ABD

In the academic world that's a well-know abbreviation for "all but dissertation" -- meaning one is "done" with the requirements for the Ph.D. except for, oh, that minor detail of a book-length piece of original research that can hang over one's head for years (I should know -- it did mine).

But this evening, in my world, it stands "all but done" (and in a different way) -- which is to say, I'm done with grading student work for the semester. All that remains is for me to plug the data into the spreadsheets that I've already generated and formatted, see where semester grades come out, and then sit stewing over them (I was such a grade-conscious college student myself that I agonize over this phase and actively hate it).  Entering the information usually takes a few hours, as does the angsting. Then, when I can pry myself away from my own neurosis, I'll get my husband to sit with me in my study and read off the grades, going class by class, student by student, until I've filed the 200+ grades electronically.

And then I really will be done.

Oh wait.  Except for the three meetings on Tuesday:  two are with assorted colleagues and one is with a thesis student who is, shall we say, having trouble.

But then I'm done.

Oh wait.  Except I'll have to type up my summary comments for each of the seminar papers turned in by graduate students this semester.  I've commented extensively in the margins of each paper, but unfortunately for me I had a terrific professor when I was a first-year M.A. student who did that and more: he'd also attach a page of single-spaced summary comments as a cover sheet to each paper.  He set the bar high for faculty, and so I've always felt I should provide the same level of feedback to my own graduate students.  But man, it's time consuming. 

Still, I can file grades tomorrow and return papers later, so the comments can wait until later in the week or after I get back from my quick jaunt to L.A. and Delano.

Okay, so then I'l be done.

Really.