This was the week of the third cold.

I'm on the mend from yet another sinus thing. It was a good thing that the sixth graders were gone Thursday and Friday. I don't know if I could have handled them on top of a cold. It was actually a pretty laid back week at school. All three of my classes were finishing literature and grammar units, so we took a lot of tests, but then we watched film versions of all of our books, so we were watching movies most of the week. I managed to get almost all my grading done for once! I only have the Treasure Island journals and a Kidnapped end-of-the-book test left to grade. Of course, then I have all the new stuff from next week, but oh well. I felt like I got a lot accomplished this week, or at least, I got caught up on stuff I should have accomplished already.

Only two weeks until I go back to Iowa! I'm getting excited to see the Dordt crew. I talked to Chris Wilson yesterday on MSN, and that took me way back. Ah, the memories. Sometimes I really miss college. There are still so many classes I want to take, things I want to learn, people I want to drink coffee with. At least I have some Dordt people down here with me. And I get called by the poor kids who work in the advancement calling center about twice a month. So I guess my life isn't totally bereft of Dordt-ness.

I watched Rent last night. A great adaptation of a musical to the screen, and also a pretty interesting modernization of La Boheme. But, in the end, I felt like it was mainly about the conquering of New York by homosexuals. La vie boheme is pretty much living without "inihibitions" (aka morals), and anyone who doesn't have a sense of morality is just giving in to the system. Anyone else seen it?

It's felt like summer the past few days. You know, that feeling you get in late April or May when the weather is warming up, and you just want to be outside. A laziness sort of wells up inside and you just want to lounge around and read a book on a blanket in the grass, you want to feel the sun heat your hair and your arms. It's that feeling of relaxation that hits you right after you take your last final, but you haven't yet packed up to go home for the summer, and you've got a little time to just be.

I want summer. Now.

Sorry to be so demanding. T.S. Eliot says that "April is the cruelest month/breeding lilacs out of the dead earth/mixing memory and desire," but I think that in Florida, the timetable gets moved up a bit. So, I think that February is the cruelest month, breeding hibiscus and strawberries out of the dusty earth, mixing memory and desire. Anyway. I get to see my aunt and uncle from Seattle today! I'm very excited. I haven't seen John in something like six or seven years, and the last time I saw Kate was when we were in Seattle on choir tour my first senior year. Even then, we had enough time to just go shopping and drink margaritas. And my granddad and grandma are coming down too. They haven't seen my apartment yet, even though I've been down here now for almost nine months, and they only live an hour and a half away. I love family.