TGIFATAOTMWOCL

For those of you who aren't familiar with the above acronym, it's for Thank God it's Friday AND There Are Only Two More Weeks of Classes Left.

Yeah. Cause yesterday I melted into heaving tears in my office over an article I was reading to teach next Tuesday. I closed my door and just cried. Cause it spoke so keenly to the situation I'm facing with teaching right now that I. just. couldn't. take. it. Oy.

But that passed. A student brought me cupcakes. I left Uni City. And now I'm home, and it's really, truly spring. That in itself signals joy.

And I took Mr. K for an exhilarating run late this morning...We ran to these two connected parks that straddle a valley. So there are tall, steep hills on either side. I let him off the leash when we got to the first park and he careened madly down the hill, joy personified. He ran and ran, in weaving figure eights, up and down the hills and the length of the park. Up the other side, and then back down again. Watching dogs run in the early spring sun will cure what ails ya, every time.

And I'm going to the ballet tonight. As we know, dance connects me very concretely to joy.

And I am visiting Medieval Woman tomorrow, and the Dutchman, and we shall eat and drink wine and chat for hours. Now, that is some serious joy, too.

But most of all, I can count the days until classes end - thirteen, for me. Six classes altogether - and only four at the Emotion Pit, since the other two are at the Boring Place, Satellite Campus. And though I have a great deal of ambivalence about leaving these students, I know that my mental health demands that this teaching year end. I'll get my life back, my brain back. And that will bring joy, too.