A Lot Like Christmas

I had a fun and busy weekend, full of holiday related stuff. It was enough to just about put me in the mood for Christmas again. Friday night was spent on a 12 Bars of Christmas bar crawl. Saturday night I saw some of the local Christmas light boat parade (along with the multimillion dollar decorated homes that line the Naples waterways). On Sunday, I went to see a Christmas concert (BDP plays the flute in a local symphonic band!). That was then followed by a Christmas party to watch fireworks off of the MB pier. I didn't get home until midnight last night. And even though I am super tired today, I am happy because of all the recent fun. I am also happy because...

1) Tomorrow is my last day of class. It also happens to be the last non-final exam (our final is next Tuesday).

2) Tomorrow if my last day of being a TA. I loved it, and I love my students and I love the material, but I am tired of worrying about their learning. And about worrying if I'm doing a good job. It is exhausting.

3) This is week 17 of an 18 week semester. Any "semester" system is too long, in my opinion. And 18 weeks is two weeks longer than many other semester programs. I am thrilled it is almost over!

Now, while I do feel more "holiday-ish" after my big Christmas weekend, I feel "in the spirit of the season" only until I remember that I still have a gazillion Christmas presents left to buy. In fact, I have only bought about six of twenty-eight presents. That means I am only 21% done with my shopping, and I won't have time to do much more until next week. Which leaves me about 4 days before going to Mexico to buy, wrap, and ship/deliver everything.

That realization deflates my Christmas balloon a little bit. But not enough to turn off the Christmas music coming out of my CD player right now!