My pretend cat

I am running out of mental and emotional space this week. I had assignments to grade for my TA job that took eight hours Friday and another eight hours Sunday. Plus all my schoolwork took all day Saturday, so I feel like I need a weekend after my weekend. Unfortunately I have a huge journal review due on Thursday night, and midterm grading next weekend (probably at least another 15 hours!) But the great news is that next week is a reading week so I'll be able to stop for air. Yesterday, after a particularly weary day in the world of academia (which, granted, is no where near as wearying as the real world or, even worse, the world of high school students that Carole is swimming through) I was spent. I went home after a nonsensical three hour statistics lecture to find a little brown paper package on the kitchen counter. With wonderful timing, So Young (college roommate from Korea) had sent me the sweetest gift. She knows me well, it was a small stuffed cat. He/she doesn't have a name yet, but it's lovely to pet for stress relief (not to the point where you'd doubt my mental stability, of course!) Submissions for names will be accepted in the blog comments. I wish, of course, that I could have a real cat; maybe one of these...