Monday, July 26, 2010

August Looms

I know it sounds strange to say that this is kind of like the last "real" week of summer break, but it is for me.  Yes, I know. School doesn't officially start until the very end of August and that would indicate that I still have plenty of time.  However, August marks the season where I have to start thinking in terms of Going Back.  It's not like I just walk in on the first day of school and everything is ready.  I have to go make it be ready and that takes some time.  Granted, I do this on my own schedule and am generally home for lunch and a nap by midday, but still...it's a very different mindset.

I think that is why I am suddenly feeling pressure to do as much as possible this week.  Suddenly, I have knit three feet of scarf.  I've washed the kitchen floor and started sorting through some of the grown up clothes required for keeping my career.  I also canned three more pints of pickles in order that I might be sustained pickle-wise in the coming work-a-day lifestyle.

I took a picture of the pickles, but then realized that I've already shown you a picture of pickles.  It is unreasonable to assume that people want to gaze upon pickles more than once.  Anything beyond that is just pickle overkill and looks braggy.  Like my pickle wealth somehow makes me better than everyone else...

I'm lining up the next knitting project and have actually gone so far as to wrap a Christmas present.  I'm making a list of the books I'd like to read before I have to go back to work so that I don't spend my days wondering what happened to all my favorite characters while I should be teaching Very Important Skills to Very Deserving Children.  I have taunted the mean Wii Fit Lady with my upcoming schedule so she knows she can't torture me in the mornings forever.  She doesn't seem all that fazed by this revelation.  She knows she'll just get me in the afternoon.  She's smart like that.

The only thing I'm not really worried about is getting myself up in the mornings.  Since The Cat Whisperer put the resident felines on a no-carb diet, there is no issue whatsoever with my lying abed.  The mighty beasts begin the hunt for sustenance at the crack of 5:00 a.m. since there is no kibble upon which to nosh while they await my achieving consciousness.  For the record, I don't get up when they tell me.  I hang in there and fake sleep for as long as I can stand it.  My iron will is the only thing that has kept me even remotely close to the top of the hierarchy here.  However, I do have to admit that the cats have really done a marvelous job of keeping me on the school schedule at a time when I might be tempted to slack off and act like a person on vacation.

So there you have it.  Sheepie is changing gears.  It's early, I know.  I don't have to go back to school just yet and I really do still have days of peaceful relaxation ahead of me.  But it's not forever and the last week of July is a gentle reminder of that.  I need to start thinking seriously about what I want to tell everyone I achieved this summer.

I wonder if there is still time to re-tile the bathroom and learn how to yodel?

SA

13 comments:

Betsy said...

Please...keep on with the pickle fotos...I was saying to the husbeast just this evening at dinner that if Sheepie can do it, then I can do it...and there threatens to be a cavalcade of cukes shortly...
BTW, my verifcation word is "frinap"...is that vegetable, mineral, or whatever????

sheep#100 said...

You're killing me, you know that? I, too, have to begin preparing for the fall semester but I am not anywhere near finished with this period of time known far and wide as summer.

It is still summer and you can't take it away from me!

Gah. I just looked at the word verification. It says "proph". I am so doomed.

Anonymous said...

Happily, I do not need to fear that the end of summer will send me back to school. It will, however, herald the heat of county budget time and that ain't no picnic, either, even though I does not require one to get up at 6 a.m.

Mia said...

oh, i know! Isn't it weird that the cats know the INSTANT your brain comes out of sleep... you don't have to move, breathe different or anything.. but mine knows - and starts mewowing. Generally about 4am :)

Now quit blogging and go can some stuff or read somethin' while ya can :))

Donna Lee said...

It's hard to think of the countdown beginning already. I'm not ready to let go of summer, yet.

Julia G said...

You can never have enough pickles! Perhaps you can learn how to yodel at just the right pitch and frequency to create a "standing wave" with Yodeling Student and thus create blissful silence. It's the same principle as noise-canceling headphones, only with yodeling.

April said...

I really miss the Index Cards of Summer - do you think we'll see them next year?

Gracey is not my name.... said...

Since my birthday is in the first week of August, I always wait until after that to start thinking about school...

However we have now lost 8 teachers and we got the line-up today...I am now teaching 5th grade...hmmmm

my word was "deckyan" meaning I can deck someone??

Jeanne said...

I kind of miss looking forward to the first day of school, but I'm not ready for August, either. July was so darned hot I got nothing accomplished except for sweating.

You know, in place of pickle pictures, it'd be great to have more VCK photos. Just sayin'.

Knitting Linguist said...

This sounds familiar. I don't go back until the end of the month, but can you believe my older daughter starts back on the tenth?! That means that we had to go out today and do the dreaded Back To School Shopping (made more dreadful by the need to buy not only some school clothes, but an appropriate dress for a twelve-year-old who's taller than I am to attend a memorial service; not easy). I'm not ready...

Kath said...

You wrapped a Christmas present? In July? Whoa. I think after that you can flash all the pickle pics you want!

twinsetellen said...

I had to read it three time - "wrapped a Christmas present". Then I checked the date to see if we had somehow jumped 6 months ahead (yes, I do wrap Christmas presents after Christmas. Happens all the time.).

We hadn't, so I must bow before you.

That, and you finished that sock. What a summer of accomplishment!

Karen said...

I've been busy and haven't been internetting much. Congratulations on your new kitty! VCK is so handsome. He and AGK make great partners in crime:)