Saturday, August 21, 2010

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

9 comments:

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

One more week...lucky you! Teachers go back Monday - with a full week of PD. Hopefully they are going to give some classroom setup time, as they switched a bunch of teachers on Thursday (schools aren't open on Fridays in summer)

My room is about 75% set up...

Anonymous said...

Don't let HM know about the thing-to-be-removed-in-October. She doesn't need the drama.

Pretend this week off is the one-week vacation that a lot of people get and enjoy it to the fullest!

Mia said...

oh my gosh! It DOES seem like it just started!

Ok.. deep breath.. you can still stay up late tonight and eat cake for breakfast. Or maybe wafooz??

sheep#100 said...

It may still say summer vacaiton on the calendar but I have got to get going on the semester planning thing pronto. Just a couple of weeks of freedom remain. Time to start the making of the PowerPoint slides and getting the programming projects a-humming in preparation for the student to come.

Too bad my laptop is somewhere between the Atlantic Ocean and the Great Lakes, zipping on its way to a full return to factory specifications.

And Number Guy's computer (which I am borrowing) boasts a mere gigabyte of RAM... this can't be good...

scienceprincess said...

You're lucky. In my district (northern IL), we went back on Wednesday, and I am looking at children on Monday. In the never-ending battle to make life more exciting for us teachers, the district has thoughtfully rendered the internet (where the class lists are) non-functional, and unplugged every copy machine in the district. I am looking forward to meeting the kids, though, so all is not lost.

I just want to be able to copy my syllabus.

Good luck with your last vacation week.
Sarah/scienceprincess

Karen said...

This summer passed so quickly. At least we had plenty of sunny hot days. My son returns to school 9/1. My daughter returns to college tomorrow. We are in pack and panic mode.

Beth said...

I'm with kmkat - watch out for HM!

Knitting Linguist said...

That's what I kept telling myself right up until a couple of hours ago, when it suddenly occurred to me that I'm starting classes a week from Tuesday, and that I have all-day meetings this Monday and Tuesday, and we're out of town for a memorial from this Wednesday until next Monday. Hmmm... Wonder if I'll have anything to say on that first day? I can't wait to see what happens.

Donna Lee said...

When I had to have my gall bladder out a few years ago, the pcp asked "who's your surgeon?" and I was stupified. I had a surgeon? Who knew?

I finally had to ask for a referral and got a nice one (who was born in 1972 and is very young)who did a fine job.