One thing accomplished

It's been a rough couple of days. Something happened on Monday that send me into self-doubting mode (and I'm already jacked up with bad allergies and, um...cyclical issues, so everything contributes to sort of the emotional equivalent of having divided by zero)

Also, I had a lot of grading to do. A lot. I know grading and feedback is important and as I've said before, I sort of pride myself on getting exams back within a week of the students taking them. But grading just kind of sucks my energy away. (Also, a lot of people were out sick or had other emergencies and that means make-up tests.)

So most of the day Tuesday was spent in grading. And then it was piano lesson. I GUESS I'm making progress on "Evening in the Country" but it's not as satisfying as the progress on some stuff I've worked on. (I think this piece is right at the very outer limits of my capability to play right now).

I got home, almost just went inside and showered and fixed dinner, and then I looked at my lawn and was all "meh, I need to take care of that sometime." I have one of the old-fashioned reel-type mowers which normally works well, except in the spring when I get some kind of cool season grass (Darnel? Cheatgrass? Tares? Something like that) that grows tall and flowers and sets seed heads, and my mower won't knock it down. (I don't worry TOO much about it, because as soon as it gets really hot, it dies back, and the St. Augustine that's supposed to be there takes its place.)

So I decided to haul out the weed-whacker and do another round of what I did in the backyard on the tall stuff. So I started working. Then I saw one of my neighbors outside. This is the neighbor I think of as my "Martha Stewart" neighbor, because she's so perfect. (Though really, at times, she might be more of a Hyacinth Bouquet type neighbor, because of her predilection for talking at you. At least she doesn't sing at you...)

I started muttering under my breath "don't come over here. don't come over here" because this is someone I've gotten judgey vibes off of in the past, someone who makes me feel like I'm just a PRETEND grownup instead of a real one.

(An aside: If people are going to treat me like I'm just a PRETEND grownup, I feel like I shouldn't still have to be paying taxes or making my own dental appointments or going in to work on Saturdays)

I even ran up to the garage and pulled my push mower out and started mowing the lawn: "Look, look! Look how responsible I am! I'm MOWING ALL THE THINGS!"

Eventually she went in. But I did get the lawn mowed and then I finished up by knocking down the rest of the tall stuff with the weed whacker. I swept up all the bits of grass and very cleverly realized I could just sweep them into the drive, so the next torrential rain we get will wash them down the street and out of my sphere of influence.

I was doing that just as the sky was darkening and I could hear thunder, and I was thinking, "Yeah, it would serve me right if I got struck by lightning right now." But we never even got any rain.