Today two different students gave me belated Christmas presents. It's always such a sweet surprise when I receive gifts from my students, especially when they give me Christmas presents on January 19th :) One gave me a sweet card and a Christmas ornament and insisted, a thousand times it seemed, that she had the exact same ornament on her tree at home and that we could share this together. Now all I have to do is pull our boxes of ornaments down from the closet and tuck this away in it until December rolls around again :) The second present I got was a box of really nice chocolates. The brother and sister who gave it to me were so sweet about it, especially the sister. She REALLY wanted some chocolate and I could tell, so I promised if she did a good job in her lesson she could have a piece. Later I discovered that the chocolates she and her brother chose and ate had insides made of a fudged up concoction tasting like liquor. I'm sure it wasn't alcoholic but I couldn't help but chuckle at the idea of my small students eating chocolate and expecting it to taste like a Hershey's bar and instead he got Disaronno or something.

I had the most difficult time waking up this morning. It reminded me of my college days when I would stay out late with friends and wake up with that 'puffy eyed' feeling. Even after Mass this morning I felt like I wasn't fully awake. I got to Ellis and was still so sleepy I was quiet, quiet enough for Mr. Ellis to think something was wrong with me (am I really always that talkative?!). I guess every once in a while it's alright for me to wake up not feeling completely rested. I'll blame it on the mattress. Jaime says I sleep so soundly that there is no need for a new mattress even though it's the most uncomfortable thing I've ever slept on. Unless you count the bathtub... but that was years and years ago. Now Churchill is leaned up against me while I type this, snoring. These dogs love sleeping. His little grumbles are reminding me that I've had one of the longest days of work yet and I should probably just treat myself to some extra sleep.

I've been thinking more and more about taking on more students and gradually filling up my studio, well since I last wrote I've received four new students. Two of which came today. And if it weren't for the awkward 6:30-7pm break I have I would have had 9 back to back students with no chance for me to go home and rest after leaving Ellis. I usually have about 30-45 minutes to run home, grab a snack, play with the dogs, and relax before beginning my teaching, but today, things were hectic. Everything started running late and one of my new students pushed my call time at Hunter Street up by half an hour. I think it was actually easier on me to go straight to Hunter Street to teach, that way I didn't have the down time and then back to work mentality. Because of that I feel very tired right now. Which was to be expected, I mean, you teach 8 students in a day after working since 6:30am you'd think you'd be a little bit tired.

In other news Harry Potter is always in trouble. I can now say that I've dreamed of Hippogriffs and they really do respond better when you treat them with respect. Also, tomorrow is Moe's night and I'm so ready it's not even funny. Jaime said that if he went to Moe's this much he might get tired of it. I want to know how it's possible you could get tired of AMAZING. I mean, he never gets tired of me, right? :) Love you Jaime, I know you like your variety with your food. That's why I cooked you tilapia last night even though I think most fish are sneaky, slippery, foul little sea monsters. Oh and one last thing, I heard the song Poison and Wine by The Civil Wars last night for the first time and instantly fell in love. In the middle of cooking dinner I was so over come that I went to the radio station's website to look up their most recent play list and found it. I quickly returned to the cooking, but not after pulling the song up on YouTube to listen to. If you haven't listened to it you should.

Well the teachers with BMTA are meeting at Ellis early in the morning so I have to get to work before 9:00am or face one very unhappy co-worker. Something about type A personalities, they get personally offended by other people's choices whether they influence them or not. I don't think I'll ever understand it, but I understand enough to not want to work with someone who is continually unhappy. Last time I clocked in at 9:03 instead of 9:00 I never heard the last of it.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=WfzRlcnq_c0