Lesson learned? Probably not.

It's the human condition. You do the same stupid things over and over again, every time promising yourself that the next time will be different. Everyone does it, don't deny it. So what stupid thing did I do this time? I put off recording all my classes' grades. I could have begun tallying and recording grades for three of my classes in November. But I didn't. So January came along, I was finished with all 6 of my classes, and I hadn't added up a single thing. Of course, I'm leaving tonight at midnight on the train so it really needed to be turned in before today. Monday I holed myself up in my apartment and got the job done. Mostly. I would work for a while and then get distracted doing something else for a while then come back to the grades. I finished all but the last class, which required me to grade a lot of poems that the students did as part of their final exam. Tuesday I never quite got around to working on the poems because I was visiting different people all day in anticipation of not seeing them again until almost March. So yesterday afternoon (Wednesday) I finally sat down and completely finished. I finished right at 5, which is usually closing time for the school offices. I figured I'd turn in my grades this morning. Lo and behold, 3 minutes after I put my pen down the phone rang and they were asking if I could bring my grades down to the office. They also needed Angelyn's grades so I didn't feel too bad (although the only reason she hadn't turned hers in was because she was waiting for me so they could be turned in together). It felt really good to get rid of those things and be done with it. I will "never" put off doing grades that long again. "Never" meaning at least until the next time. Now I just need to clean my apartment and pack for my trip.

I've been invited by David, a Brother at the medical school, to come eat dinner at 6:30 tonight. He cooks some of the most awesome stuff for less money than you ever thought possible. We're taking lessons from him in preparation for Meager March. Then we'll have our weekly Thursday night Study at his school and hang out until time to head to the train station. This first train leaves just after midnight and arrives around 9 or 9:30, which is nice because we don't need to pack any meals. William and I are both excited about Chongqing because it's supposed to have the best hotpot. Hotpot! w00t! I don't know if I'll change my cell number or anything while I'm gone, but I'll still have my laptop so you can feel free to Skype me, email me, Facebook me, instant message me, or just hop on a plane and come visit me*. Those are all free too!

Well, it's time for me to be more productive and clean something around here. I hope everyone is having a wonderful 2008 so far! By the way, now that we're all leaving town for a month the forecast calls for multiple days of snow beginning tomorrow. It figures.

*Denotes something that isn't actually free.