First Day Observations

1. I haven't been in the classroom since last May. More importantly, I haven't been in my classroom clothes since last May. Spain included a lot of delicious cheese. You do the math.
2. My classes are packed. Seriously: all of them are full to capacity. This is unusual for medievalists. But damn, it's not easy leading a discussion in these big classes.
3. I have almost all my classes prepped and ready through March. Because February is going to be a haze of travel and writing and course prep. 
4. This begins my fifteenth year on the tenure track. Why do I still feel like a rank beginner?
5. If there were any class in which to have an interrupting mansplainer, did it have to be my gender class?
6. This is not a Middlemarch post. In case you hadn't figured that out by now. But that will come tomorrow.