Who'da thunk it?

So, I'm neck deep in the grading o' the finals.

I'm not a huge fan of reading the 6-page finals, but I do my best to be thorough and fair, afterall it's what my students deserve.

One of my students — no doubt trying to earn a few extra brownie points — wrote a note at the top of her exam extolling my virtues as a teacher. Since flattery will get you everywhere, I gave her an "A" ... except not, but it did make me smile.

I enjoy teaching and actually think that I'm getting pretty good at teaching this class.

But it's nice to know that the students (at least some of them) enjoy it and get something out of the class, as well.

This fact presented itself loud and clear Saturday night. I went downtown around 10 p.m. with a friend to meet up with some other people. We were sitting at a table at the local brew pub when a noticably intoxicated young woman approached.

I quickly recognized her as a former student. She introduced herself to me, reminded me that she was in my class a couple of semesters ago and then proceeded to tell me how much she enjoyed my class and so forth.

Then she went on her merry way only to return with a pair of fancy shots which she wanted to share with me.

Now, we all know my on-again, off-again relationship with alcohol, but for the most part, I do consider myself a non-drinker (although, that fact is getting pretty laughable these days though). But for some reason I didn't decline the drink, instead I toasted the toasted student and shot the shot down.

I don't know what it was — someone said that it had Crown Royal in it — but I do know that it was good.

So the drink was drunk, the drunk toddled off and I was left with my tablemates once again.

She did return once again as we were leaving, but all in all, it was nice to hear that I'm not wasting my breath every Monday night.