pamelonian

Change is stressful. Even supposedly "good" change brings about a certain degree of stress. I have been mostly stress-free all summer long, and tomorrow I go back to teaching. We will have the usual 3 days of in-service, meetings, and time to prepare the rooms (and ourselves) before classes start on Tuesday.

Truth be told, I am looking forward to it. I have been getting quite restless here lately and it will be good to be able to occupy my mind with daily minutiae. (I haven't used that word in a while!) The main difference the change brings is the daily need to get up early, leave at 6:15 or so in order to arrive in Kansas City by 7:00ish. I can do it; I have been for years. It is funny how quickly I forget what it is like and what I do all day...

I have been having the school dreams again. There is the one where I can't find my classroom and I am wandering the hallways lost until the class is practically over! Or the one where I show up in the morning with absolutely nothing prepared and a room full of teenagers are looking at me like, "If you can't occupy us, we will think of something!" (I can, and have adlibbed a lesson before, but that can only happen well into the school year when a rhythm and a routine have been established. The day can run itself if the pattern has been set.)

Anyway, back to today. It seems too hot and humid to ride my bike. There is aikido class tonight, and I have been sitting on my butt reading. I guess that is an OK way to spend my last day of summer. I think there will be more beer involved.

I am having a really hard time doing anything today. I read a dumb paperback novel that I started yesterday, mostly to compare it to my own. I do think my story is better. That is not to say that I think what I have written is pure genius, but I hope it will be an entertaining read with occasional thought-provoking bits. I really wanted to write characters that were interesting and had mostly good intentions, like the rest of us! I am going to finish editing that manuscript and work on getting it published. I think folks will like it. There is enough crap that DOES get published, so why wouldn't mine be accepted?

My second novel has potential. I am actually writing it with a plan in mind, what a concept!

I was bored enough to do some cleaning today. Ecch!

I don't feel like riding my bike. Blah...

I need to run some errands, but that's dull. Maybe it is time to open the beer.

I go back to teaching Thursday, August 11. Faculty breakfast, work day in our classrooms, Friday In-service about using music in teaching foreign language. (I think I will bring a book, and my guitar.) Monday is another work day and Tuesday is the First Day of School. It is perhaps a symptom of some illness, but I look forward to seeing the other teachers and meeting my 150-or-so new students.

Meanwhile, I have New Belgium Trippel and some Scotch Ale to work on...