Biscuit party

Tara: You don't love me for me.  You just love me for my food.

Jacque: That's not true!  [Pause...]  Can I have some chocolate syrup?

Fun times in the "little house" 

P.S. I didn't die.  This is proof.  If you expected a longer entry, um, sorry.

Still not packed...

Graduation practice: 40 minutes

Baccalaureate: 3 hours, 30 minutes

Graduation: about 19 hours

...And all I've done to pack since I returned from camping is move a box into the center of the room.  It's poised for the packing to begin.  But I am not.

Is it really time, already, to pack up my things and leave?  Yes, this is what I've been working for for 4 years, but somehow... it seems like there is something else I need to do before I am ready to cross this milestone.  Before I am ready to graduate and become a real grown-up.

Yes, this is all very final, but somehow the reality still is hard to grasp.  Saying goodbye to friends starts to make it seem real.  But not really.  It makes me feel awkward.  How do you say "goodbye" to people you've spent 4 years bonding with?  No words seem to do justice to the feelings that I am trying to hold under control.  I do not want to be the sentimental ball of tears sobbing about saying goodbye to everybody.  What does that accomplish?  You get a few extra hugs and some blotchy mascara.  But you still have to leave.

Packing my room would also make it seem more real.  Maybe that's why I've been putting it off for this entire week.  Sigh.

I'm excited for what is coming after graduation.  I'm not too worried about finding a summer job either.  It's just hard transitioning from one stage to another.

I'll be okay.  This is a happy time, right?!

Weddings and road trips

I must say, being in college and not taking classes is fabulous.  I should have done this earlier.  Now that I don't have classes getting in the way, I have time to do all kinds of fun things!

Saturday, while many of my friends were studying for and taking finals, I went to a wedding!  It was the first wedding in the new sanctuary of the church, but Rodger and I got there a bit late and so we had to sit way in the back.  Still, it was a very nice ceremony and I enjoyed seeing how the bride and groom made it obvious throughout their wedding that their faith would be the center of their marriage.

The reception was fabulous, and in my humble opinion our little group was the life of the party.  We were having a great time doing the YMCA, the Twist, swing, and lots of other great dances.  I, as one of the only non-engaged girls in the group, had the opportunity to be the dancing queen.  Whenever a swing song or other partner dance came on, all of the guys wanted to dance with me!  I felt like the birthday girl at the swing club.  And it was lots of fun watching the little kids dancing too.  And Billy and Petra, who were so very in love with each other and so incredibly happy.  Aww

Sunday night I came back to school, and the reality of graduation finally started to hit me.  Monday I felt a bit melancholy, thinking about how many people I wanted to spend some quality time with, but I couldn't because they were still busy taking finals.  I did manage to distract some of my friends for a little while, and tried not to make them resent me too much for not taking finals.  Hehe.

Today though, I'm trying to shake all the melancholy away.  Erin and I (and Lindi???) are going on a road trip to an Indian restaurant, to celebrate being done with finals.  I'm pumped!  I've missed out on so many opportunities like this all semester.  It's great having time to have a social life again!

Done!!!

I made it!

I'm done student teaching!

Today was "Study Day" for all those other college students who take finals at this time... but not for me!  Nonetheless I had a rather busy day.  But it was a nice sort of business that didn't involve any really difficult thinking.  I bought envelopes, wrote letters, mailed graduation announcements, almost got caught in a torrential downpour, turned in some paperwork to the Ed. department, backed up information on my computer, got my computer reloaded, loaded all of my documents back onto my computer, took it to the computer center again to get the icons fixed...  Fiddled with it some more to try to get the settings back to normal, and to get aim to work.  (I'm back on!  I'm not cut off from the college-aged world!)

After dinner I had "slack-off Thursday" with Kim.  The first real slack-off day this semester, thanks to student teaching.  We used my leftover peanut butter and lots of leftover flour, sugar, etc in the communal kitchen to make a batch of peanut butter cookies (mmm) and then ate them while watching Gilmore Girls.  The second season, when Rory is still innocent and the dialogue is still snappy.  Really, I don't understant how anybody can not adore this show.

All that said, my major errand of the day - packing up my room - did not get accomplished.  All I managed to do was organize my bank statements and credit card bills.  But it's okay, I can get it done tomorrow.  I'm going HOME, to a wedding, and a job interview!  I'm excited. 

Well kids, graduation is just around the corner.  Can you believe it?  You should all come to my graduation party.  It'll be smashing.

Two more days...

Today I got supervised for the last time, went to the last student teacher seminar, and signed the last papers for my certification.  I can taste graduation...  But it's been such a tiring semester, I am alternating between giddy joy, exhaustion, and apathy.

I'm not in the habit of broadcasting my grades, but this time I feel like making an exception.  I got my student teaching grade today: A-.  Part of me is proud of that achievement, while the other part of me is wishing I could have done a little bit better and gotten an A.  That would allow me to jack my GPA back up after my premature senior slide last semester.  (The whole studying thing was getting old...)  But really, A- is pretty good.  Honestly, I think it's the grade I deserve too.  I've surprised myself with how many interesting lessons I've been able to come up with, and how I've been able to turn a "Give 'em a worksheet and get 'em quiet" class into an interactive forum for discussing events past and present.  But I still need lots of work in classroom management.  My cooperating also agree that this is my major weakness.  Which makes me feel like I am timid, unassertive, and rather un-grownup.

Really, hasn't this always been a problem for me?  After all, I still haven't worked up the nerve to tell the 60-year-old man at the Swing Club to quit stalking me.  And when people cut me off, making me slam on the brakes, I usually forget to honk at them.  I'm just not upset enough to think about it.  (Honking can be so rude... so I just never do it.)  Sometimes I'm actually proud of myself when I lose my temper, because it finally gives me the nerve to say things that I should have said earlier.  (Like last summer, when after a sleepless night and way too many drunken and overly forward Spaniards I discovered that I could chew people out in two languages.) 

My point: sometimes I should not let things go.  Like when students are rude.  And I need to gain more confidence in my judgment so that I won't be swayed when students try to BS me or make me feel like I'm being to harsh with them.

Not that anybody is interested in my psychoanalysis anyway... but it makes me feel better.

Tomorrow morning I have ANOTHER parent teacher conference.  This time with the parents of the kid who didn't even bother to change the font when he copied and pasted from the internet.  (The plagiarized section was a different size and font from the rest.  Deep sigh.)  I think I can handle this parent-teacher thing alright though.  So long as the parents speak English.  I'm a bit nervous about doing these in Mexico.

Shoot, and now it's 8 o'clock and I haven't done any work yet... I'm running out of steam. 

Okay, off to work.