Exciting new development!

Even as I sit here typing this, Cora is sitting in her room, on the floor, a whole 3 yards away, happily playing with some toys. Well, actually it sounds like the toys are being given a real dressing down. What Mirror and Fishy did to deserve such a harsh tone I'm not sure, but I hope I never do the same. Everyonce in a while she looks over at me and does her new face-crinkle smile and kind og bobs up and down on her butt a few times and then goes back to her business. Pretty sweet.

Unbelieveably, I am halfway through the J-term class - we've already dealt with the creature monsters and the human-made monsters and have just begun the undead monsters. The students looked at me skeptically when I was talking about how the zombie appears to be the monster most used not only for horrorific effect, but also for social commentary. We watched the first 30 minutes of Shaun of the Dead, but I'm not sure they really saw the connection.

Frankly, when college students can't be depended on to know what a mnemonic is, I'm not sure what to expect anymore. Much of the time they look skeptical. To be more accurate, the boys look skeptical but willing to listen while most of the girls look faintly mortified to even be listening. I can only assume they chose the Monsters class because they don't like Bob Dylan or literature of the Vietnam War much (two of the other J-term choices this year). These are the same students who choose to write papers on such monsters as Disney's Beast from Beauty and the Beast, or Shrek, or the little mermaid. Uh huh.

Today also brought me evaluation forms from last fall's classes. While no one has yet topped the comment "Great class but poetry still blows" from two years ago, there were some nice things said and bubbles filled in. Out of 38 students, only one disagreed with the statement about the professor creating an environment where students felt free to share their views. On the other hand, out of 38 about 32 thought they had earned an A in the class (off by about 12). This was the first year there was a question about time spent doing homework for this class, and I had answers from both extremes ("2 hours or less" and "8 hours or more") and everything in between. Not a big surprise.

Nope. The only big surprise is that, 30 minutes later, Cora is still amusing herself. Now by pulling her arm into her onesie and then trying to get it out again. Fun times!