psyching up for returning to school

I think I have to give myself more credit because the truth is that I sat down and graded THIRTY papers today. When was the last time I did that. (never.) Even though there are twenty more and I want to peel my skin before reading through them -- I saved the really terrible ones for last -- I still did the majority of them, enough to just go ahead and do the rest of them already instead of throwing them away, which is what I do with many assignments I just can't bring myself to comb through. Does that sound terrible? Your teachers used to do it, too.

Also: I read four books over break. Technically four and a half, but I'm still in the middle of the last one. Even though none of them were the ones I planned on reading for the kids, EFF THE KIDS. Officially I don't even need to read any of the books they read in lit circles, it's just good practice. Plus I'm an adult and have earned the right to thumb my nose at science fiction.

So really what we're saying is that the only thing I've slacked on is the entering of student updates in our joint update database, but since NO ONE ELSE DID, by comparison I didn't really slack at all. Just following the herd.