The best thing about winter (and summer) break - I am still teaching but don't have to go to campus - is that I can revert to my preferred natural state...sleep in and stay up late. My winter session class is turning out to be very manageable, eleven students. I am taking care of some lingering details from Fall '11, but soon I will be able to turn my attention to things I save for break and its leisurely owl pace.

Cold is improving, but still annoying.

Several weeks ago, when I was observing an elementary school class, one student had brought in large stuffed animal snake. I realized I had the same one when I was a kid, a beloved long-forgotten toy. In my mind’s eye it was pink rather than yellow/orange but I could be wrong on that detail. I even remembered for a moment playing with my room full of stuffed animals, arranging them all on the carpet, the snake like the one in the classroom, the deer with the false eyelashes, the big fuzzy pink dog I called “Spoofer,” the smaller dog I called “Pocket Nose,” Vincent Van Gopher with the hard face (who was really my brother’s), sitting among them, pretending we were a community in the woods.