Thoughts Random

I am feeling very content today in spite of everything. I have some dinner plans for later in the week and company coming next weekend. And it is hard not to fall under the spell of this city. The weather here is so beautiful in the evenings. It can be blazing hot at noon but as soon as the sun ducks down behind the western mountains the sea breeze gets sucked into the city and you can literally feel the temperature drop. The light in the evenings is so beautiful. The sun goes down long before actual dark because of the mountains and the sky just glows with refracted light. In the morning there is always a soft mist and everything looks like it was shot in black and white. My neighborhood never sleeps, and at night the neon everywhere gives off its own kind of sad light, a fitting poignancy with all the brothels and burnouts. Have I said before that I love this place?

Back to work today. It just keeps getting easier. I have lesson plans for the afternoon classes for the rest of the month and more ideas for the "Safety and Transportation" unit in the morning classes than I will ever get to. This week I have student evaluations due for my three morning classes and unit tests due for my six afternoon classes so I am going to be very busy. I will likely have to stay late tomorrow night to get the review materials ready in time to hand them out on Wednesday so the students can prepare for the actual tests on Friday. It is important to the bosses that they do well on the tests.

I got a lot done last night, laundry and cleaning up. The cat must have had a mental breakdown while I was gone. She fell asleep on my wet shorts last night when I got back in. She has had a major positive personality shift. She doesn't bite me anymore when I pet her. She must have heard me talking on the phone a long time before I got here tonight because she was crying so loud I could hear her in the stairwell. I hope she didn't do that all day.

I didn't sleep well last night and I was exhausted when I went to bed. I really had to fight the crabbies today at work. I am learning to laugh at the bad behavior and not let them get inside my head and make me angry, which is kind of hard sometimes. I have a couple of students in the afternoon that are expert button pushers. Divine retribution for all the buttons I have pushed I figure. I only got mad once today. There is a little smarty pants in one of my classes of ten-year-olds that sassed me in Korean and made all of the other kids laugh. She is a real piece of work. The worst kids are always the smartest ones. They are just bored. I know all too well how that feels. I should be more sympathetic.

I got an actual letter from home today, my first. Orvetta, my former neighbor back home for those of you who don't know her, sent me a wonderful note. She is a very special person. I am going to write her back ASAP. When anyone gets a letter it is a big deal. I needed that today.