Caffeine Withdrawals and Thunder

Yesterday was a very difficult day in the classroom.  One hour and fifteen minute classes at 8 am, 9:30 am, 12:30 pm, and 3:45 pm make for a long day.  My performance was definitely affected by the project.  It was not simply the lack of sleep.  Ever since Dillon was born, I have had to go into the classroom with as little as two hours of sleep.  It was the lack of caffeine.  I experienced physical discomfort due to the withdrawals but more surprising was that I found it difficult to maintain a train of thought.  I would be in the middle of answering a question and then have to stop and ask my students “what was your question again?”  Or, I would be in the middle of a line of reasoning and ask “what was I saying?” Luckily, I was discussing the Coase theorem in my principles courses, which is one of my favorite topics (Seagram’s and Hank!).  Before my Economic Development class, I asked the History Department if I could have a cup of their department coffee.  I got a yes and about 15 minutes into class I got somewhat back into form.  I must have because it was one of the best class discussion days we have had. Simply a great day of class discussion!  The rest of the day I was obsessed with uncovering another caffeine source.  I am happy to say that I was successful.  Indeed, the coffee I am drinking right now is the coffee I secured from a source yesterday at 2:30 pm.  Old, unheated, and still good.

After office hours at 6 pm, my students (Isaac and Alex) and I walked over to Einstein bagels and picked up today’s breakfast (out of the dumpster) and collected cardboard from behind Giant.  Back at the shanty-town we considered the alternative ways to protect everyone from the weather.  The weather forecast was calling for isolated thunder storms.  They laid the cardboard on the grass and used the tarp and the decorative chain-like fence around Ball circle to build a lean to. The Free-Lance Star reporter came by around 8 pm and stayed until 10 pm talking to students (He is going to shadow a few of them throughout the day today.).  Overall, last night went very well.  We had a number of visitors come by (Tim, Erin, Dan, Farhat, Bethany, Eric, and Leslie), there were only a few cracks of thunder, and the rain was not heavy.  And, I got some sleep!

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If you enjoyed this blog, you may enjoy my This is the Work newsletter.

Thanks. – shawn

P.S. Read the Sidekick Manifesto and Take the Pledge!