This has been a wild day. I taught my last class. I lost my keys for an hour, which sent me tearing around the building looking for them and for whomever might have picked them up, while I worried about how I would get home with no car keys. I found them again, quite by accident, while in conversation with someone I kept running into in my searches who, it turned out, had found them. I ran a review session, I graded many papers, almost all very poorly written. I had dinner with two wonderful old friends who played me vintage opera, talked of music and philosophy and film and fed me Middle Eastern food until I could eat no more without letting me pay a cent and then drove me to the train station. I am now whizzing homeward in the company of many drunken and exuberant Cubs fans. At least I won�t worry about falling asleep on the way home.

I am numb and unanalytical and exhausted and am looking for a day of fun. I don�t feel closure that I wish I had. I was dissatisfied with my performance until the very end. I don�t remember agonizing this much the last time I taught. Was I that much more cocksure? Or has my memory just conveniently erased itself? I was in a hurry and didn�t have the discussion I wanted to have in class today. It was okay, but not what I wanted. About half the class came to the review session � a respectable showing. We practiced the listening quiz and talked about a few small questions and then we left. They are on their own now. They are tired. They are spent. And so am I. I�m hoping a couple of hours in the garden tomorrow will cure me.

I miss AJ. I forgot to call him to tell him goodnight. I feel very bad about that, although I�m sure he didn�t notice, as his favorite uncle was here entertaining him. I can�t sneak into his room to peek at him when he�s sleeping anymore, as he wakes up. I�ll have to wait until tomorrow to see him and hear about his day.

But tomorrow will, I think, be a day off. I will work in the garden, take AJ to the playground, learn some new tunes on the physics songs website, anything but think of the exam. If it rains I can guarantee you a sullen and sulky Harriet.

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