I'm going to be settling into a random post pattern here for a while. My teaching assignment for next year is a bit, um, daunting, but it should be fun and educational (for me especially). More work, but I suppose that's life.

Ptichka shared a paragraph with me last weekend and it's become my new mantra:

There's something about sober living and sober thinking, about facing long afternoons without the numbing distraction of anesthesia, that disabuses you of the belief in externals, shows you that strength and hope come not from circumstances or the acquisition of things but from the simple accumulation of active experience, from gritting the teeth and checking the items off the list, one by one, even though it's painful and you're afraid.

-Caroline Knapp

I'm getting better at gritting my teeth and checking items off my lists. And the fear? It's gradually residing. *cue the theme song from Laverne and Shirley*

There's nothing below the fold.