nerd alert

when one is sitting in an almost silent room, reading the same essay over and over again from 8am to 5pm with minimal breaks, one starts to sing songs in one's head.  the songs i am singing are:

1. from the musical in the heights, i often start singing from a song called "blackout" - the line is "we are po-wer-less, we are powerlessss" (i am adding emphasis for you so you can sing it in your head).  example of what a student writes: "the federal government is powerless to prevent the states from enacting laws that blah blah blah."  i sing: "pow-er-less, we are powerlesss!"  note: this happens about three times an hour.

2. okay, not a song lyric - some poetry!  because i'm a dork!  hooray!  facts you need to know: (a) i love t.s. eliot and i have bits of his poetry memorized.  (b) i do not wear a watch.  (c) i cannot have a cell phone (which usually acts as my watch) in the room where i am reading essays.  how are all these related?  i will tell you.

"For I have known them all already, known them all:—
Have known the evenings, mornings, afternoons
I have measured out my life with coffee spoons;
I know the voices dying with a dying fall
Beneath the music from a farther room.
So how should I presume?"

[from the love song of j. alfred prufrock - http://www.bartleby.com/198/1.html]

i am figuring out how many packets of essays i can read between, say, the beginning of the day and my first break.  this helps me get through the day - if i read four packets of essays, it will be break time!  i am silly j. alfred prufrock...every day he stirs his coffee and puts the spoon in the sink, and there is one day.  i read four packets of essays, and there is one session.  the time isn't important.  every time i finish a packet and put a tally mark down to mark it, i think "i have measured out my life with coffee spoons."

i told you it was a post that required a nerd alert.  musicals and t.s. eliot?  i am so cool.

[trivia!  connections!  what long-running broadway musical was inspired by a t.s. eliot poem?]

[and yes, i am reading essays on a saturday.  and a sunday.  yikes.]