november 25, 2001. It was a pretty good weekend for all that. My cold lingers, having retreated from the nose to the always-ready-for-infection lungs, giving me a fetching couch and the ability to sing the Tricky parts in "Christian Sands." Fortunately for me, I still have my puffers from last year, so I can try blasting some sense back into my lungs. Of course, if it's not my dust allergies then I guess I'm screwed. We'll see. I managed to make it to SMILE yesterday, as I was determined not to be one of the whiny many who use any excuse to bolt from this kind of volunteer work. Yesterday was the last session of the semester, and there was much absenteeism as well as much half-assed mentoring. I found that although I was dog tired from illness, I could run & leap & play the whole morning if I made sure to rest after every exertion. Annie didn't seem to notice; she had a ball from start to finish. During pool time I sat on the edge of the shallow end and participated as much as I could without, you know, actually getting into the water. Sitting there on the side I had a rare opportunity to survey the happy melee of the program, and I could appreciate how miraculous it all is in one giddy rush. Imagine! I taught a girl with communication difficulties how to swim! Imagine! There are almost 100 others with me who are pulling off similar miracles with their own children! It was such a beautiful feeling that I'm glad I had a chance to savour the pride, if only for a moment. The rest of the weekend has been consumed with werk, chores, church & lesson planning, which makes for a very dull story but at the same time it also makes for a recovering sick girl. And now that I have a lesson for tomorrow, I believe I'm needed in my comfy comfy bed... this time 3 years ago: "What I've learned from a long relationship is that 'time to think' is no good. You need to be too close to be able to think."