end in joy

last night i was forced to grade papers. i am familiar with roughly six novels of approximately 4,000 pages in length that i would choose to read over doing the accursed thing. dusting even trumps the threat of the unspeakable (and if you’ve seen my house, you know you could start a worm farm in the dust). so, this afternoon i organized all the work, entered the grades i could, and brought the rest home to finish after church. all during church i could hear the stack in the car making nasty remarks about how i had great intentions of getting the work done, but would flake at the last moment and clean house instead. the papers have been silenced. i got home, had pancakes, ignored the dishes i made (they were uncommonly tempting tonite), sat down with a clock to my left, and began. i’ve disciplined myself to spend a certain number of minutes on each paper, otherwise i obsess over the tiniest comma or unimaginative adverb (if i have to read the word “very” ever again, i’m going to go very mad). amazingly i achieved my goal in a record amount of time with little soul pain. the real fun began as i placed the final green stroke. the “so shall the night soon end in joy” song began to giggle from the cd player. of course, i had to jump on the bed to celebrate the end of grading and the end of the night in joy! and i jumped and jumped and jumped until i couldn’t jump any more because of the soul wrenching laughter that ensued. i ended in a joy filled, giggling heap at the foot of the bed. maybe i should grade papers more often.