Benjamin Franklin said “Fish and guests smell after three days.” And I will add that semesters definitely smell by the 13^thweek. As I mentioned in a previous post, I’ve been hanging on until the home stretch, which will officially begin tomorrow at 4:45 p.m. I am quite stubborn in defining the ‘home stretch’ as the last two weeks, and so all this week has been filled with anticipation of rounding third and heading home.

Van Halen (Image courtesy of Van Halen Productions Inc)

Anticipation makes me punchy and that is definitely how I would characterize this past week. Whenever I sat down to concentrate on school work, I suddenly had the urgent and irresistible need to complete other tasks that I’d been putting off. These Very Important Tasks that just could not be postponed for a single minute more included filing my nails, sending a friend the YouTube link to Van Halen’s Hot for Teacher, and finding the name tag from the sporting goods store I worked in during high school.

Another task that I decided took precedence over grading papers was to satisfy the burning desire to know why I was ‘punchy’. I mean, I know the reasons for the behavior, but why am I describing it as punchy? I decided to focus the Friday’s Word of the Week on something new I’ve learned about a familiar word. Continue reading →