maybe a little manic

I am feeling so good right now. Like, physically, emotionally, schoolishly good. Not over the top, out of control good. Just right good.

For example.

Today, Jack and I paid a few bills together, went out for pancakes (or in this instance, banana bread and/or cinnamon roll french toast), and then stopped at the distant Kohl's where we picked up tights for the girls, one pair of jammies to replace a nightgown that was canceled in my online order, two tablecloths, and a pair of slippers. And I nearly got out of that store without buying another thing or two for the girls. I had $70 in Kohl's cash and I spent only $35. I think the receipt said I saved $205 or something like that. Even Jack was impressed.

And speaking of shopping and all that, in what has to be a new record for me, I have completed at least half of my Christmas shopping already. I'd probably be done, but Jack wants to participate in the process--Amazon, here we come--so we're still making final decisions, but seriously, it's only December 4, who would have thought?

After we got home, I sat down and worked through my labor econ final, after completing and submitting the final three assignments last night, which was after submitting two other assignments shortly after submitting and then revising and resubmitting a research paper for that class. What have I learned from all of my labor economics studies this semester? Probably I'm too old for school to pay off in economic terms. As interesting as it was, that class kinda took the fun out of school for me--the learning just to be learning part. It was a lot of effort and I expect I'll get an A, but it was one of those classes where I have a hard time believing that all of the kids put in as much effort as this old gal did, and I wonder how did I get to this age without knowing all of this stuff?

After the econ final and nearly forgotten remaining three discussion posts were submitted, I turned my attention to laundry and dishes and kitty litter boxes (mine, not my mom's), and bathroom cleaning and garbage removal and floor mopping. And we had some of the leftover bowtie lasagna that Jessie recommended on facebook earlier this week. It was easy and yummy, even on the second day.

And after all of that, Jr and Martha invited me to join them in some of the just dance antics in the basement. For at least an hour, we worked it. And I kicked some trash on several tunes I'd never heard before and did some moves that I will probably regret in another hour when I try to stand up to go to bed. But it felt so good to be moving and singing and laughing.

Tomorrow will be spent with calculus. While I have used that word with a certain amount of dread in past posts, calculus and I have become if not best friends, at least acquaintances. It occurred to me today that this whole math learning process is somewhat familiar. I remember as a child finding addition difficult, yet subtraction easy, and multiplication difficult but division easy. That's how this calculus thing is working out. The algebra classes have been difficult, but the calculus seems friendlier, once I figured out the algebra part. I keep thinking the teacher is going to spring some really complicated stuff on us, because there must be more to it, but for some reason, it isn't that bad right now. And the final is in ten days, so I am hopeful. Maybe not an A, but at least a C, which isn't too bad for a girl who wasn't born with numbers but has finally been introduced to them.