9/19: doing

...two things that I had been putting off:  writing an email (that I thought was going to be difficult but turned out to be fairly easy) and creating an extra credit assignment (involving collage, that I was worried that the students might find too odd).  The students may still find the collage assignment odd, but I'm okay with that now.  And the email got a quick and energetic response, which buoyed my spirits.