The reality is that Bella slept with me last night and started flopping about like a fish out of water just before 6. The other reality is that we live in an old house with window units which are confused and thought the outside temp was the inside temp and offered me not a chilly room, but a warmish room and a place for the outside cats to perch and howl for their breakfast. I did not manage to sleep past 6 until July. I haven't managed sleeping past 6:30 until the past two weeks. Thus, I should not be surprised that my last true Saturday of summer break found me flipping through Pinterest ideas for school at 6:30 A.M. while I sipped a second cup of coffee, a luxury only allowed on Saturdays. I am not overly pleased, though I do relish the alone time so am letting the flopping fish sleep in.
The weather is beguilingly fall-like, the air damp and cool, beckoning me to outside projects, to take a jog, to work in the garden. A wee bit cooler and I would drizzle some Irish whiskey into this coffee. If Jack were home, I would con him into taking us to the mountains for a hike. He isn't and really none of those outside things will likely happen. A walk perhaps, but nothing more. Inside tasks will be limited as well - I need to scrub the bathtub, to roast and put up peppers, to mop the kitchen. In reality, I will wash the sheets, do only the musts in the kitchen and wipe out my Netflix backlog today. I believe I promised the kid some board game time and we ABOSLUTELY MUST FOR SURE deal with her room. In the last week it seems to have exploded.
Back in the winter, my shoulder started aching off and on when I spent a lot time chopping veggies or doing serious scrubbing. Then opening my class door and driving began to sometimes ache. I thought two weeks of vacation might help, but by June, I was hurting most of the time and something as simple as washing dishes was really painful. I made an appointment with the doc but wasn't able to get in until mid July. An x-Ray didn't reveal much except that things just weren't quite right. It took fourteen business days to have an MRI approved and another four to actually have it done. Turns out I only have tendonitis and bursitis. (Three cheers for nothing major!) I started oral steroids yesterday - if that doesn't work, maybe some steroid injections and who knows what else - shouldn't be anything big. In the meantime, I am supposed to be babying the shoulder. It hurt enough that I didn't go pick blackberries last week even though I knew where some were. I never pass up blackberries. No weed eating. No weed pulling. Really shouldn't mess with those peppers. No scrubbing bathtubs.
If you know me well, you know that I am not good at sitting still - I always have a project and I get really antsy right before school. It is a bit like that flurry of activity women have right before babies are born. I feel the need to get every big house chore done because I know I won't again have the time, energy, or inclination all at once until next summer. I feel the pressing need to do one last fun thing with Jack and Bell. I feel this clock ticking down the seconds to school starting. Impending doom. Stress. Jumping the hurdles of state dept requirements. Dealing with parents. Motivating those who don't wish to be motivated. Grading essays. Improving our test scores. I return officially to work on Thursday and I am just not ready.
Surprisingly, or maybe not surprisingly, this uncharacteristically cool first August Saturday morning finds me perusing Pinterst for first day activities, ways to improve rhetorical analysis lessons, things to improve my teaching, and things to cook for Jack Dear and grow in my garden (you know, more of those non-shoulder babying activities). After Pinterest, I looked at fall break camping plans and then a place for a Jack and I only weekend. I know, school hasn't started and I am already plotting my escapes. Happy Saturday. Happy Second Cuppa Day.
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