Thalia it is! That is Perky Goth Bumblebee Girl's "real" name. (Thank you, Lydia. It is helpful to know a classicist.)


Exam 1 is done and graded. Most of the students did well, which makes me happy. I also KWP'ed (Knitted While Proctoring) - got a fair amount done on the Waterlilies scarf.

And, even better: I can go home for lunch today because I don't have tight time commitments. Yesterday evening I cooked up some turkey cutlets I bought (I was afraid they'd be tough and nasty and depressing but they were actually quite good. I did them in my grill pan with a little olive oil so they wouldn't stick, and I seasoned them with salt and pepper and marjoram - for poultry, I generally like to go simple.) I also made a big big batch of mashed potatoes. And when the turkey was done, I took it out of the pan and made pan gravy with the drippings and some more olive oil and some flour and a can of chicken broth. And it had that happy buttery yellow color that I associate with good chicken gravy. And I opened up a can of cranberries I had on the shelf. And it was good. The turkey, and gravy, and mashed potatoes and the cranberries. And I have some left over to make a hot turkey sandwich out of either today or tomorrow.

I did that bout of cooking partly because I wound up dealing with a difficult person yesterday - someone, let's call him Bobo, that I've known for a few years. Basically, my summary of my current relations with him are, "Who are you and what did you do with 'fun Bobo'?" He has changed a lot over the last year - become very sour and cynical and very much "I'm only going to do the bare minimum" and it makes me sad. And this is not someone I can totally cut out of my life - I have to spend time around him, although I will try to limit it when he's in these moods, and I will try to jolly him along when I have to be working with him. But it's just draining to see someone who used to have humor and a certain amount of idealism just change and adopt this siege mentality where he believes the whole world is going to hell.

And as I sat down to my dinner, I realized: I can't believe the world is totally messed up when I can still make good turkey gravy. And when my Sunday school class tells me they enjoy my lesson. And I hear (even if second-hand) compliments from my youth group kids.

Maybe it's sticking my head in the sand a bit, but I prefer to focus on the little local things that I can make better, instead of spending a lot of time looking at the state of the world and worrying about how bad it is, and how it seems like it will never improve. Because, you know? I'm not the general manager of the Universe. It's not my department. I'm gonna do what I can and not worry about what I can't.

I just need to remember that when I'm talking to Bobo and he starts getting me down.