You'll need to catch up

1. I celebrated my 24th birthday twice. Privately, and very quietly with P on the day itself. Then, the next day, dinner and drinks with friends, which culminated in burnt popcorn and corn chips in my lounge room at 1 in the morning. Lovely people gave me lovely, silly, thoughtful gifts - a violently pink pair of PJs with matching fluffy slippers, amongst other things. I hate pink, and they know it. What stood out that weekend though, were the gifts P got me and the planning that went into the quiet night I had wanted. Dinner and videos were all I expected, and I got that, with frills. He knew all of my favourites. My favourite dish at my favourite Asian cafe. One of my favourite videos. My favourite brand and type of chocolate. A lemon tart with a candle, accompanied by a song. A fuffy ball for my constant fidgeting. Little things that showed me that he listened to my ramblings and had taken note. It was quite the best birthday I've had.

2. Our friends finally realised that P and I are "going out". The look on their faces when I confirmed that we've been a couple since April was priceless. "Why didn't we spot the signs earlier?!!!" they moaned. P and I thought the signs was bleeding obvious, if they had looked.

3. I went to Canberra and met the politicians. I sat ten feet away from Johnny Howard, listened to his distinctive nasally voice and watched his idiosyncratic gestures. The Governor General gave a speech at our opening dinner (I nearly fell asleep - only because I had been up since 5 that morning, and it was a pretty full on day). Our parliamentary host was Mr Speaker and we got to see the mace and the keys that they use to open Parliament. We sat in on Question Time, which turned out to be highly entertaining - they sounded like my classes: the politicians were the kiddies, Mr Speaker was the teacher. I met a bunch of articulate, focused, ambitious young men and women, and came away absolutely blown away by the idealism of a "Servant Leader".

4. Three weeks left to the school term and my internship. I wrote my first reports this week - albeit they were interim reports, I just had to tick boxes. I had to ring a parent up to tell them their son was failing Year 11 Chemistry. I sent a kid to the co-ordinator's office, and felt very guilty after that. I have resolved never to teach Commerce, and would love to teach Forensic Science forever. I will be conducting parent-teacher interviews soon. All the interns are stressing about their research projects. I am stressing more so than them because I was admitted into the Honours stream in July, and now have to write an extra 2000 words. I go on camp with the Year 9s on Monday, something I am a little uneasy about. There is so much I need to do before the end of term and I'm a little concerned I may not be able to get to the end of my to-do list.

5. P has hinted that his parents would like to meet me.

6. This does not do justice to the whirlwind of activities of the past four weeks.