Thirteen weeks

It was a very mixed day. The gym this morning was good: Mr. K was with me, and I managed to increase either weight or reps on every exercise I did. I'm even doing more weight on the bicep curls and the seated calf raises than I was doing last October. So, yay!

This afternoon, though, I wasn't so on with my teaching, and the vibe in my TOEFL class was a fairly resounding "meh." Then my boss told me, ten minutes before a writing class I've never taught before, that he was coming in to observe. Oh goody. I always get so wound up and nervous when I'm being observed, and today was no exception.

I do appreciate feedback from someone in my own profession -- it was one of the things sorely lacking in my previous job. But my boss is such a perfectionist that even though all the comments he offers are valid and constructive, they're so numerous that I always feel grumpy and slightly incompetent afterwards.

Then a student from my night class needed a makeup this evening because she missed last week. She was tired, and she's been sick, so her brain was working slowly (boy can I empathize) and I ended up spending about two and a half hours with her instead of the one and a half that a makeup usually takes. I didn't get home until just before 9pm. And I'm still not finished with my prep work for my eight-and-a-half-hour day tomorrow.

But then on the commute home, I saw a Mennonite choir assembled in the Bloor-Yonge subway station. They were singing in beautiful four-part harmony, and suddenly I felt peace and sweetness and a twinge of longing for their deliberately simple lives.