TGIF

My two cuties on their recent UP camping trip.

This hasn't been a fun week! I've been stressed and things are not going well. My pc at work has become possessed--this is the new pc that I've spent weeks trying to get set up to work with my multi-platform, multi-language environment. It's behaving in strange and completely illogical ways and is very erratic. It simply makes no sense. So I'm frustrated with that and falling farther behind every day. I don't think there is any way I can make my next two project deadlines, even if the strange issues with my pc just magically disappeared. I left work Weds. feeling very unhappy.

Last night (Thurs.) was my first class of this semester. I got everything finished up in time, and it should have gone smoothly. I am in a new classroom and a new office, in the newly constructed building. Both the classroom and my office are lovely, but they're new, which is stressful for me. I knew my old classroom so well--all its little issues, how to get around the things that didn't work quite right--it was comfortable for me. The new classroom has cutting-edge technology is beautiful and everything seems to work, but I don't have the old comfortable, familiar feeling with it yet.

Despite being prepared, early, and having a fully-functional classroom, it was one of the worst classes I've ever experienced. It's important, especially the first few classes, to be very upbeat, positive, and fun. The computer science classes can be very intimidating to students, so I work hard to get them relaxed and unafraid, so they are able to learn (and hopefully have a little fun, too). Unfortunately, I had a migraine. I took a lot of drugs, and used every ounce of discipline I had to be "on" for the duration of the class. I felt horrible! I was unbelievably hot yet having profuse cold sweats--dripping! I also had to repeatedly swallow the vomit that came up in my mouth. It was horrible beyond words. I made it through, with the students none the wiser (I think/hope), and had barely enough left in me to make the drive home. I came home and continued to get sicker. I guess it was all from the migraine, because when that finally broke in the middle of the night, all the sickness left, too.

Today has gone much better, so I am choosing to think everything will be looking up from now on. We had a great day of schooling today. I'm going into this year very well organized, and we're off to a good start. We worked on history, keyboarding, Bharatanatyam, drawing/art, music/piano, and I even squeezed some housework in.

Tonight we took the kids (L & H) to the library. There was a strange assortment of patrons there, and quite a few groups of rowdy kids. Mark saw a both group of loud children and a man (completely unrelated incident)get kicked out. It was unusually busy for a Friday evening--kind of weird. I went with a list of four books that I was hoping to get to complement our history studies and managed to get all four. I was pretty giddy over that.

We came home, and I made pizza burgers for dinner, and now the kids are downstairs enjoying their sleepover. They picked out some children's movies from the library to watch later. They are currently working on the computers down there, having their "blog time". They each have several blogs, most of which are dedicated to Cat Warriors fan fic. They're so cute!

We are really, really, super desperate for wonderful, loving cat homes. Please consider opening your hearts and homes just a little bit, to let some of this wonderful kitty love in. And beg all of your friends and relatives to do the same. The situation has really now come down to life or death for these cats/kittens, and they are so wonderful and loving, that would be a tragedy! Remember how important it is for all of us to sacrifice and share our homes with others less fortunate. It's not going to get any better as we slide into fall and winter! Plus I'm getting really worn out and tired, and adopting a cat or three would really help me sleep at night! :-D