Flu shot and other matters

Got one today while I was grocery-shopping.  Spur-of-the-moment thing, as I usually go to my doctor for my shot but I was there, the store has a pharmacy in it, no one was in line, so ... done deal for this flu season. 

I've gotten a flu shot for the past I-can't-remember-how-many-years (because I was diabetic, my PCP insisted on it, as diabetics have compromised immune systems, and even now I figure that while my diabetes is resolved it's never considered cured, so why tempt fate?). A few people in my immediate work orbit have been coming down with flu, and I'd like to avoid it, if possible.  And a lecture hall full of hacking, coughing students is a busy germ factory -- half the time I feel like distributing disposable masks at this time of year. 

Either the shots have worked or it's been dumb luck: I haven't had flu for as long as I've been getting the shots.  I'd like to keep it that way. (Added later: Ow.  Flu shots hurt more after the fact.)

Aside from the shot and the grocery-shopping, today has been an unproductive day so far, however:  perhaps because of impending TOM as well as finding myself in this particular part of the semester, I'm tired and don't feel like working. To judge from my students' performances on a recent exam, they feel the same way.

I can't really blame them:  the normal course load within this particular university system is a heavy one, and the vast majority of my students work on top of that.  Academics just aren't always a priority for them, and although a significant part of me thinks, "Why be in college, then?", another part realizes the elitism in that attitude.  I was lucky when I was in college: I went to a better class of university, I didn't have to work as an undergraduate,  I was raised in a family where academics were a priority, and I didn't have the same kinds of challenges that  many of my students face.

Still and all, that doesn't make this feeling of wanting to curl up in a warm bed and just nap the afternoon away disappear.

Oh, that book I mentioned the other day?  Thornfield Hall? Just don't even bother. Don't go there. It's truly incoherent, and not in a deliberate way, either: although it changes narrational voices throughout the story (e.g., Adèle, Grace Poole, Rochester himself, to name three), that's not the problem.  The problem is the wildly inconsistent perspectives within each section and the generally melodramatic, purple prose: "As a result of the terrible jealousy she produced in mon pauvre Papa, the vicomte is dead and Monsieur Rochester can no longer return to France. How, then, can I bring them together?"  Oh, who cares? I wanted to reply at this point in the tale which is only page 68. Jane Eyre's Hidden Story (i.e., the book's subtitle) this definitely is not.

I'm further along than that now, and I expect I'll finish the book this weekend. Perhaps my opinion of it will change, but I really doubt it.  I'll let you know if it does.

Comments

[*S*]

Man, I puff up like a poisoned pup after those injections and it's gotten worse every year. This time, I'm going to go for the nasal spray, wimp that I am. Glad you aren't taking any chances.

You know, the business of working and going to school in general has changed a great deal since we were UGs. Even at Cal ten years ago, I would say that over 60% of my students worked at least one job, and it was often two or more. And this wasn't to afford "luxuries" like car insurance (!), but to keep food on the table or help out their families. We still haven't adjusted our education to the changing realities of many students who don't come from a secure income bracket.

*S*

[Bronwen]

Thanks for the book review - I had been considering it, as Jane Eyre is one of my desert-island books. I've never tried a "sequel" of either it or Pride & Prejudice, as I've felt that neither would do justice to the original authors' work. There's also a series of Jane Austen "Mysteries" that I've tried, and just can't get into. (I realize that you're more a Bronte than an Austen, but I just thought I'd let you know my opinion, what with the film industry's recent love affair with Jane's work, and of course my insane need to spread my opinion around ;->).

[Deluzy]

Bronwen, Emma Tennant has also written PEMBERELY: OR PRIDE AND PREJUDICE CONTINUED. I haven't read any of the Austen "continuations," "prequels" or "sequels," but I'm not likely to give that one a try, based on my experience with this book.

Elaine over at "The Random Jottings of a Book and Opera Lover" blog (I have a link to it on the right-hand sidebar of this blog) warned me off Tennant's contributions but more or less gave the thumbs up to MR. DARCY's DIARY and MR. KNIGHTLEY's DIARY, both by Amanda Grange. You might want to try those.