the first day of summer...for me, anyway

This is it! School ended yesterday and now I have arrived at those glorious lazy days of summer that I've heard so much about over the last several years. No rushing off to camp this year! (I would have been there for four days already--deep in the midst of bonding and planning--had I worked this summer.) Not to worry. I have plenty to keep me busy and the uncertainty of potential unemployment or a big move looming in the distance. But for now, I think not of that. I appreciate the fact that school is OVER and my time is my own...sort of. ;) [No, that is not ME in that hammock. This picture is just representative of the plans I have for the summer...first on the list: get a hammock!]

So what might you imagine my life is like now that the days of summer have begun? Well, around 2am I am awakened by strange dreams of having messed up while grading my 7th graders' final exams to find that I have heartburn (ugh!)...so I stumble to the dark bathroom, chew on a few of those awful, chalky flavored wafers (a side question: why do they flavor those things? is ANY flavor going be appealing if your stomach isn't feeling well???) and return to bed, planning to sleep until I wake up naturally...something I rarely have the luxury to do. And so after a period of lovely, restful dozing, I awaken imagining it to be oh, probably 8:30 or 9am by this point. I hear birds chirping; the sunlight is streaming through my dinky mini-blinds. My curiosity as to the time finally gets the better of me and I open my eyes to look: 7:20am!! ugh! And then I'm almost simultaneously struck by another awful realization: My throat is sore. It figures! My first day of freedom and I wake up early and with a sore throat. Blah.

So far these lazy days of summer haven't been so glorious to me! Perhaps they'll get better...perhaps not, but for the moment they are mine. A glorious paid summer off. And do not ever let anyone fool you. These long breaks are not for the students. They are so that the teachers can forget why they were on the verge of resigning before the break!