One of the best parts of last semester was studying with Sarah and Nicole at the diner – we’d drink too much terrible coffee, harass Mark the diner guy, and generally spend equal amounts of time giggling and reading. I’m loving all the time spent with Hot Librarians this semester, but it was great to spend time reading and giggling and eating cottage cheese with them again. One of the things I greatly enjoy about my friends – all of them, really – is the differing perspectives on very similar things – in this case, being able to talk about writing and teaching and pedagogy from three very different perspectives.

Last night, in an attempt to start/continue the literature review for my thesis, I was reading a book on distance education that was clearly written with the first time instructor in mind. I’m having a hard time finding literature that isn’t buzz-y (distance education is great! distance education is a way to make lots of money!) and/or overly program-specific. I suppose that’s to be expected in a somewhat emergent field – but it’s frustrating nonetheless. I’ve been working with this long enough that I don’t need to read: Just as it is said that our eyes are the windows to our soul, then maybe it is fair to suggest that our words are the windows to whom we are online.

It seems like there was something else I wanted to say, but it’s escaped me. Today’s been a grey day for a variety of people for a variety of reasons. After a challenging afternoon, S and I got coffee at Moonstruck and walked around the Quad for a while. I needed that.

Oh! I remember. I’m giving up chocolate for Lent. Just FYI.