* I'm effectively done with TEACHING (I give an exam today in my two classes, tomorrow is presentations) but the semester's not done yet and I have a lot of grading between now and then.
* My teeth may FINALLY be better. The pain has subsided, I feel like I can bite stuff again without cracking an incisor (not that I really would have, but when they hurt, it felt like that was going to happen). I wonder if this was a long-lasting aftereffect of the weird virus I had this fall - at first, I would have SWORN I was getting a sinus infection. Until the thing turned distinctly coldlike (and I had a very slight fever).
I have also been using sensitive-tooth toothpaste for the past few days and it's just possible that it's helping. I'll continue for a little while but I seem to remember reading somewhere you shouldn't use it for more than a month at a time....
* I got the first pair of gift socks done last night, and added a few rows to the other pair. I do think I'll be able to finish these in time to just carry them with me, without having to secretly work on them while I'm up there. (And oh, it will be nice to be able to shift over and knit stuff for me- or to be able to knit on what I want to work on, without thinking about deadlines.)
* Trying to ignore what's going on in the world. I scrolled through my Twitter feed this morning (I hadn't watched the news last night, so I didn't really know about some things that had happened), and thought idly, "What's the response that would be most befitting a Christian of my stripe to all of this?" and I admit the first thing that popped into my head was "become a hermit." That's probably not the right response but the human race sure gets me down a lot of the time.
* I don't know. I just want to think about Christmas and fun and the candles at church and singing the songs and making homemade candy and giving people I love gifts and all of that. You can't try to help redeem the world by turning inward like that, but then again, I don't think there's anything I personally can do to make stuff much better. I mean, other than what I'm already doing: teaching so my students (some from not the most-advantaged backgrounds out there) can get good jobs, showing mercy when it's required, donating money to groups that do work I believe in....but I admit I sometimes get into my periodic thinking of, "It's a good thing I'm not God, because after [event x], the human race would have been wiped away and I'd be starting over again by giving the kangaroos or the bison or something free will and sentience, and seeing how THAT experiment works out..." People frustrate me.
* I also think I'm bothered by a dream I had last night. I remember my dreams pretty vividly. Some of them are just random mixtures of stuff I saw or read during the previous day (the brain sorting its recycling, I suppose) but sometimes they contain messages from my subconscious (or somewhere). This one took place back in the house where I grew up, and I guess both my brother and I were still kids/ young teens (at least, he was not married and I wasn't out in the working world, so I assume it was when we were older kids). We had gone out and got a Christmas tree but chose it in haste - and when we went to put it up in the living room, it was terribly misshapen and had dropped many of its needles. Our parents were suggesting a couple of alternatives (it was too late to get a new tree) but they were several very small trees (the tallest was about 2' tall). They were encouraging us to choose one, and I said, "But can't we use them all, set them up on a table or something? Look, we can only put like four ornaments on each tree; how can we choose only four ornaments to use." Then I woke up. I have no idea, as I said, what that means.
* Have decided to take this weekend entirely off from working, in accordance with my tradition. I may not do my Sherman run Friday afternoon (it's going to be raining then but clear on Saturday). I'll have to see how I feel....the upside of going Saturday is that it will be earlier, there will be (hopefully) less traffic, and I will be less tired. All I really "need" are to look for the new copies of the BritKnit magazines, and do a little grocery restocking - and maybe that would be a good time to get my Toys for Tots gift. (A small tradition I keep: each year I buy a toy that I think either my brother or I would have liked when we were a kid, and donate it to Toys for Tots. I'm thinking this year I might get one of the smaller Lego sets. (The large ones are nice but they are also very expensive....)
* I also realized that after Christmas, I'm going to leave my family room configured as it is now. There's a coffee table that now sits under my front window and I think I will move My Own Private Ponyville over to there - and then I can begin decorating the mantel again. (I want to do the "icy" theme - all my pressed or cut glass pieces, with tealights in them- for January again).
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