ugh.

I put the kids to bed early, last night, because both ended up not having a nap yesterday (well, the pixie did, but it was all of a quarter of her usual nap length).

By ten pm, the pixie was crying.  I got her up and to the bathroom (and changed, since she'd decided upon going to bed that she wanted her flannel nightgown), and discovered that she was running a low grade fever.  She was up again at 12:30, 2:00, and 3:30, feeling bad, sad, and generally upset.  She finally fell into a deep sleep after the last wake-up, but by then, the damage was kinda already done.  To her night, Odysseus's night, and mine.

This morning, when I got the kids up and dressed, it seemed that the pixie's fever had run its course.  I got them fed, and checked again to find it creeping back up.  It's the first day of semester, so I don't have the option of staying home with her, yet--I dosed her with Ibuprofen, and took her to school anyway.

So, up at 6:30, dressed myself, and the kids, then fed the kids and stayed on them while they ate, then fixed sandwiches, and rushed around getting their stuff together.  Then had to put on my teacher-face (I don't wear makeup except on days I work--and then it's part of my unofficial uniform).  And then, it was time to finish getting the kids ready, find my shoes, discover that the shoes I'd bought for work shoes ran a half-size too small (!), and hunt for my boots.  I did not have the time to sit down and print off my rosters (which the registrar used to do, but has now decided that they're too important to do), or to check email, or have even a sip of my nice, fresh, hot coffee. 

So, coffee came with me. 

We got the kids to school, and then ourselves to campus--Odysseus has a 9:00, a 10:00 and an 11:00 class on Mondays and Wednesdays, and loses the last class on Fridays; I have office hours planned for 9:00 til class time at 11:00, then class from 11:00 til 1:00.  I spent the first half hour I was on campus over in the actual department building, dropping off printed materials for a colleague, and begging the department secretary to print my rosters for me,* then signing my contract.  Then I walked over to the library for office hours and class, and discovered that my reservation for my classroom for office hours had been pre-empted by someone of higher rank for a worthless, useless class that was designed as make-work to put the admin twats in front of the classroom (and suck more tuition and fees out of the students, since it's a required class). 

Right now, the librarian who dealt with my reservation is confused, irritated, angry, and pregnant.  She gave me a key for a study room on another floor for my office hours today, and is trying to figure something out, and straighten things out for me. 

But...right now, I have a sick three-year-old in preschool, office hours that I don't yet know where to tell my students I will be, a book to finish writing before the first papers come in in two weeks, and a major case of brain fog because of interrupted sleep.

Thus far, not a terribly auspicious start to the semester... 

I am hopeful that things will get better, not worse.