I'm done with that shit.

No more complaining. Absolutely none. I'm just describing. Giving you a vision of my reality. It's what I do.

• I am wearing a large Icy Hot patch around my neck in hopes that I will again, at some sweet spot in the future, be able to look to the right. I smell refreshingly decrepit. On my hobble to the CVS, I came across a very colorful person yelling "Max that shit out, Judas" to a doormat.

• Today I asked a student named Anneke to tell me something interesting about herself. She told me her name was just like Hanukkah, but without the H, though she did concede that she had no idea how Hanukkah was spelled.

• I learned in Diversity Training that being left handed in a right-handed world is really similar to struggling through generations of persecution and oppression. Neat-o.

• I have made my peace with the Keurig. I am enamored of the german chocolate K-cups, one mini moo and no sugar.

• Come late September, I will be spending three days away from n.o.c. and my pristine apartment, climbing ropes courses and participating in "bonding activities" with dear, sweetsome ninth graders.

See? Nary a complaint. Like a true Southern woman, I will suffer uncomplainingly. Then I will hack someone to pieces and fry them like chicken.

Hey Y'all

We're on a mini-break. We've eaten buttermilk-tabasco-soaked fried chicken, blackened oysters, stuffed crabclaws, and steak. Tonight, we'll have slow-cooked ribs and my mac and cheese. On a healthier note, the figs are sweet and heavy, so every morning I take a cup of coffee to the fig tree and pick my breakfast. The tomatoes are exquisite - ugly, fragrant and dripping with juice. I have not yet pickled myself, so things look good.

My little brother Keb'm arrives this evening, and high debauchery generally ensues. Since n.o.c. committed a slight breach of etiquette yesterday by requiring a nap after two stiffish gin and tonics, I feel certain that there will be a reckoning.

Vacationing can be demanding.