realizations

today has been a day of random realizations and for me, rude awakenings. maybe that's an exaggeration. it's suddenly hit me that..

1) this is the first november in at least 17 years that i haven't been enrolled in school. isn't that crazy?

2) i can't stand trying to be tough and resist the cold anymore. i finally gave in and set up my kotatsu (basically a coffee table with a built in heater) in desperation. my masochistic goal was to make it to december without using it, but i'm sick of cold feet, so i finally took out the kotatsu blankets and plugged it in. and it is sooooo nice. november 21st. not bad. close enough to december, right?

3) today is at least the 4th or 5th time i've felt like i'm borderline losing my voice since starting to teach. today was particularly bad in that i really wouldn't have made it through my 3 classes had i not been chugging water and sucking on cough drops the whole time. at the rate that i'm going, i'll sound like hole-in-her-neck-from-years-of-smoking Debbie by the time i return home. whenever that is.

4) i am not invincible after all.