On the good side:

• Students are showing growth, from what I can tell, on their post-tests
• Latest order from Fry’s shipped
• The two classes I found will get me my middle school math endorsement
• Countdown to spring break dipped below 200 hours
• The online class where I thought I was gonna have to knock myself out to get a B…the professor e-mailed me to let me know I have an A so far. How, I don’t know, with all the stuff I’ve posted late, but maybe she cares more about quality I guess
• I had my 3-way conference today…either “meets objective” or “making satisfactory progress” on everything!
• I’ll be at the beach before too much longer
• It’s almost spring
• Starbase Indy is going to be over Thanksgiving weekend again; so, pending money (which I’ll almost definitely have this September), I’ve got plans!

But on the bad side:

• Because it’s almost spring, disgustingly-happy couples that hang all over each other while crossing streets and make me want to yell “get a room!” are out and swarming
• I can’t find any version of the online class I want (semi-need) to take this spring…and there used to be at least two options open to me, I thought…
• I still have to decide which is worse, having calc 1 this summer in the middle of a 4-hour block of classes and having to run back and forth to a different building for it or having it online
• WOU’s being a PIA about the practicum part of finishing up ESOL there…so it’s either talking OSU into it or paying WOU for three credits to rubberstamp me and hoping they’ll go along with the placement I already have for spring (and let me start the process for that late, since I probably won’t get my ESOL Praxis results until after the term starts and they still require test scores for everything there)…oh well, finishing everything at OSU would be my preference anyway.
• The cats are definitely tearing holes in the carpet; I’ve got to find a way to repair those and train the animals a bit

All in all, quite a decent day.

First of all, flying on a clear night rocks. At one point early on in the first flight, I realized that not only was I so high up, the horizon looked so much lower than usual, that I thought I could almost look down and see stars. And when I looked down, since it was clear, I could see city lights, so it was almost like being surrounded by stars. All I could think was, “now I know why astronauts keep going back into space.”

SBI itself was cool, but too short. I absolutely hate always being the first to leave. The highlights: the humor was PG-13 at best, including onstage; Rooster broke out in random standup more times than I can count; hiding the fork; the fork itself; Thanksgiving dinner; my first stalker; running around getting people to try Vegemite (scariest stuff in the universe…but trekkers will try it if someone says “it looks like chocolate and it’s related to beer”). Stop me if I miss anything. I’ll fill in the gaps later.

And leaving…ouch. In the space of half an hour I went from goodbye hugs to being in the middle of an airport surrounded by people who wouldn’t particularly care if I didn’t exist. Listening to a “budding violinist” practice. Badly. The parents should be shot for allowing it.

Spending 1% of the year around the main people I want to be around, the people who’re closer than most of my family…that just sucks.

Happy Thanksgiving to everyone (some cute graphic or other to follow as soon as I find one on the internets).  And for the people I’ll see at SBI: I’m sorry, but I think I just can’t bring a cold this time!