Back from Florida

But home sick. Not homesick-- Home. Sick. Bleh.

I caught a nasty cold several days ago that's just hanging on. Probably doesn't help that I worked through my fever and traveled all yesterday. I score AP exams, which is only once a year, 7 straight days. Staying home under the weather isn't an option, really.

But I managed to push through and enjoy myself for the most part. And while I never made it into a swimsuit, I did make it onto the beach most mornings for a stroll. Critters and plants galore.





But I was ready to come home. You can only look at so many essays and eat so many reconstituted powdered eggs before you realize how good you have it. And it really was time to stop eating. They feed us buffet breakfast, candy, candy, cakes or muffins, candy, candy, buffet lunch, dessert, candy, snacky things like Chex mix and ice cream, candy, buffet dinner. More dessert. Every single day. And coffee running out our ears. They like to keep our caffeine and blood sugar levels up up up. After all-- we wended our way through 300,000 exams this year; that's almost a million essays total.

So it was good to be back. Adam is working full time now so my mother picked me up. We pulled into the driveway and I was greeted by this:


No, not all the cars-- those are always there. The canna lilies are finally FINALLY in bloom full force. They're outside our bedroom window:


Lovely thing to wake up to when I finally did wake up for good. At around 1 am, the dog started barking feverishly, so I went outside to check out what it was. If any of you out there have ever heard a trapped possum, you understand that it is an unearthly noise that they make. I couldn't get him to leave it alone, and when I saw that he had it in his mouth, I assumed its days were numbered. I've seen what he's done to other possums so, well, I simply found solace in the fact that he recently had his rabies shots.

But then he started barking again, right outside my window. I went outside to see what was going on this time, and he had moved the possum's lifeless little body to the patio. And was just standing there barking at it. I moved him into his pen so he didn't tear up the little guy and so I could have an easier time of, ahem, removal in the morning. And then I saw that it was breathing. Of the hundreds of possums I've ever come across, I've never actually witnessed one playing dead. After it was sure the dog was gone, about 20 minutes later, it slowly twisted its head around and crept away. I think the other possums that Simon's killed are ones that he's shaken. In this case, playing dead would have meant the end of this poor little fella-- Simon wants to play with them, and when they stop playing, they're fair game. Unfortunately, I didn't think to take a picture, like some other blogger we know...But it was a very cool, if upsetting and sleep depriving, event.

So now I'm going to continue my efforts to sit on my ass and try to shake the cough and fever fatigue that seem to be lingering far past their expiration date.