Way too early in the morning...

Ah, a new photo of Xena. She continues to be a charming and delightful member of my little family. You'd think though, with those big ears of hers, she'd listen to me a little less selectively.

I am now (almost) a proud, card-carrying member of those who have a Masters' Degree. I just have to wait until my "mentor" teacher returns my final evaluation form to Syracuse. Sixteen months has flown by pretty quickly, and now I have to work on getting a teaching job.

On Saturday I and about 1300 other Education students from the CNY area took one of the many certification exams that teachers must pass to become certified. I took the LAST and the ATS-W. I felt pretty confident after taking both tests, although the multiples choice answers on the ATS-W were really subjective and similar - it was all about teaching style and practices.

Sunday was fun. After going to Ruby Tuesday with D, I met my friend L and we drove over to Skaneateles. They have a Dickens' Christmas theme throughout the holiday season and it was amusing to find various characters out of "A Christmas Carol" strolling about town. We ran into Ebeneezer Scrooge coming out of a bank, yelling at some other character - and then he smiled at me and said "Good Afternoon." This guy really looked like Scrooge, and I stuttered back a meek "Good Afternoon" to him. Boy, I'm glad I was not born Bob Cratchit, I would not have lasted a minute, even a faux-Scrooge took the wind out of my sails... :p

Last night I think I saw one of the best films I have seen in a long time. I saw a sneak-preview of "The Pursuit of Happyness" over at Carousel and it was fantastic. It was based on the true rags-to-riches tale of Chris Gardner and his son, Christopher. It made me want to go home and hug D & X and be happy that I have them in my life.

Beyond all of that, I have to figure out what I am doing with my present job. LOFT is being extremely stingy with hours, 4 hours a week for the next two weeks, and that is just not going to fly. Ugh for jobs.

I am looking forward to the holidays as we will be going to PA, NJ and NYC for a few days. It is always good to see everyone and spend time in familiar and treasured places. I'll be seeing my g'parents and some friends, so the trip will really be worthwhile. I might even be able to finagle an appointment at my dentist in NYC, so that will be the icing on top of the molten chocolate fudge cake. Hee hee.