LIFE GOES ON

okay now, one more hurdle to jump and the semester will be over!  three classes are finished, finalized, graded, grades put into the computer.  tonight will be the last gasp; it all has to be completed by noon tomorrow.  i'll meet my writing class one last time tonight.  if miracles still happen they'll hand in their final assignments for their portfolios and it'll all be over but the shouting.  i do love my students, but it will be with enormous relief that i'll hand in my last bit of paperwork (grade summary sheets) and remove the piles of books, papers, notebooks, workbooks, tapes, binders, folders, dictionaries, from my dining room table.  the past week has been a kind of marathon. 

this past weekend, in medias res, my sister and niece came out from D.C. for a Delaware weekend.  i did all the work i could on Friday, so that Saturday and Sunday could be spent having fun.  it certainly helped my spirits!  my niece is an adorable six-year-old who is so full of enthusiasm and delight that she infects everyone around her. we went to Assateague National Seashore on Saturday, saw ponies, two different kinds of deer, many birds, including a Canada goose sitting on her nest in a small thicket - her mate was out in the water keeping a very wary eye on us.  it was utterly magical, we felt privy to a wonder.  on Sunday my sister helped us get some much-needed gardening work done.  my perennial beds out in front of the house no longer make me cringe when i pass them.  in fact, they look fantastic! 

just before they left on Sunday evening we had another nest experience - there's a robin's nest in the big rhododendron bush outside the sitting-room window right at eye-level  (except if you're six.  then you have to stand on a chair to see it.)  with either three or four, hard to tell which, big-mouth baby birds.  their mouths stay open even when they're sleeping.  we all spent quite a while watching the parental robins dashing around hunting and gathering, bringing gifts of worms and bugs to their offspring.  today the babies seem to be about twice as big as they were yesterday.

more news - i've joined a group over in Lewes called Sussex County for Kerry.  i haven't been able to attend a meeting yet, but will later this month.  i put my name down for the voter registration committee.  they'll train us and get us set up to spend the summer registering new voters.  they're intent on getting graduating seniors from the high schools registered, which seems like a great idea. 

i hope to spend some time reading and catching up on journals and blogs tomorrow and wednesday, because thursday is the ESL graduation and then i'm taking off for a week or so in Texas.  i had planned to go during spring break, but instead spent that week in a Soft Room trying to recover myself.  i'm actually thinking of driving down, though i have a free ticket thanks to having a brother-in-law who works for Southwest Airlines.  i love a solitary long-distance drive, find it a form of meditative retreat.  either way i probably won't have much computer time while i'm gone, as i'll be visiting family and friends.