WNBP: Missing Vacations And Snow Days

This has been a stupidly busy week.  It is only Wednesday and I already miss those halcyon days of vacation, back when all I had to do was loll about and my only worry was possible bedsores by noon.

Yeah...I am probably one of those people who might require a check-in now and again.  It is entirely possible that I have lost touch with the concept of movement.  One day I could easily find myself incapable of getting off the sofa due to severe loss of muscle tone.  Or the will to find a reason to do so.

Here's your weekly version of The Wednesday Night Bullet Post.  On the plus side, that gives me a reason to get up.  I don't have the laptop anymore.  Now I gotta go to the keyboard...


*Last week, I was predicting a snow day.


*Got it.


*There was just enough snow to make it worth calling off school.


*I'm lying.  There was a lot of snow.  A stupid amount of snow.  It was the kind of storm that makes people want to compare notes afterwards.


*As in, "I had so much snow on my car that I gave up trying to move it and just decided to let the plows run into it like any other snowbank.


*I didn't do that.  But I gave it some serious thought.


*This week, I am sweating in my classroom due to the 60 degree temps and the inability to shut off the heat in that section of the building.


*Too weird...


*And not something I want to contemplate for too long.  I have Parent/Teacher Conferences tomorrow night and the idea of being trapped in my own personal sauna for 11 hours is something of a buzz kill.


*Might get confused tomorrow morning and think I am on vacation again just to avoid it.


*Don't be fooled by this cat.  He looks cute.  I know I've said it before, but people just won't take heed.

They just look at him and say, "Awwwww!"

*He is, in fact, The Naughtiest Kitty In The Whole Wide World and can frequently be found dangling from The Very Expensive But Now Tattered Drapes whilst simultaneously nibbling on a spider plant.


*No.  That situation does not seem to have gotten any better.  Thanks for asking.


*I have been making steady progress on 11/22/63: A Novel since school started back up.


*That is a 30+ hour audio book if I remember the stats correctly.  One does not simply whiz through that much audio.


*It's good.  Very good.  But it is something of a commitment.  One needs to be very secure in one's relationship with this novel.


*Or be trapped in a car for a couple of hours per day.  That works, too...


*Otherwise, I'm reading some old stuff.


*Visiting with my favorite zombie PI, Matt Richter.


*Currently re-enjoying Dark War: A Matt Richter Novel (Matt Richter Novels)


*These are an almost blatant ripoff of the Nightside series, except that they maybe kind of aren't.


*What can I say?  Maybe they are an homage....


*I don't care either way.  They are fun and dark and keep me from suddenly realizing that the Very Complicated Kitty is trying to eat the printer.


*I know that seems random, but I just looked down while I was typing to see the VCK chewing on the paper tray and I just can't seem to process that visual in any way that makes sense.


*One cat is eating the plants.  The other is eating my printer.


*This was not the life I envisioned for myself when I was a wee, little Sheepie.


*Ballerina/Lawyer/Super-Spy, yes.


*Middle aged woman living with cats who are literally eating her out of house and home?  No.


*Don't even ask what happened to my favorite set of size 2 sock needles over vacation.  It wasn't pretty and I think it might have been a team effort.


*Busy weekend.  I was off helping to score tests for the Maine Academic Decathlon.


*I've done this for about a billion years now and it is always rewarding.  Very tiring, too.


*Which is weird because it isn't exactly a physical endeavor.


*I get a t-shirt.  I like activities that result in t-shirts.


*Plus, I get to see my niece-by-proxy and that is always fun.  


*Except for the part where she keeps growing up on me.  I swear to you that she is only three.


*She tells me that she is going to be in 7th grade next year, but I highly doubt that.  I think she is confused.


*I am not that old.


*Three works for me.


*You don't tell a woman with destructive cats and a marked lack of vacation days in her life that she is aging like that.  You ease into it.  Say, over a period of years.


*Perhaps even decades.  Or don't even mention it at all.


*I don't normally have many girls in my class.  This year, I have two.


*The Siren (who lures the boys to their ultimate doom with her irresistible song) was cranky today.


*Also grouchy.  And achy.  And impossible to reason with.  And unwilling to stop sharing how unhappy she was with anyone who crossed her path.


*I finally sent her to the nurse for ibuprofen and then informed her that she was to eat chocolate when she got home.  

"I don't care in what form.  You can lick the almost empty packets of cocoa mix if that's what it takes.  Just get some into your system before one of us kills the other!!"

*She looked at me thoughtfully and, without missing a beat, said, "I've got Nutella.  I should be OK."

*Then we laughed and laughed and talked about desserts and all the boys edged their chairs away from us with looks of abject horror pasted upon their pale faces.


*They probably miss vacation, too.  But I lack sympathy.



Well, that should about do it for this week.  We had a staff meeting after school today and Mr. Assistant Principal directed us to get lots of rest tonight.  I am not one to ignore a direct order, especially one that allows me to rest.  I am good at that.  I'm pretty sure he wanted us to look all bright eyed and bushy tailed for conferences tomorrow, but I still take it as a directive to loll on the couch.

It's a long time before the next vacation, after all.

SA