On Monday afternoon, I filled up at the gas station near my school, for the bargain price of $3.29. And that's not even sarcasm; on Saturday I saw stations in Astoria selling gas for $3.37!

This afternoon, when going home, I checked the price: $3.09. Immediately I thought to myself, "hey, that's so cheap!" And then I remembered that it's GAS for OVER THREE DOLLARS A GALLON. Oh, for the days of $2.55 through the American Midwest in August.

Also while driving home, I went past a couple boys from my school hanging around a corner store, their uniform shirts undone. My first instinct was to yell out the window, "Fix your ties! Tuck in your shirts!" And then I remembered that I was off-duty and they were off-campus. Take a chill pill, me.

Today was fine. I scheduled the first real writing workshop lesson, but I didn't get to it with any classes. Our Thursday Thesaurus took more time than anticipated. This is the sentence I put up: Our house was bedlam on our first morning back after vacation, with my sisters and I frantically searching for our school things in time to catch the bus to school. From that context, they were to attempt to define both "bedlam" and "frantically." They made good guesses, and I was pleased.

I had them take a benchmark reading test too, which took about half an hour. And that meant that I had time to sit at my desk and grade their homework, right in class! It was excellent. I've kept on top of homework grading all week, and I'm very proud of myself.

Of course, today marks ONE WHOLE WEEK of school. Oh god, oh god, this year sounds interminable. June seems about a hundred years away. Boo. My friend N today had a career crisis. She said plaintively this morning, "I don't want to teach any more. Even this year. Like, next week. I'm tired." Aw!

While I'm still trucking along on my positive-thinking route, I can feel her on the tired, worn-out thing. And it's only the first week of our second year in this thankless, endless job. Geesh.