Woke up at the normal time today, around 6:30AM. Felt pretty rested and relaxed. Did my morning Y&M and left feeling light and ready for the day.

In looking at the weather, it appeared as though it was to rain alllll day. Thunderstorms and strong winds looked in the forecast.

I made my way to the breakfast buffet, and they had allllllof the favorites. I think because the hotel had more guests check in this day, they offered up idli, sambar, dosa, chana masala (one of my favorite chick pea dishes), and purees (those puffed up dough like creations that you saw back in MAA on Day 2 I believe).

SO, I put my omelet order in and then made my way to the buffet as there was going to be some time before those dishes were ready. Dug into a puree and some chana masala. Poked my head outside, eggs still weren’t ready. Got to round two of chana masala and puree. Then eggs came through. Finished those off handily. Made my way to the pancakes, had several with some syrup. THEN, breakfast wouldn’t be complete without one more round of chana masala and puree. Also some fruit. I mean all the favorites?! How could I not?

I ate so much at breakfast. My goodness. Overate for sure. My reasoning was that, hey, if I don’t eat lunch, then I’m good, I’ve taken care of my caloric intake (and then some).

After breakfast made my way back to the room. It was overcast and cloudy, but it looked like the sun wanted to poke out at some moment.

So I deliberated. Do I go to the beach? It was saying 100% chance of rain, and I wanted to avoid walking there just to get rained on when walking back. So I decided against the beach and thought, why don’t I just chill by the pool, and if it rains I can just pop back into my room.

Done.

Went by the pool, the sun was peaking through some clouds. Not like full sunning, but it would definitely be lighter out and create shadows, so you knew you was getting some exposure.

Within 5 minutes of laying down, felt some spritzes. Perfect, I thought. This is why I didn’t need to go to the beach! Came back in the room and deliberated what to do next.

I would look out the window, see it breaking up a little bit, then becoming more cloudy. Given that the TCNJ semester was around the corner, I felt it best to dig into finalizing course preparations.

I wanted to get the syllabus together properly with the correct dates, change two assignments, put the correct dates for reach set of readings, and see if I needed to change anything regarding assigned readings.

I put the tunes on, and got to work. I would look over my shoulder outside with some FOMO, like maybe I should be at the beach, I can do this later! I had to remind myself that the decision was made, and that this is what I needed to do. If I didn’t do it, who knows when I may again, and before I know it the semester will start again.

I had changed many of the readings from previous instantiations of the course, and I wasn’t able to get into them because of snow day closures last semester. So, thankfully, the semester’s readings did not require changing. Instead, I just changed the dates and changed two assignments. Rather than have students write a paper about a previous scholar, which has been good in the past even though I think they just re-used papers from previous courses with slight changes which made for really boring reading/evaluating on my part, I decided that this semester would be more hands on.

I want to incorporate more aspects of the arts into my pedagogy this semester. I feel like I haven’t pushed myself, and I want to change that and keep myself on my toes. So I’m going to make a concerted effort to bring in music, various forms of print/electronic media, and perhaps other artifacts as part of the course. Also, last semester’s class would sit and not really talk to one another. Classes became flat for me. SO, this semester I’m making students present a reading each class, and they will meet with me the class before in order to solidify their presentation. This will generate more buy in, and then they can be creative, perhaps giving me ideas for next semester provided I can still teach the course.

So that took the rest of the afternoon. Got wrapped up, felt great, and then did the afternoon Y&M to round out the day. That took me until the evening. I got cleaned up, and made my way to the buffet for dinner. I was now avoiding having paneer and any other dairy (other than eggs/yorugrt) and I think it was helping my stomach.

Filled up, came back to the room, watched a little TV, and then went nite nite. All in all a great day, a different kind of great day, getting the course and website set for students as we creep towards the beginning of the semester.