My Second Job

So, I started back at work this week. The official first day I have to be back is Monday (Labor Day, ironically), and the kids will come back on Wednesday, but some international pupils started arriving this Tuesday and I've been busy with last-minute preparations for our overseas kids. 

This year feels like a breeze compared to last year. We were moving, we didn't have a car, I didn't have a classroom, I had no idea when school actually started... and when I did finally start, I felt like I landed on another planet. It's so nice to know what's going on - for the most part. I've come home every day this week sometime between 4 and 5 p.m. totally feeling like I was skipping out early. Usually during the school year I never get home before 6. There's even light outside still! 

Anyway, Nathan is always at the kitchen table when I get home - in the same position he was in when I left him, which is the same position he was in starting at 5 a.m. That's right, folks. He's insane. This morning he said, "You know you've got a problem when you wake up early and have a cup of coffee and some good time with the Lord and then look at the clock and see 5:50 a.m. and get upset because you feel like there's not enough time in the day to get everything done." 

He's a man possessed. He's set for himself a new submission deadline of September 30th and is working at least 15 hours a day to make it happen. Why? We don't want to pay any more international tuition fees, that's why. And he's done. He finished writing the dissertation three weeks ago - all 380 pages - and now he's putting the finishing touches on it.

That's where I come in. Me and my red pen. After I come home from school, I get started on my second job, editing Nathan's PhD thesis.

This is our work space in "afternoon" mode. There is a dividing line of books down the middle of the table. He's not allowed on my side, and I'm not allowed on his. 

My side has flowers and hot chocolate and cheese and crackers alongside the thesis and red pen.

This is what I get to look at. A crazy, unkempt, unshaven, wild-haired, disheveled man who mutters at the computer about how he's going to murder Bill Gates for not allowing him to change the default font in Word to Georgia.

This is me getting fiercely upset about pointing out the need for pronoun-antecedent agreement and the difference between commas and colons before quotations and the number of times I've crossed out the superfluous word "that" and the fact that "abort" is a transitive verb and can't be the last word in a sentence. That was a run-on, and I know it. It's a good thing I'm not an editor in real life.

But seriously, I am enjoying seeing the fruits of two years of my love's labor. His writing has improved so much since he started. I know that's such an English teacher thing to say, but it's true. He's so smart! I started  out only being able to do 20 pages a day because I thought my head would explode with new words. Today, after several days of building up my endurance I did a whole chapter and am now halfway through the whole thing. Huzzah!

Prayers would be appreciated for us as we maniacally flail toward the finish line.

Happy weekend, everybody.