WNBP: Relaxing Hard

I've spent the last hour trying to figure out just what the heck I was forgetting.  I knew there was something...I couldn't put my finger on it.

Oh, yeah!  I blog.  And it's Wednesday.  I know it's Wednesday because last night was the premier of Deadliest Catch and that meant it was Tuesday.  Tuesday precedes Wednesday and I know it is Wednesday because I have a note on the coffee table reminding me that I was going to Family Lunch with Mommy and Daddy Sheep on Wednesday at noon.

I'm still burping barbecue sauce which would imply that I made that date.  Hence...it is Wednesday.  So, only a half an hour behind schedule, here is the Wednesday Night Bullet Post!

*I blame Spring Break. 

*The April vacation is the one that reminds me of summer vacation days to come and I get pretty darned relaxed once that realization settles in.

*I fear that, come June, I will descend into a coma if this is going to be the state of affairs...

*I was very tired last Friday.  It was a long week. There was a great deal of..."stuff."

*The Maine Autism Leaders Team conference which required travel, something I don't do without annoying levels of angst.

*Knowing that my Absurdly Gi-normous Kitty had already foiled the auto-feeder designed to keep not just him, but also his brother, fed at a reasonable rate over the course of my overnight conferencing.

*Returning from the conference to my classroom where I discovered that several of my students were less than delightful in my absence.

*Then the horrible email that said one of my colleagues was killed in a tragic accident on her way to work that morning.

*One of the very women I'd just spent two days with at the conference.

*The ensuing emotional overload from the people who knew her far better than I as she was a lifelong member of the community.

*Lots of...."stuff."

*Friday is Cake Day at the middle school.  I don't recall why.  It just is.

*I don't normally partake in Cake Day because, by the time I can free myself up to get to the teacher's room, the cake has been touched by more hands than I am comfortable contemplating.

*Or it has been savaged down to crumbs.

*There was a lot more cake last Friday than is usual.  Some of it was in "cup" form.

*Cupcakes tend to get touched less since everyone can just pick up the one they want and, if I strategically snag one near the middle, I'll get an unsullied pastry.

*And I really, seriously needed me some Friday Cake after spending time with the school librarian who was a neighbor of the deceased and who had pictures of her as a child to share with me.

*Cake.  I needed cake.  I even bought more on the way home from school because cake suddenly seemed medicinal.

*This, as I mentioned earlier,is vacation week.  There is really something very comforting about kicking off vacation and ending a stressful work week with cake.

*I got into the spirit of vacationing pretty quickly after that.

*I woke up Monday feeling like there was something I was supposed to be doing.

*It was kind of like the shouldn't-I-be-blogging feeling only a little more urgent.

*Then I remembered.

*Apparently the government wanted me to do my taxes and they are kind of finicky about timelines.

*At least the federal government is.  My state couldn't care less.  Unless you owe them money and then they feel strongly about people filing by the fifteenth.

*Thankfully, I don't owe the state any money but that wasn't going to help me with my federal tax return, now was it?

*Taxes are filed.  I had a near miss with a few figures before I caught on to the fact that I'd entered all of last year's information instead of the more current data, but that was easily fixed.

*Frankly, I'm kind of proud of myself for catching the mistake what with the flurry of accounting required to get the stupid things done before midnight.

*We are going to ignore the fact that I waited until the last minute and then entered information from last year's return because that does not make me particularly proud of myself.

* I'm on vacation. 

*Which, as we all know, is no time to be feeling badly about one's self.  It's not a law, but it should be.

*Wait...I have to go feed the cats.  I'll be right back!

*There.  That's done.  Things get ugly around here when the feeding schedule goes awry.

*I have been awoken every morning this week at 5:45 on the dot by the Feline Choral And Face Batting Society.

*They are happy to have Mommy home this week.  It's been quite the love-fest here.

*But that could all change should I dare to sleep past 6:00.

*I'm typing this on my school laptop.  You don't really need to know that.

*Except that the video of the AGK cracking the automatic feeder isn't on this computer and I'm too bloated from vacationing and cake to go get it.

*Too bad.  It's really quite humorous if you have 1 minute and 22 seconds to spare.  I'll have to see what I can do about getting that posted when I'm back on schedule and not sitting around eating cake.

*I actually haven't had cake since this weekend.  I ate all the cake.  There is not more cake.

*I've moved on to brownies.

*And I don't like "cakey" brownies.  I like "fudgy" brownies.

*So I'm not eating cake anymore. 

*In the spirit of self-indulgence, I decided to make up a quick sugar scrub to prepare my feet for summer sandal season.

*The Absurdly Gi-normous Kitty loves all things sugar.  And raw sugar mixed with grapeseed oil is apparently no exception.

*I had to hide my sugar scrub because he was nose deep in it every time I so much as blinked.

*He was licking the sink in which I rinsed my sugary hands following my self-made spa experience.

*He tried licking my feet but I think that was a bit much even for my little carb-a-holic so that didn't last long.

*Thankfully.

*He has a problem.  He needs help.

*I'd switch to a salt scrub but, given his love of potato chips, I suspect he'd be just as happy with that.

*My Very Complicated Kitty hasn't licked the sink at all this week.

*He is the mastermind behind the early morning wake up calls, but he isn't licking the sink so he is my favorite right now.

*Plus he's been very snuggly since I've been home and I like that.

*Speaking of "home," it's nice to have Mommy and Daddy Sheep back from their winter residence.

*And not just because they take me out to lunch.  Don't get me wrong.  I like lunch.  It's the one meal of the day I am eating on schedule now and who doesn't like it when it's free?

*But it's also nice to have the folks around.

*The one thing about vacation that isn't so nice is the lack of commuting time.

*Well...I like not paying for the gas.  That part is good.  But I miss the audio book time.

*I was right in the middle of Frost Burned (Mercy Thompson, Book 7).

*Fortunately, I did a little driving about today so that allowed me to listen a bit.  That's good.

*Otherwise, I might forget what was happening and then I will be all confused come Monday morning.

*Monday is Go Back To School Day.

*I won't be on vacation anymore.  Or resting.  Or relaxing.

*I'll be working.  And it will be the final push before the end of the school year.  Which is always kind of stressful.

*That's OK.  I've got this week of relaxing under my belt.  It should tide me over until I can do it for real.


That about covers it, week-wise.  It's really been about feeding the cats, cake and relaxing until it hurts.  (It can hurt, you know.  I'm old.  When I sit in one position for six hours at a time various joints stiffen up dreadfully...)  I like to think of it as practice for summer vacation.  It is inspiring.

Although I'm thinking I should maybe look into setting an alarm or something so I don't forget things like Wednesday.  Or dates very important to the government. 

SA