The Drive

We're heading to Florida. Happy Pinnacle Day, dears.

The Wondering

You're probably wondering, "What did alittleleeway do yesterday?" And the answer to that query would be..."She looked at some whale sharks."

The Vacation

Hooray, the vacation is starting. Happy times.
I have 3 books to bring with me and binoculars for birding. Yeeha.

The Standing

Not sure if cutting the zoloft dose in half was the best idea. I fear I may lash out at someone soon, unkindly. At the same time, I'm not sure if I'm totally to blame for possible future transgressions. Because yesterday people kept walking into the classroom and distracting me. They didn't talk to me or do anything, just stood around. Stood around right next to me as I tried to so called teach. This odd behavior is really getting to me. I wanted to say, "What the hell are you doing?" about 12 times. Instead I just glowered and yelled more at the children. I'm still confused by procedures at newschool. I wish I understood what was going on. Probably things will make more sense as time passes.

The Commencement

Commencement was a fun morning. I got hooded in Assembly Hall, where our wonderful basketball men play. I'm glad I walked the walk. A good way to mark the ending of a long road. Some guy at a party last night asked me, "What benefit does a PhD provide for you, other than those that are ego related?" I gave a response and then just spent some time nodding at the guy. Then he walked away. Hmmmm. Let's get another scotch, I thought. What a weirdo.

The Chat

After I walk on Saturday in Assembly Hall, wearing a gown and floppy hat, I will meander over to the Ed Bldg for a post commencement ceremony. I hadn't planned on going to this, but then a prof I know asked me to give a talk. I figured this will make the trip my parents and brother are making more worthwhile. More bang for the buck, iow. Now I have to write the talk though and ttytt I have low motivation. What with the sputum from my chest cold and the fatigue of working extra hard with the peeps, it's hard to gear up for speechwriting. Thus, the blogging. This may be my last dissertation distraction ever. But I could be doing this again tomorrow night and the night after that as well. You all know the drill.

The Misdiagnosis

I've decided to cut my zoloft dosage in half. I don't feel like explaining why. When I had "flu-like symptoms" over the weekend, I researched a possible correlation and discovered that antidepressant discontinuation syndrome does indeed include flu like symptoms. But when I got to school on Monday I learned that many people had the flu over the weekend. And now I have a sore throat and a weird chest cold. So maybe I just got sick and I can't blame the pharmaceutical companies for enslaving me. Either way, I find everything very annoying right now.

The Afternoon

The peeps weren't very nice today at all and my determination to be more patient and kind fell apart around 1:40. But we made it through and I think we'll be back tomorrow. It took a few hours to clean my desk this afternoon because the substitute teacher piled everything on top of everything else. He was and is a man and I've found the male substitute to not be the neatest visitor to the room or the most forthcoming in the substitute notes. Female substitutes usually write a page or two explaining the ins and outs of the day. The substitute who worked in my room just wrote three lists of names: good students, terrible students, and students who "didn't make it on to the radar" either way. The last list seemed kind of sad to me. At any rate, the desk is now clean and I spent awhile on my edublog, changing the format and adding some links. That cheered me a bit.

The Conference

I had a grand time in Austin Texas at the National Reading Conference. David Berliner gave a talk and his book Collateral Damage will be purchased soon.