*aaah* It's Over.

And so, it is done.

The day yesterday was fantastic. I spent the entire day - from 7:30 AM to 2:45 PM - giving speeches in front of six classes of fifth graders about what it's like to be a writer, how writers get their ideas, how to world-build, how to character-build, and the place of linguistics in writing.

They listened closely, asked pertinent questions (for the most part) and when I caught a couple of the kids that I'd spoke to at the grade school yesterday afternoon wen I picked up Conman and asked if they enjoyed the talk, they all said "yes". I asked a couple of them if they'd learned anything, and they all said, "a little bit", which is also encouraging. They could have easily enjoyed me being there (yay! no work today!) but not learned a damn thing. Kids are just honest enough at 10 and 11 years old to say, "Yeah, I had fun, but no, I didn't learn anything."

So all in all, no crying, no yelling, no bloodshed, no death (of either me or a child) and I'm confident in the knowledge that at least a few of them enjoyed and learned from my being there. I would have to say that was a success.