orichalcum

I've had lots of little happinesses this week - Free Ice Cream from Ben&Jerry's and Baskin Robbins, gorgeous weather, all the flowers, walking 30 blocks.

But this is the big one - we just had our last Roman history class of the semester, and one of my students came up to me to say that my section wanted me to know that it was their general opinion that I was the best T.A. they'd ever had. Another student from that section later approached me and said much the same thing - that my mastery of the material was amazing and that if I ever needed a student recommendation for anything...

I've spent most of this semester focused on teaching, not on my poor frustrated dissertation, and even within teaching more on my City College class. I didn't honestly think I taught that section very well, or did enough preparation for it. So hearing this, well, all I know is that lyrics from the Sound of Music suddenly sprang into my head in full orchestral and Julie Andrews :

"Perhaps I had a wicked childhood
Perhaps I had a miserable youth
But somewhere in my wicked miserable past
I must have had a moment of truth
For here you are
Standing there
Loving me
Whether or not you should
So somewhere in my youth
Or childhood
I must have done something good."

I guess I did something good this semester, even if my dissertation is barely started. I don't know whether this gives me permission to spend the next 24 hours in game prep, or whether it means what I should really do is focus on translating Italian and revising my conference paper for next week, which actually is part of the diss. But I haven't been wasting my time completely, and that's something to hold onto.