I am sitting in my classroom right now proctoring the final exam for my summer course. The end is in sight! This might seem like an inappropriate time and place to be composing a blog post, but I’m afraid it might be the only chance I get to write anything before I take off for the weekend.

After this exam I’ve got to finish all my end-of-term grading and reporting, deal with a few (?) recalcitrant late assignments, and run approximately forty-seven various errands. But now! Now I just sit, and watch, and wait.

And blog, apparently.

So this weekend I am heading off to Mississippi to visit Clarabella. We are going to be running a 5K and then celebrating afterwards with watermelon-based frozen drinks of some kind. Even if you don’t like to run, wouldn’t you do a 5K for the promise of a watermelon-based frozen cocktail? I bet you would. If you do like to run, well, that is just even better.

I am very much looking forward to the chance to get out of town for a little while and decompress after a summer of teaching intensive courses. When you unceremoniously stuff a semester’s worth of literature (almost four thousand years of texts!) into five weeks, everyone starts going a little bit insane — not just me. I don’t know how the students manage to keep up with it either. We are all ready for a break.

On another subject, I have been loving having my little basil plant in the front window so much that I decided it needed a few friends. Last weekend I went down to this amazing nursery in town and picked out a few succulents to join it in the window. I have had succulents before and have managed not to kill them, so I hope these guys will stick around for a while.

I got a jade plant (my favorite),

an elephant bush (hilarious name),

and an aloe plant (very useful for a klutz like me who is always accidentally burning herself in the kitchen).

Also to be spotted occasionally in my windowsill:

A surly feline, who occasionally has been putting some effort into pretending to be nice. We’ll see if it’s just an act, or what.

Well, I hope you each have a lovely weekend in store. May I suggest a watermelon-based frozen cocktail? If that’s not available, something else, perhaps? As long as it is decadent and relaxing.