Bipolar is more like it--I'm happy today!

Okay. Things that have made my second year better than my first year:

1. I have found a mentor teacher on-campus who's been willing to let me borrow a number of ideas. Most importantly, I am teaching Geometry for the first time this semester, and I was a little lost about what pacing plan or structure to follow. I showed up in his classroom like the third day of school, and he walked over to his file cabinet and handed me three thick file folders filled with materials. But also ...
1. He gave me some classroom management ideas--going over and whispering to students instead of getting drawn into arguments played out in front of the class, for example.
2. He suggested nonweighted grading, so that how many points it's worth is how many points it's worth. Weighted grading confused me and my students last year. I prefer clarity.
3. He's helped me come up with a way to use teacher's assistants to grade homework, so I haven't really spent any time grading homework so far (more on this later)
2. I have found an online community of math teachers on Twitter constantly bubbling over with math conversations and ideas and discussions pertinent to what I'm doing. More specifically ...
1. I've already used several fun activities I found on other people's blogs:
1. 31-derful, courtesy @missrubinteach ...
2. A drag-race three-act, courtesy @dandersod
3. Haven't used it yet, but printed it up as if to use it--an equations project, a calendar of equations (and inequalities) to solve, courtesy @heather_kohn .
2. The community of teachers online gives me an appropriate place to vent and whine about my problems BEFORE getting to the solutions. Perhaps one day I'll be so solutions-oriented that I'll be happy to skip this step, but for now, I need it. Very encouraging hearing from other teachers who feel the same way I do--occasionally unstoppable, occasionally defeated
3. I have a better thythm throughout the day. Last year I had my prep period Second Period, so after getting up early for a 7:25 a.m. class, I'd then take the next hour off, and then have to get revved up again for four more in a row, but those four were also broken up--nutrition between third and fourth, lunch between fifth and sixth. I really like getting one-two-three over with at the very beginning of the day, no break. Oh yeah, I forgot to mention--my prep this year is FIFTH, right before lunch, so ... long lunch. The last period of the day is Algebra 1A, which isn't ideal, but I'm well-rested from the long lunch and generally in a good mood. 
4. I get to see kids on-campus who are not in my classes but who know me and are fun to say "hi" to! Some of them actually came by my room to say hi--what a treat that was, and continues to be! I always heard teachers talk about that being cool, but I thought they were referring to the rare student who comes back after he/she graduates. 
5. Either I lucked into better-behaved students, or they're behaving better because I'm not so nervous being in front of the room that they smell blood in the water. Today has been a great example of all this so far; I showed up all down-in-the-dumps after not using my weekend particularly efficiently, and thinking I would be made to pay in spades for my poor choices. But instead it's been a CHILL day. Things that don't go smoothly are seldom such a disaster that I can't get some lesson from the mistake. 
6. Honestly, I have no idea what's going on, why it's so much better. I mean, thank you God. Seriously, I want to thank God. Right now, at 12:46 p.m. on a Monday, in September, in this the year 2013 and the 37th year of my life, I want to say, I recognize how fortunate I am. Things have gotten better, are getting better, and I pray for the willingness to let that continue. I repeat: I have no idea what's going on. But I like it.