Um... aspects.

So I decided that New Year's Resolutions were dumb! And lame! And I promptly defenestrated mine in favor of simple goals. I will still run 500 miles! I just have more time to do it. And since I ran 2 more miles today, that leaves... um... 480 to go.

Yes, I slacked off. But in my defense, things got NUTS over here, ya'll. Apparently cold air and I don't get along, plus bouts of allergy attacks, plus play practice every night and some ENTIRE DAYS spent getting ready to perform a 45 minute show, plus, you know, saving the world and orphans and little lost kittens.... running kind of fell to the wayside. As did the cookery. And the photography. I'll pick up the photo-taking again, but I'll just try to hit the magic number of 365, the time limit is again out the window. The cooking thing? Yeah, it's just not going to happen right now. I will at some point become more interested in cooking. Just not right now.

In other news, teaching is going to be the death of me. I am tired of certain... um... aspects. Don't get me wrong, I enjoy teaching. I especially like seeing my students improve in their understanding and use of the English language. Some of them have made incredible amounts of progress in just the few months that I've taught them and that is unbelievably rewarding. It's just the other... um... aspects that sort of bug me. Particularly because they're... um... aspects that I was pretty far removed from when I was teaching overseas. Those... um... aspects didn't really bug me then, and they didn't really bug me for the first semester of this year, but this grading period has been rife with drama and I'm certainly losing my patience in trying to deal with it all. I see why teachers get such a long summer vacation because I'm anticipating having the chance to unwind. Two months of not feeling attacked, provoked or belittled by certain... um.. aspects of my job? It'll be just what I need to ready myself for the next onslaught.

It's a battlefield, my dears.

On another note, gasoline prices have gotten me way the heck down, man.

I shouldn't run so close to bedtime because then I lose my staying-tired momentum.

I have eight hundred billion plans I'm making for this week, this month, this summer, this next school year. Computerized lesson plans! Detailed project descriptions! Reworking the order in which I assign certain things! A winter drama production! Everyone assures me that the first year of teaching is the most difficult, so I'm hoping with my new and improved methodologyisms, I'll make the second year smooth like butter.

Like butter, people!