Taking It In Stride

I honestly can't believe that I am staring down the gullet of the last full week of summer vacation, but it seems that I am.  Time certainly does fly when you're busy not doing other things...

There are a couple of different ways to approach this last week of freedom.  The first is to go into full-on Scamper Mode and frantically try to squeeze in all the things I said I was going to do back when the summer season seemed endless.  The second is to relax and just let it be what it will be while I sit back and appreciate the quiet.

The former is more tempting than it sounds, but not really all that practical in the end.  All that scampering never amounts to much more than a great deal of hand flapping and unfinished projects left for the next vacation.  (where they will probably also sit half done...)  The latter makes more sense in the long run.

The fact of the matter is that this coming week isn't really "vacation proper" anyway.  I will have to go in to school and set up the classroom.  The one good thing about being transferred to the middle school is that the upper grades tend to do far less in the way of decorating.  Simpler is better when it comes to the teenagers and most of us tend to focus more on getting the desks set up rather than on the creation of artful bulletin boards.  Middle school is really more about planning how best to foil escapes and other sneaky attempts to overthrow authority.  The less you have to distract you from what's going on behind the scenes, the better.  I'm pretty sure I can get things set up in a day if I put my mind to it.  I've been doing this long enough that I can whip up a good lookin' classroom in my sleep.

That should leave me with plenty of down time if I don't let myself get caught up in Time's Great Toilet Flush.  Nothing is going to stop that rush of water once the handle is pulled, right?  Besides, I've had a fairly productive summer.  I adopted a cat, visited with the dentist a couple of times and learned how to steam clean my kitchen floors.  I've canned enough produce to keep me going in the event of a short Zombie Apocalypse and could probably put a few more veggies aside should I put my mind to it during the autumn months.  I've read lots of books and even knit a few items, which is more than I can say for the ten months preceding this vacation.  The fact that the Situationally Necessary Octagonal Thing (SNOT) is now sitting on waste yarn until I can go back and pick up five million stitches is something we don't need to discuss at the moment.  I still say I got a lot done...

Heck, I even managed to make an appointment with my plastic surgeon, Dah-lings!  Frankly, I didn't even know that I had a plastic surgeon whose name could be preceded by a "my," but apparently I do.  How very up 'n coming of me!

Actually, I am a person who leans towards benign skin growths and we've come to removal season.  Most of the time, my own doc can zap or hack them but she won't touch anything on the face.  I had a cyst of sorts removed a few years back and Dr. NippenTucker's name is recorded in my file.  As a result, I have a plastic surgeon to call my own.  At least by my family physician's standards.  I guess that's something else I can add to the summer's List Of Accomplishments.  I now know I have my very own surgeon...

I don't even need to be stressed about that appointment, since the procedure isn't going to happen until October.  I can just sit back and let this coming week flow, secure in the knowledge that it's OK to relax a bit.  Even then, I still don't have to worry about facing the educational music until September 1st.

After that, all bets are off.  I'm pretty sure I'll start stressing out before the first bell rings and stay on High Alert until they let us go again next June.  But that's then and this is now.

It is still Summer Vacation, dag-nabbit!!!

SA