Uh oh

Well the semester has officially begun and it's not off to an auspicious beginning.

First, I just dread the start of the semester. I hate going through the fluffy introductory chapters that have to be slogged through before the "meat and potatoes" begin. Plus, I have new bunches of students that I don't know and it always takes a while for us to settle into our mutually wary equilibrium. This usually takes a couple of weeks -- coincidentally (or not), just about the time we get through the fluff/intro chapters.

Second, my first class this morning (8:00 a.m.) was an accelerated version of macro. We meet twice a week, just as other classes, but each meeting is 2.5 hours. By doing it this way, the students can take macro in the first half of the semester and then take micro from the middle of October till the end of the semester. It's a great way for motivated students to knock out econ 1 and 2 in the same semester, but it's a huge pain to teach. I'm a firm believer in the "let's do nothing on the first day" philosophy of professorship, but we only have 13 meetings in this class (or so I hear) so I couldn't really do that. Hence, my first class of the semester (at 8:00 remember) was a 2.5 hour class that I couldn't just dismiss. Oh yeah, I also realized -- after class -- that my fly was open. How's that for day 1?

Third, the AC in my classroom is broken. I think that one explains itself.

Fourth, ... Okay, I'm tired of complaining. It really wasn't that bad a day; I just felt the need to gripe on the first day of the semester.

Hey Mel and Stella: I appreciated your book suggestions. I will keep them in mind, but I got a new read out of the "books you can review" list in yesterday's newspaper. I'm picking it up on the way home today.