Well, the past few days have been markedly better, in many respects. For one thing, I met my first class yesterday, and things went really well. I discovered, much to my pleasure, that I still have the ability to retain 21 names in my short-term memory long enough to impress everyone with how quickly I learned their names . . . of course, next Tuesday I won't have a complete handle on all of them, but I will have a good start.

And I could feel the classroom management techniques coming back, too - I found myself "working the room," looking for the potentially rowdy ones, the potentially lost ones. I connected with the rowdies - gave them attention and also stared them down with the "Border Collie Eye" . . . And made an effort to speak with the lost-looking ones as everyone was filing out of the classroom.

I had them inkshed (that fifteen minutes is where I learn their names) about the most effective advertising campaign they've seen recently. When I read the inksheds later, I was pleasantly surprised to see that a number of them had provided good detail about the ads, as well as saying why they liked them. So I can go into class on Tuesday and comment on something they already do well, in terms of structure, as well as giving them the compiled inksheds, which speak to content . . . that's always a good thing! I'm feeling extremely upbeat about all of this.

And the drive has been more like I expected the past few days, too. Today, both coming and going took under an hour and fifteen minutes. I got some CDs out of the library - Cecilia Bartoli yesterday (I know I spelled that wrong) and today, I listened to a compilation that I'd pulled at the last minute because it has Smetana's Moldau on it. I discovered much to my utter delight that it also has Finlandia, one of my all-time favorite pieces, partly because the hymn based on it is one of my all-time favorites. I pulled into Lansing under bright, sunny skies, singing at the top of my lungs:

My country's skies are bluer than the ocean,
and sunlight streams on clover, leaf and pine.
But other lands have sunlight too, and clover,
and skies are everywhere as blue as mine.
This is my song, o God of all the nations
A song of peace for their land and for mine.

A very good start to the day, indeed!

I'm now hopeful that much of the time, I'll be able to do the drive on auto-pilot, listening to music I love but rarely hear. (My next foray is into the music of jazz divas, so if anyone has any suggestions, pass 'em along!) And if all works well I could have at least two hours a day for introspection, which is a rare luxury . . . the drive is long enough that you just have to let go and let the lizard brain take over, which leaves plenty of time to daydream and plan and reflect . . . also a very good thing.

Tomorrow it's off to Youngstown to try again for the car . . . I've got my fingers crossed! Going to be a quick, there-and-back trip all in one day. I don't really want to go, but alas . . .