I don't want this to be a dumping ground for my complaints, but what happened this past week -- another friend of our students' was shot and killed, we were in a lockdown during a gang war inside the school building, and one of our students told us he was thinking about killing himself -- sucked me so dry that I didn't want to write and ignore what happened.

This weekend rejuvenated me. Saturday morning Ali and I went to a cute diner up the street, Halloween night we dressed up and went out dancing with Josh, and then today I met up with friends from college for a birthday brunch. I bought lavender on the street, hung it on my wall, and now my whole room smells sweet.