I thought I was going to be better about writing in my diary this year. Ah well.

It�s already February and thank god because the winter is about to suck me under. Sometimes, that is. Other times, the world�s still a beautiful place. Like here: Jeff lit two bonfires on Saturday during the ice storm. We ate our supper and drank our beers in the middle of freezing rain and we didn't feel a thing except the heat from burning wood. And also this: we finally put bird food into the bird feeders and my dears, the bright red cardinals are almost unbearably perfect in gray winter.

Bathsheba (or Tealeaf?) (or how about I just call her) Melissa sent us a card full of the most gorgeous pictures taken when she and her gorgeous child visited over the summer. In addition to being completely bowled over by the beauty and awesomeness of fair Atticus, Jeff and I were both stunned by how lush and green the world looked. It was too much. I think that much lushness right now would probably make me throw up, like giving an enormous feast to a starving person.

Ah, the big news: we are getting pigs in about four days. Four pigs, to be exact. And to be even more precise, they will not be our pigs and their names will be Lawrence (aka Larry), Wilber, Harriet, and some other nameless female to be a companion to Lawrence (aka Larry). We will merely be the ones fostering these pigs who are up for adoption. So. You know. If you want a pig...

All right. I admit I�m excited. I was anxious for a while because we are sort of broke and overwhelmed with various everythings all the gotdamn time, but the pigs should be fun. I bet Harold and the pigs become BFF.

Alas! My life! She is so hard! To wit: I had planned to take the whole summer off but I think I�m going to have to work for half of it. Sigh. My reward! I rilly rilly wanted that whole fat chunk of time for myself and felt that I had, in fact, earned it (whatever Molly) through all of my tireless teaching work and for working through (and through and through and through) all of my deep-seated insecurities that this teaching work unearthed. Anyway.

I�ll only be teaching the first five week summer session and I�ll be teaching two classes, I think, which will earn me one full paycheck at the end of June. Doesn�t that sort of suck? If I were teaching at a four-year-school I would get almost double that for teaching (at adjunct pay, which is what happens in the summer). But I wouldn�t be teaching at a four-year school. I guess that�s the whole point.

Right, well. I have papers to grade before I can go home. And it looks like I�ll be teaching two classes this summer definitely. Sigh. I�m a baby. I just wanted to garden and travel around to see my friends and write and hang with my dogs and paint the house and go swimming and lots of other wonderful things. Like yoga.