How good it can be

I am starting to feel like Raleigh is my home again.

And that's actually somewhat unfortunate, because my parents might be calling me tonight to tell me that they're moving to New York.

Other than that, things are back on track. After the slump I was in last semester, it’s a welcome change to be back to my “normal” self again. I’m trying to get loose ends from my life in order, especially my finances. Paying on student loans, consolidating, making car payments, getting a second job, etc has all been part of the game. It’s the part of my life that I’m lagging in the “adult” department. It’s been hard to pull all this money from somewhere with my paltry salary, but I’m starting to feel a little better.

Other things are looking up too. My roommate situation has become more comfortable. I’m learning not to take it too personally when he finishes a bottle of wine I bought, and he’s learning to clean up the kitchen after he cooks. How sweet; compromise.

The biggest area of my life that I feel like I’m exercising more control is teaching. Last week I got my teaching evaluations back from last semester, and overall the response was positive. It was nice to get some validation and realize that all of my irrational thoughts about being a horrible instructor are just that – irrational. I don’t know if this is what I want to do for the rest of my life, but I know that it’s what I want to do right now. I feel much more comfortable with the curriculum, which gives me a more authoritative presence in the classroom. I really hate the whole disciplinary side of my job, and I work with college students as opposed to high school so I can avoid most of those issues. But today I actually made two students separate because they talk all the time. I said, “You know what. Please go sit somewhere else, because I’m tired of being distracted by the two of you. Either you can move or consider leaving to have your conversation elsewhere.” Seriously.

Last week I had wanted to post, because I was going to react to that Boyfriend Advisory System that Jamy posted last week (actually it’s already been 10 days since that post; I’m a blogging slackass). When I first read it, I thought that TK and I were somewhere between the “Elevated” and “High” risk of calling each other bf and gf. After this weekend we have now bypassed the “Severe” status and gone straight to actual coupledom.

I think it was Friday night that he called me after work and at some point asked, “So can I call you my girlfriend now?” “Yes…” “Sweet!”

We even did the requisite MySpace and Facebook status changes. It’s crazy how that becomes such a big deal now. It’s where I get all my dirt now. Engagements. Breakups. Move-ins; (which Sax and his gf did by the way).

TK and I had a marathon date from Saturday to Sunday. I met his fraternal twin and his gf. I also met two other couples when the 8 of us went bowling.

TK spent the night on Saturday and didn’t leave until Sunday night, but I’ll have to post about all of that a bit later.

Stay tuned.