Grading Papers vs. Everything Else

Which would you rather do: Read a pile of semi-interesting student papers, or . . .

-Climb new boulder problems
-Go to Happy Hour with best friends
-Meet a newborn baby
-Watch a flag football game
-Observe a dance class
-Spend two hours in a local bookstore
-Eat ice cream
-Read Hunger Games with a kid
-Make homemade tortillas
-Write a letter
-Drink decaf coffee
-Eat Gugeria
-Clean the bathrooms
-Play Mario Cart on an old Nintendo 64 system
-Lead climb indoors
****Read an entire book
-Thumb through a trashy magazine
-Talk to your mother?

During my relaxing weekend, I chose to do everything else and paid for it Monday morning with this pile of papers to read and grade, and a bunch of tests to assess, too.  The good news is that my students wrote interesting and well-organized papers which thankfully, I read and graded every last one of them today.  But if it were not for the onslaught of papers I am expecting tomorrow, I would have procrastinated.

Notice I starred "Read an entire book"? Probably the best part of my weekend was I actually read this entire book on Sunday - something I haven't done in 8 years.

It was an interesting and engaging book that I didn't really "like." Rather, I was both interested and fascinated by how religion interacted and interfered with the growth of individuals. If you want a book that is not predictable, read this one. And if ever I find myself in a quandary over grading vs. everything else, as long as the alternatives are as good as that list I did above, I'd gladly avoid doing the all-consuming task of grading.