Well, my exams are graded and the grades are in. Grades for the one class where people would be most likely to protest have been up for a day, and no one's called me yet, so I might be home free. (There are some individuals who assume the prof "GAVE" them a poor grade, when in fact they "EARNED" that poor grade. I don't "give" anyone grades: I total up the points they've earned and compare it against a 90% - 80% - 70% of the points available. They know this AT THE BEGINNING OF THE SEMESTER. So if someone were diligent, he or she could keep a running total and not only know where they stand, but how well they need to do on the final to get the desired grade. But whatever.) And if they did so badly, well - they do get a do-over, but it's in the form of taking the class again.

I knitted on the perforated-rib sock during proctoring this morning. It's a bigger class and it's in a lab room that has the annoying characteristic of a big sort of lip that sticks up on the lab bench - so I can't see them writing from the front desk. I needed to "patrol" a little - I trust this group but one of my colleagues has had MAJOR problems with cheating and plagiarism so I figured it was better safe than sorry. I just tucked the "cake" of yarn under my armpit and walked along, knitting. And I realized how eccentric I must look to them, and yet, how my Scots and Irish ancestresses would probably regard me as making good use of my time.

Somehow, it feels right to me to knit on something and walk, with the yarn tucked up under my arm. Almost like an ancient genetic memory of something.

Now I have to make my "super sekrit prize bags" for Youth group this afternoon. The lesson is on "how do we discern what is truly valuable" and the object lesson is that they are offered a "known prize" (a candy bar) or a "super sekrit prize" (sealed up in a bag). The deal - and the joke - is that some of the prizes are pretty nice (little Nerf type footballs for example) and some are going to be not so nice (shredded paper, pea gravel, a roll of t.p., some car air fresheners).

I did think about it and realized people who chose badly might walk away sad, and I'm not sure that's a good end-point for the lesson. Especially the last lesson of the year. So, I'm going to make sure I have enough candy bars for everyone, and at the very end remind them that even if they make what turns out to be a poor choice that they're sorry about, God allows do-overs - so they can redeem their crummy prize for a candy bar. (Or, I might stop by the dollar store and see if they have little bottles of soap bubbles or somesuch).