The calm before the storm

It’s 6:30 in the morning. The kidlings don’t have school, there is fresh snow on the ground, and I’m getting ready to head out for my usual Tuesday Thing. Yesterday, I spent much of the day wrapped in my electric blanket, reading, sometimes just staring off into space, thinking about how it was the last Monday in a while that will be leisurely, at home. My Tuesdays won’t even look the same after today. What has been for months a day of my Tuesday Thing and (sometimes) grocery shopping and errands, will now be filled with much more, though I know not what that looks like yet.

Today feels like the calm before the storm. I’m a rumble of excitement (my only nervousness comes from figuring out the parking situation), trembling with joy that I get another chance. I’ll be packing my backpack (I forget what the cool kids [aka MY kids] call it, but I’m old skool, so backpack it is), going over the map to where my classes are, and just running around my house doing that nesting thing I do every time I begin a new journey.

For the next four months, I will be eyeball deep in school work. I will be balancing school with the WCLI, volunteer work, my part-time job delivering pizza, my photography business, and my family and friends. That is to say, I will not be available in many ways. I will probably do most of my online socializing via my phone, so I apologize in advance for what I might miss that’s going on in your life. I do want to know; I just can’t make knowing and being online a priority right now.

When you see me, I will look tired and worn out. What this looks like is me with red eyes and a puffy face, so chances are, no, I haven’t been crying (unless I have been – math makes me cry), nor am I sick (unless I am – math makes me sick). Basically, I’ll look like a college student, so I’m okay with it. But please don’t hold it against me if I take too long to respond to email or texts (though texting is probably the quickest way to hear from me) or Words With Friends (ha – as if). My online priorities will be between school and business, but I’ll TRY, I really will. I promise, I’m not ignoring anyone. (I stress this because last time I was in school, it made a lot of people upset that I wasn’t quite on top of things when it came to phone calls and emails. I really only have so many hours in a day. Please be patient with me.)

Today is calm. Tomorrow it all really begins and I have to hit the ground running. (And we’ll be doing this every fall and spring for several years, so expect flurries of activity from me in between semesters, and then who knows what during.) And … here we go!

Ready for MATH!