken, he let me know that he's raising my rent. He hadn't raised it in two years, and this is only the second time in the four years I've lived here. And, as it is still reasonable for this area, I really can't complain. Maybe, at some point, I'll be motivated to buy my own place.