Saturday, September 3, 2016
Sep. 3rd, 2016 10:45 am![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
bearshortyIt's Labor Day weekend(3 day weekend) and I'm spending about 7 hours at home before traveling again. Tanya and I went to my parents this past week and just got back at 9am. And around 4pm, Bear, Tanya and I will travel to his parents' house in Long Island to stay until Monday. And then Tuesday morning, Tanya and I will go back to my parents for one more week. I just have to keep careful track of packing and what goes where.
My first day of teaching is this coming Thursday, September 8. But this past Thursday, September 1, I had my teacher orientation. It was just an hour and a half to catch up on new policies and anything new, and to get back into the teaching mindset. So I feel school has already started (and my first ever day of school was Sept 1, 1986 when I went to 1st grade - the first year Soviet school started taking students at 6 years old. I can't believe it was 30 years ago). On the morning of Sept 1, I worked on my syllabi, figured out the schedule (on Thanksgiving week, due to schedule changes I will have to teach Monday and Tuesday, but I didn't want my students to write a draft in a day, so I shifted things around), picked my reading sequences, picked my first day writing sample for the students to do, and set up the class internet site. And since then I re-read the first reading and my brain is now trying to come up with a new assignment question. It's quite nice to reorient my brain back to teaching - I do love my job very much and I'm looking forward to meeting my students on Thursday. I also like teaching Basic Composition and Fall semester in general. It's a little less work too, with no mandatory comments of drafts 1 and 4 and with first two papers only 4 pages long.
The other thing I've been dealing with is the board application for the co-op apartment we are buying. The mortgage commitment finally came through last week, after a very long time, because the bank was taking its sweet time to investigate the building. When that came through I just had to get bank checks and the last documents regarding the bank commitment for the board application (the rest of the board application was ready a month ago). But then the mortgage broker and the attorney were giving me the run-around about the Recognition Agreement, one of the documents. The attorney' secretary told me after a day that they never give that original document until the board interview and to apply without it, even though I told her it was on the list of required doc. She was all, "well, you are buying for the first time, and they do this a lot, and they know better." I got together with my apartment broker, got her all the rest of the documents and checks, and the broker turned it in. Of course, on Tuesday, we got an email that we did need that document in addition to a few others relating to an estate sale (although the attorney's office told me it was not an estate sale since the daughter who is selling is a joint owner). And I needed to pay more fees since apparently the board application was outdated and there had to be more fees (apparently it was updated May 2015, and yet we got the application from their website just this summer). Anyway, this time mortgage broker did speak to the bank's attorneys, and next Tuesday we should finally get the Recognition Agreement. And I got more bank checks and all the other documents they asked for from the attorney. I just was to get this done. It's annoying. It's just taking forever.
In more fun things, I finished "Stranger Things", which I really enjoyed. I'm glad there will be a second season. And I'm really liking "Ancillary Justice" - I'm about half way through. Grimm announced that the next season is the last - 13 episodes, and I'm ok with that. I think the show ran its course but it's good that they know it's the last season and can wrap everything up. I just want Monroe and Rosalee super happy at the end.
My first day of teaching is this coming Thursday, September 8. But this past Thursday, September 1, I had my teacher orientation. It was just an hour and a half to catch up on new policies and anything new, and to get back into the teaching mindset. So I feel school has already started (and my first ever day of school was Sept 1, 1986 when I went to 1st grade - the first year Soviet school started taking students at 6 years old. I can't believe it was 30 years ago). On the morning of Sept 1, I worked on my syllabi, figured out the schedule (on Thanksgiving week, due to schedule changes I will have to teach Monday and Tuesday, but I didn't want my students to write a draft in a day, so I shifted things around), picked my reading sequences, picked my first day writing sample for the students to do, and set up the class internet site. And since then I re-read the first reading and my brain is now trying to come up with a new assignment question. It's quite nice to reorient my brain back to teaching - I do love my job very much and I'm looking forward to meeting my students on Thursday. I also like teaching Basic Composition and Fall semester in general. It's a little less work too, with no mandatory comments of drafts 1 and 4 and with first two papers only 4 pages long.
The other thing I've been dealing with is the board application for the co-op apartment we are buying. The mortgage commitment finally came through last week, after a very long time, because the bank was taking its sweet time to investigate the building. When that came through I just had to get bank checks and the last documents regarding the bank commitment for the board application (the rest of the board application was ready a month ago). But then the mortgage broker and the attorney were giving me the run-around about the Recognition Agreement, one of the documents. The attorney' secretary told me after a day that they never give that original document until the board interview and to apply without it, even though I told her it was on the list of required doc. She was all, "well, you are buying for the first time, and they do this a lot, and they know better." I got together with my apartment broker, got her all the rest of the documents and checks, and the broker turned it in. Of course, on Tuesday, we got an email that we did need that document in addition to a few others relating to an estate sale (although the attorney's office told me it was not an estate sale since the daughter who is selling is a joint owner). And I needed to pay more fees since apparently the board application was outdated and there had to be more fees (apparently it was updated May 2015, and yet we got the application from their website just this summer). Anyway, this time mortgage broker did speak to the bank's attorneys, and next Tuesday we should finally get the Recognition Agreement. And I got more bank checks and all the other documents they asked for from the attorney. I just was to get this done. It's annoying. It's just taking forever.
In more fun things, I finished "Stranger Things", which I really enjoyed. I'm glad there will be a second season. And I'm really liking "Ancillary Justice" - I'm about half way through. Grimm announced that the next season is the last - 13 episodes, and I'm ok with that. I think the show ran its course but it's good that they know it's the last season and can wrap everything up. I just want Monroe and Rosalee super happy at the end.