The laissez-faire approach is probably not the best one for a "responsible" tutor to take, but oh well. Life can't always run like a Swiss train, and these kids might as well figure it out now.

Clearly, I am sort of burned out on the whole thing. I don't always have the energy to explain and re-explain and over-explain things. Sometimes I feel like I'm a tutoring automaton. While normally I am loath to cut corners, these days I'm just doing my best to stay upright and get through the material.

I'm enjoying crossing students off my list. I think I have nine students left right now and, after this weekend, only five. This week I had thirteen appointments scheduled with students. (Plus working pretty much full time, commuting, and working at Starbucks on Sunday. No wonder I don't have time to eat.)

In other news, I can't wait to clean my house. I have clothes strewn everywhere, most of which don't even fit me and need to be bagged up anyway. (The way it works is, I put something on in the morning, realize I look frumpy and fat in the overly-large thing, and throw it in a corner.)

So there are piles of clothes everywhere, and as usual, parakeet-related vacuuming is desperately needed. But I've been getting home late and exhausted, without the mental energy to do housekeeping or much of anything, really. I guess I can forgive myself, but coming home to piles of mail, clothes and bird feathers kind of sucks.

At least I am remembering to feed the birds, and getting enough sleep. The two most important elements right there. Plus, I may forget to eat at night, but during the day, there's a constant stream of free food and drinks in this office.

Yesterday I tried the ice cream we have in our freezer: Dryer's Dreamery black raspberry with dark chocolate chunks. Oh my lord. And today our entire floor is being converted into a big bar. We're having a party on the roof, where we can eat pizza, get liquored up and watch tbe Blue Angels fly over our building. And I also got permission to steal the big disco ball in the storage room.

Best job ever.

I also have managed to do a few social things in the past couple of weeks. Megan's birthday was a couple weekends ago, and I went with her to get her birthday tattoo. My job was to pinch her other wrist really hard to counteract the pain, and also to take pictures of her:

And of course, myself:

Then after that (the same day, in fact) I went to the latest Boozecon to see Sasha and Selila. And watch Pete eat corn. Yes, in case you were wondering what we wild and crazy San Francisco people do, the answer is this: we watch each other eat corn.

I also went to the goodbye party for Joey, who moved back to New York. Our schedules hadn't let us hang out that much since graduation, but the city is definitely different without her in it. I am bummed because where I work now is so close to where she used to live, and in another universe, we could have done lunch and hung out all the time. I guess it's an excuse to fly to New York sometime, and there's always the phone.

Speaking of vacations, Journalcon is coming up, which I am really looking forward to. I don't even know what's on the agenda. Is there an agenda? Who cares! All I am interested in is boozing it up and hanging out with friends old and new. Staying up late and sleeping in and gossiping and giggling. That's my plan.

Also exciting: I have Columbus Day morning off. I know I should spend the day cleaning and being responsible, but I have every intention of spending the day in bed instead. Maybe I will go to a movie, since I haven't been to one since.. I can't recall. That's not a good sign, folks. I am living a life without popcorn.

And in conclusion, two (unedited) e-mails from my father, which I saved just for you:

Yesterday I drained the pool it was greeneven so we had a poolmen an orientel guy .He was alright solong he lastedWe found out that those people have no clues about chemicalsthey are very good for brushing ,sweeping leavesand adding chlorine,But solving problems forget it .SO two days ago I drained the pool,and had a couple of pool people ove to advice me what to do.We dotted down their info etc.It so happen last night on square dancing I talked to Allen who we know some time who happen to be the past presidentof the california pool maintenance assc.He told me I will come over tomorrow and check out your pool.Allen told me no acid wash no replastering,Allen is adowntoearth guy who tells you the truth he has nothing to loose or to gain he suggested fiberglas lining and knew somone who does this very good .We wil look into that next year.So for now we fill the pool again with water and take from there.We bought a creepy crawler to keep the pool clean and goodbey poolman.Other then that we are doing fine ,last monday we went to the Emmys walked the red carpetand the whole shebang did you see us wave? Mom got tickets from a llady from the swimclass .It was exciting to see all the hoopla Anyway now you are up to date of what we did .
Love Mom and Dad

Tonight mam left a message on your fhone for Colleen ,I gues you must have figure it out it was Mam.We started square dancing again and it is real fun ,the caller has some updated songs,also this time we have more young people in the class ,acording to one member we have a black lady who acording to him is a comedian ,I don't know from where T.V Radio or what but we wil keep you posted okay! Now I won't tell you more news so mom can tell you all that stuff herself O ,ofcourse I have a complain about peopple who I send E_MAILS I write them in suchs a way ,with questions etc,so that they have something to respond to but to no avail why o why?????? I gues I must be very old-fashion!!!!!! Talk to you soon .
Love Mom and Dad.......