Welcome, welcome!!!

This is our course blog. It is, primarily, for "academic" work, but feel free to post other things as you see fit (so long as they're relevant to the course or allowing us to get to know you). Once you have accepted your blog invite (which will be sent to you the evening of Monday, the 17th), you'll be able to post. Make a profile, however, brief. It would be great if you would add a picture so we have a sense of each other that goes beyond typed words. 

A bit about me: 

I'm a night owl. If I'm online, it's guaranteed to be at night. Right now, it's after 1 a.m., and I should be . . . sleeping as I have professional development workshops beginning at o' dark thirty a.m. (9:00 a.m., in my world). This will need to be, er, adjusted soon as I'm teaching at 8:00 a.m. three mornings a week. Ahem. I'm sure you aren't overly interested in my sleeping patterns. 

I work on our class at night. I will return emails at night. Enough said on that end. I've been teaching at MSJC for six years, MiraCosta College for six years, used to teach at Palomar College (loved it, couldn't continue on at four institutions), and I teach for Central Texas College (obviously, this would be online as a commute to Texas might prove . . . difficult). I teach primarily literature-based courses but do a good number of transfer-level composition (101 or the like). I teach online, hybrid, and face-to-face. 

This semester I'm teaching five courses and working in both a face-to-face and online Writing Center. Believe it or not, I do about 80 percent of my work from home, and that is because . . . . I have a "baby" who will turn 2 next month (I figure I can use the term "baby" for at least another month . . . sigh). My strange and flexible schedule allows me to pose as a mostly "stay-at-home" mom in my son's young eyes and allows me to participate in important work and maintain my professional capacities, intellectual stimulation, problem-solving abilities, contact with colleagues, and all those other things that go into a well-rounded life. I'm busy. Sleep is usually an afterthought. Food sometimes is, too.

 I scrapbook in my "free" time and am just starting to participate in terms of design for the "Pink Pineapple", my little local scrapbooking store of love (in Vista, where I used to live). I'm working on moving into that industry professionally (as a side thing as opposed to a replacement for teaching). Let's see. I may go back to school (again) sometime in the near (far?) future, maybe for a degree in a completely different field (sociology?) am considering having a second child (ack!) in the next eon or so with my husband, and would love to (someday) live in the Pacific Northwest. The heat here is for, as they so often the say, the birds. Or whoever you strange people are who love 110 degree weather. If it's 60 and cloudy, I'm in heaven. 40's good, too.

I love junk food but try to avoid it (with the exception of chai lattes . . . and ice cream), am one of those people who loves junk food but doesn't allow my son to eat any  (I believe the correct term is hypocrite, no?), who's watched every episode of The Gilmore Girls but watch relatively little television (one of my closest friends is writing her dissertation on reality TV, so she keeps me in the loop), who loves bad (and good, for that matter) horror movies (I'll do my usual round of Halloween Parts 1-34 in October), who adores The Talking Heads beyond measure along with Tori Amos, Oingo Boingo, Social Distortion, and David Byrne (though we're down to listening to music via computer or car given our lack of any sort of reasonable technology beyond computers and I have no time to see live music),  who loves 19th-century British literature (I can really geek out here, as it's my area of expertise), who has a healthy love/hate relationship with writing, and who thinks teaching is one of the best, most flexible, most creative, and most innovative jobs out there. Obviously, I like to read, though I won't bore you with a never-ending list of perennial favorites (though I WILL eventually post a list of things "you must read" that you can scoff at/print and follow to the letter. 

I'm told I'm not particularly practical and lack common sense (hello? I spent eight years working on degrees in writing and archaic literature . . .) and am quite funny (I'll leave that for you to judge. You may have more colorful adjectives for me as time wears on). 

So. You know a little, or maybe too much, about me. Please post your own introduction/pictures/videos/what have you so can we begin on a fun note that allows us to know one another in something more than the abstract. I'm really looking forward to reading these!

Amy