Long weekend

I survived the entire first week of teaching and now we are having a long weekend -- I love the way our academic calendar is structured. Both the fall and spring semesters work this way: one full week of class followed by a long weekend (Labor Day in the fall, MLK Jr Day in the spring) and a short week. Then I have 8 full weeks to live through, the Joy of Spring Break, 5 more weeks, and it's over. Whew.

Actually, it seems terrible that after the first week I am looking ahead longingly to the last week. But doesn't everyone do that? On the first day back to work after vacation doesn't everyone think longingly of their next vacation? Maybe not. I'm not sure I used to, in my old job. I looked forward to long weekends, but in general I liked my job. Maybe I'm misremembering. Grass was always greener, etc. But I don't know. I kind of wish I still had a calm job, where I didn't have to keep learning so many people's names all the time.

Complain, complain. In fact, I like my new students very much, but I don't like the rooms I teach in. One is especially bad, a basement charmer. I call it the dungeon. It (of course) has no windows, and it's much too large for us, long and narrow. The students fill up only half the chairs, and they have all decided to sit in the back. This means that I cannot use the board or show things on my computer without having to yell. I have resigned myself to teaching in a circle, which is of course a wonderful way to teach, but not my favorite. I like to write on the board. Oh well.

We've been lucky with weather recently -- I mean, it's winter, so when it warms up a bit, the wind blows wildly, but at least we're having a break from snow. We've had a lot of freeze-n-thaw... n-freeze-again, which is unpleasant. But right now it's warm and breezy. Here's the backyard:

See the little patch of snow next to the bushes? That's all that's left of the last dumping. Still, everything has a very barren look to it, a look that says "where's my snow?" I'm not looking forward to the snow's return, but I admit that January without snow feels wrong.

We have all been sick. First, Rocket Boy got it -- he was pretty worthless all last weekend. Then the twins came down with it. They don't often get very sick, but they were running fevers, coughing and sneezing, and they missed some school. We kept them home from swim lessons yesterday, although they're no longer feverish, because of the coughing. They've also been very cranky. And now I'm getting it, and I'm cranky. Sigh.

Boos fight all the time, especially when they're sick. Still, in the midst of the fighting they do cute things. For instance, Kid A woke us up this morning -- wearing only a pajama top, full lower half nudity -- so that he could show us his latest Lego creation: a large vehicle, driven by a Lego Storm Trooper, covered with "bullets" so that the Storm Trooper could easily shoot everyone. And a good Sunday morning to you, too. Sometimes they take a break from Legos and do something on a larger scale. Here they are "hiding" in a sort of fort on Kid B's bed:

And here they are revealed:

Silly boos. I get so cross with them, and then they'll turn around and be really sweet. And thus we move on through January -- which is more than half over already! Only two more weeks of class until February. There, I'm doing it again. Sigh.