today was a better day. thank god!!!!

heather and i made peace tonight. drama over. in the two days that we didn't talk in one form or another, i missed her tremendously. yes, we both lost our tempers, but it seems to be over now. yay! happy day! and thank god for amber, too, because she gave me the best cheering up i could have asked for the other night. she let me cry my heart out and she listened when i needed somebody to listen. not about heather, but about the whole "feeling lost in the group" and being called insubordinate at school and having heid tell me that i'm a sucky communicator and that directly contributes to the dissolution of friendships. so, basically, the beginning of the week was really crappy, but - to be trite - the dawn is breaking. even at school.

having realized that their workshop portfolios are all due tomorrow, my students were very diligent today. as a reward, they got happy-face stickers on their way out the door, and tomorrow they'll get candy. yep, that's right. feed em sugar and send em home to their parents. that's my basic belief system. and the "candy shopping" experience at wally world was fun, too - one of my students showed up and helped me pick out appropriate candy for all of my classes. another student introduced me to her sister(?) as "the English teacher I tell you about all the time." good times, good times.

also, some of my students have decided to nominate me as the "best educator" in the Delta. whatever. they're sweet, but i'm so NOT the best. not even along our wing. it's just a popularity contest. and, again, i feed them with lots of sugar and give them stickers and let them play with magnetic poetry. but it's still very, very sweet. i feel like pinching their little cheeks.

tomorrow's an oxford night. it's about freakin time. i know it's only been two weeks, but oxford is my refuge from the storm that is teaching in the delta. for one thing, i'm with professionals who see me as something more than a rabble-rouser from the north, come to save all of the poor little black children in the delta. argh. that would be the director of human resources within my school district. for another, i'm with my support network, and i do gain a lot from being with them, despite my last post. ignore it. i have a temper. some of it was valid, from my perspective, and some of it was just a temper-driven rant.

anyway, off to bed. sweet dreams and shivers (it finally reached december weather. the current temperature is 18 degrees, with a 5 degree windchill).