Happy New Year!

Tuesday, September 6, 2022

School year, that is. I like that I get two fresh-start-feeling times per year. I went to bed earlier than usual (meaning it was before midnight), but unfortunately then woke up earlier than usual – about 5 hours earlier. I thought about a lot of things (and tried not to) from 3:30 until 5:15am, then fell asleep so my alarm could wake me up.

I went out at 6am (62 degrees) and swam my loops. That is what Keith called it the other day and I love it. It makes me happy to think of swimming loops. Loop loop loop. Fun to say. I came in and showered, then cooked some eggs, packed my lunch, got dressed, and was only three minutes late walking in the door. The high school is the closest to our house, so that is a really nice.

It was 9th graders only, and we only had them for a really quick find-your-classroom type of visit. Two out of three of our classes seem terrific! I was very surprised how many of them I knew. I haven’t been in the primary (PRIMARY!) feeder school much since pandemic and didn’t think I worked much with 6th graders back when they were 6th graders but are now 9th graders, but I knew about half. I greeted one kid by name (score!), and just lumped him in with everyone else as I-knew-you-when. After he left, and I was back to reading IEPs, I suddenly realized he was from the other middle school and I know him from hanging out in math there last year. Did I mention in my springtime ramblings that I had a student in my frequented math class that always wore a hoodie pulled tight and wore a mask, so all I could see was his eyes? It was him! No hoodie. No mask. And I recognized him right away! I did think several times that his face was much fuller than it had been in 6th grade…that he looked like himself, but different. Well, that’s because I had NEVER SEEN HIS HEAD. Fun.

I have to go make my lunch now, because there is no time in the morning and I really need to get some sleep. Two days in a row of working seems like a very lot right now 🙂