I am in my office before class and I have two dilemmas: 1) I have barely any prep work to do to get ready for today’s class, and 2) I have two dozen oatmeal-cranberry-almond cookies sitting here on my desk and I baked them for my students so I don’t want to eat any before class but they are so good and they’re RIGHT HERE.

Hence, I shall distract myself from the cookies by writing a blog post. I have a bunch of small updates and minor observations, so let’s go list form with seven quick takes:

1. In our workplace bathroom, we have toilet paper dispensers that have two rolls side by side, so they don’t need to be replaced as often. The problem: one of the rolls has been stuck all summer and won’t turn. Thus, the other roll gets used up twice as fast and replaced twice as often, while the stuck roll always stays full and therefore never gets any attention from the staff. The careful observer, however, may notice the increasingly frantic claw marks on the top layer of paper where people keep trying to get the roll to turn. It’s been this way all summer; I’m wondering how long the situation can go on.

2. I just wrote an entire list item about a stuck toilet paper roll in my bathroom at work. Never say I didn’t give you anything.

3. I got a migraine aura in Target the other day while CW and I were looking at rugs and dish towels. It was just one of the sparkly, psychedelic, kaleidoscope auras that makes it hard to look directly at anything, but then dissipates in 20-30 minutes. It was followed only by a dull shadow of pain in my temple, not a full-on pounding migraine headache. I thought I escaped mostly unscathed. Two days later (yesterday), I woke up with a mild headache that got progressively worse throughout the workday until I finally went home after class with a head-splitting, eye-watering, nauseating, full-on migraine. So that was fun. The nausea is gone this morning but my head still hurts. It feels bruised, like someone kicked me in the temple. What the hell is this, a week-long, multi-stage migraine? I do not accept this. JE REFUSE.

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4. I never got around to posting a recap of our trip up to Illinois for CW’s family reunion / Fourth of July extravaganza — oops! Suffice it to say, we had a wonderful time and his family is delightful. I got to meet a lot of his relatives for the first time and they were all very sweet and welcoming to me. It’s so nice to think of the fact that soon I will be officially joining the family! We spent the entire weekend hanging around at the pool and lake, eating, drinking, and playing various games. I am not much of a gamer, but I tried my hand at a little cornhole and then mostly just hung around and chatted. The entire time, I barely thought about work, moving, or any other stressful topics. It was lovely.

5. Speaking of family, we have decided to make our wedding a very small one — immediate family and close friends, and that’s about it. Fielding questions and comments from relatives we aren’t planning to invite, well, there’s a fun aspect of wedding planning I did not anticipate. Can I hire a planner-type person who does not actually plan the wedding, but whose job it is simply to deal with these inquiries? We can call him/her the Nonvitation Coordinator? The Official Rejection Administrator? The Not-Even-B-List Notifier? (Any of you looking for a part-time job?) Here I am just joking about this on my stupid blog and even here I suddenly feel like I have to explain/apologize for the size of the wedding and the limitations of the small guest list. Oof.

6. It’s Friday, and not only that, but it’s also the LAST day of my summer class! I have had a really nice teaching experience this summer and it has flown right by. It feels like the class just started, but early next week I’ll receive final papers and turn in final grades, then I’m out of school until fall semester starts on August 21st. I’ll have a lot of prep, planning, and meetings before then, but I’ll also have a little down time. I’m looking forward to it.

7. This weekend I think CW and I are finally going to get the rest of our things unpacked and organized. I am ready to be done with boxes! It’s been hard for me to get much done this week because I’ve been so tired after work every day, but right now I feel the fever: I want my dressers organized and my books shelved and my art hung up. Let’s do this thing! But not today. Tomorrow.