Nice noisy city

We drove from Lake Keuka to Buffalo yesterday--and *I* did all of the expressway/thruway driving, which is a HUGE achievement for me--and now I'm tired, tired, tired. While we were at the lake, I was supposed to be grading papers--about 20 8-pagers--and, while I did manage to get through about ten of them, I eventually gave up and saved them for when we got home.

Hanging onto student work for more than a week makes me feel very anxious and guilty, so this morning, as painful as it was, I anchored myself on the front porch and graded the rest of the papers. It took me about six hours, and, no, they were not pleasant hours, even though (or perhaps because) the day was so perfect. About two thirds of the way through the process, when my energy and concentration were seriously flagging, our next door neighbors stopped by to chat. I didn't have the guts to ask them to go, so I stole moments here and there to keep grading, and I smiled through gritted teeth.

So I'm a big complainer tonight, is what it all comes down to. I'm also grouchy because my internet connection keeps going down.....probably bad karma from all of the wireless access I've been "stealing" over the past week. Tomorrow we're going to the pool, come hell or high water (not really something to joke about during this summer of midwestern floods). It's good to be back in our nice, noisy city, but it's a little hard to come back to the routines and everyday pressures that we left just a short week ago.