Last night after Parent-Teaches conferences at school, I curled up with a cup of tea and a book. It' about all you can do after teaching all day, popping into a student yoga class, then having a student club meeting after school of the WWF--Bulgaria (that's the World Wildlife Federation in case you're wondering and not wrestling although a wresting club would be pretty cool) and then four hours of basically non-stop parent conferences and a school cafeteria made sandwich for dinner. Sure it would be better to curl up with a glass of wine and a book but we've got another round of Parent-Conferences today from 10-2pm. I've already said good-bye to my weekend and I've come to grips with the fact that I'm never going to finish reading the Catherine the Great biography that I stared over Thanksgiving weekend. First, it's a long book and second, recently I've only had time to read before bed. This said, I need to finish the book. I've found myself thinking about Catherine sometimes and wondering what's going to happen to her next. I wonder how she can survive being married to her horrible prince-husband Peter. I can't imagine having to live with Elizabeth the current Russian queen. Elizabeth is both demanding and conniving--what a horrible mix. So I keep thinking about these people in the book as characters in a drama and then I have to remind myself: this is real. This is history.