6:15am: today starts off rough -not wanting morning to arrive, nausea from having to face another day, a deep sadness over having to leave my cat Roxanne at home again while i go to work for another grueling 10 hours.

8am: at work, i force myself through the motions. i teach grade 4 at an international school in Shanghai, China. life here is…different. kids are different. people are definitely different. i’m on my own here. i must will myself through each day, or i won’t make it. 6 months until my contract is up and i can move on to the next chapter of my life…will i make it? here come the kids. one step at a time. easy does it.

9am: am ecstatic because i got an email back from the city of San Diego regarding an opening with the SD police department! oh, if only this can happen for me! but wait, i’m expected to be in San Diego for a written and physical test on the 11th, this Saturday. not sure if i can make it on such short notice. will try to call or email them back about possibly rescheduling. am still super charged at the possibility of a new life.

12:40pm: hate meeting with adults at work. just had a training on literacy centers we need to implement into our classrooms starting next week. if the meeting had been a brief 15 or 20 minutes, trust me, my mood would not feel like someone just took a big dump on it.

2:57pm: almost time to leave work, an hour to go. i can’t wait to get home to Roxanne and Hotmuzz’s spirit. i miss Hotmuzz so much. making it through another day, don’t want to think about tomorrow. San Diego offers some sunlight in an otherwise blackened abyss. don’t want to think about anything except making it to 4pm for now.