"I can't believe they let you teach."

With class now on Thursday, Anakin felt like his whole week was a little out of whack. He arrived in the office after dropping Juliet off at preschool, looked around and realized his office was a complete disaster.

"Kriffing gremlins," he growled under his breath, starting to straighten up using the Force.

It worked for the kids' toys in the evening, it'd work for this.

[OOC: Open!]

Anakin was in his office with Christopher today (Rory was home sleeping off an election-related caffeine crash).

He was a little disappointed not to see the elephants and donkeys around any more: they would have kept the baby entertained for a while.

But then, Anakin reflected as he watched his son, Chris's own fists kept him entertained well enough...

It had been bad enough that he was in a navy blue polyester nightmare, but Anakin's problems had only compounded when he'd reached out to save what he'd thought had been several little green toys from falling into the pond on his way to the school.

"You saved our lives," they intoned in creepy unison, pattering along behind him. "We are eternally grateful."

"Really, it's nothing," Anakin said. "Go away."

"You saved our lives," they repeated in the same tone. "We are eternally grateful."

"Fine, fine, you're grateful," Anakin said, shooing them into his office and hiding them under his desk. "Now hide."

"You saved our lives. We are eternally grateful."

It was going to be an unbearable day, but the Dean of Students was in for all of your bitching about your uniform/new roommate/final exam needs.

Anakin was in his office with Juliet today. He was (futiley) trying to get her to color quietly.

She was throwing Play-doh at his walls.

Anakin was reminding himself (A LOT) that mindwhammying a toddler was a Bad Idea.

Probably.

...he was getting less convinced of that as the day wore on.

Anakin was reading a copy of the student paper with a small grin on his face. He didn't think he could have actually missed the coffee pin-up of the week, and yet he had.

He wondered if Rory would enjoy seeing it as well and decided to take a copy home to share with her.

Until then, though, he would be spending time working on his lesson plan for Thursday.

The door was open.

Now that his class was held on Thursday, Anakin's office hours had shifted to Tuesday. He was currently at his desk with his class roster and a piece of paper designing a seating chart.

Based on the first day of class and the radio from this morning, he was wondering if he should just have Loki and Alex come to ethics every other week.

The door was open!

Anakin had been coping with the ever-growing list of students and friends that had been added to the board of the missing, even as he received final messages of his own.

But the one he woke up to this morning left him sitting quietly behind his desk and staring into space. Rory was the great love of his life, and his best friend, but Aeryn--they'd boggled at the strange Earth traditions together and commisserated about the abject evil of Santa Claus and had been thrown out of every paintball course in a three-state radius of both of their homes...and now she was gone.

Anakin wasn't quite ready to deal with a universe without Aeryn and John in it. He definitely wasn't ready to tell his wife about this.

So his office door was open, but it might take a minute to catch his attention.

Anakin was in his office surrounded by droid babies. He was tweaking their programming for this year so that they would be able to crawl.

Because babies that just sat around and cried were far too easy.

He was humming a bit under his breath. Sometimes Anakin wasn't as far away from the Dark Side as he liked to believe.

The door was open!

Another semester started, so that meant Anakin was back in his office writing down his initial impressions of his students and wondering if he would have to make some seating rearrangements.

Maybe in a few weeks--that seemed like a great deal of work right now. Instead he was laying out ideas for his first Danger Shop interactive ethical question, looking a little devious.

His door was open.

Today was Anakin's 46th 28th. Totally 28th birthday and he was celebrating by working on his final exam questions and getting his students' grades together.

Anakin was clearly quite a party animal.

When he was finished, he would reward himself by watching a non-animated movie (there weren't a lot of chances for that at home) and having an adult beverage that didn't have to be kept in a spill-proof cup. And cake. Because there should always be cake at birthdays.

The door was open!