Beat

I thought maybe I could mark tonight, but it doesn't look promising.

A's been sick with a fever, roasting and snuffling through the nights, crying and clinging to me through the days. Her father refused to take her during my exam today . . . so she came with me and was taken off to Starbucks by my TA after gazing in awe at the 120 students in the room and saying, "What names are they?"

Now she's with her dad and I'm trying to figure out how best to use these 24 hours of freedom. I have so much work to do and so little energy for it. I'm also fighting A's cold, having been unavoidably sneezed on and touched with icky fingers.

I have tomorrow to work and maybe Thursday. Friday E and I will try to throw together a Christmas Eve Appetizer Extravaganza for us and the kids. I'm just happy we're together this year. I'm just hoping I can survive the days of marking that lie ahead.

It would all be easier, of course, if I didn't also have to worry about this hearing in the offing. The profile letter that the school put together for me, after all of their dire depictions of A, was not at all reflective of what they said. My lawyer found it weak. I now have to work on them to work on it, and that's the last thing I want to do over the holidays.