Rewards (and FOOD)

I finished grading my students first papers! (which were a mixed bag, in case you were curious). I was able to do all 50 of them in 4 days, but those 4 days were not overly fun, and involved me going to bed at 2 last night, getting up at 7, and grading until 11 this morning. BUT, they are done, and I celebrated this afternoon by going for a long walk in the crisp fall air, getting a few shirts and a pair of yoga pants at the mall, treating myself to new bodywash (nectarine and ginger! Dove, mmm), and going to Bloomingfoods. There are 3 Bloomingfoods, which is the co-op grocery store, here. I don't go there enough to justify belonging to the co-op, but one of my friends does, so I just use her number (which means she'll get more discounts eventually).

Bloomingfoods is an amazing place, with some phenomenal people watching--it's a fun mix of very, very hippie-types, trendy 20-somethings, and professors. It's also very organic, health-conscious, and therefore usually quite out of my budget. But today was one of their tent sales, where they erect a huge white tent in the parking lot and put all of their overstocked goods out there at really good prices. It's a mad house, especially right when it opens, but it had calmed down a bit by the time I got there. So what did I acquire?
--sweet potato and apple chips
--organic white cheddar popcorn
--pitted dates
--3 honeycrisp apples (I am really, really picky about apples, being from upstate NY and being snobby about apples. Bloomingfoods is one of the few places in town that carries apples that I really like, probably because they are locally grown.)
--German sparkling apple cider
--2 liters of sweet tea
--organic cranberry pecan cookies
--a bar of milk chocolate with lime
--a bar of dark chocolate with chilies
--an Asian pear
--fresh mozzarella
--2 avocados
Cost: $21.

Now, I did indeed just list you my grocery list, most of which was impulse buys, but there you are. Tonight, two of my friends are coming over for dinner--one is making lentil loaf (aka, vegetarian meatloaf), the other is making a grape salad, and I'm making tomato, basil and mozzarella salad, and taking some leftover rice crispies, pouring melted chocolate over it, and sprinkling it with sea salt. We're going to do homework--and really, the best way to do homework is with friends and food. Yesterday I taught for 3 hours, then graded, then went to two lectures back to back (both of which were phenomenally good, on viewing 17th century Dutch art and Iranian posters from the Revolution), and then went out to dinner with three friends, where we all acted very silly. I think probably because most of us had been on campus for 11 hours by that point, and had had to be "academic" all day, so we just sat around giggling about nothing. It was wonderful. Friends and food--those are the rewards I need.

And most importantly, HAPPY BIRTHDAY MOM!!!