School is officially back in session. Two days ago, at the end of the first day of classes, I found myself thinking that it had been a pretty good day: everything ran smoothly; I didn’t forget anything important; classes went well; students seemed good, awake, and present. “Now I just need forty-five more days just like this one,” I thought to myself. And then I died. Forty-five more?

Do you do things like this, too? These bizarre and unnecessary calculations — three classroom days per week times sixteen weeks per semester minus the Monday of week one and minus the MLK holiday and minus today equals forty-five? Does forty-five sound like a lot of days to you, or not many?

At the end of a really long day when you are physically bone tired from standing up in heels and speaking in public, and you are also mentally exhausted from thinking about your lecture and your plans and where you’re supposed to be at what time and learning hundreds of new names and, like, also just your regular, persistent, unstoppable everyday thoughts, well. Forty-five days seems like an awfully large number.

It isn’t really, though. For one thing, I am lucky to have the kind of job that is broken down into little units like semesters and summer terms and, yes, breaks. This may be why some people think my job is the number one least-stressful job in all the land (though please read the addendum at the end there; because really, whom were they even asking about this?!). I am lucky in that respect and I am certainly not complaining.

Moreover, the semester will be over in the blink of an eye. If I don’t take hold of it now, I’ll soon find myself drifting along with the weeks and soon it’ll be May and I’ll be wondering where the time went. Better take things by the reins right now then, and stop blogging in my office when I could be preparing next week’s lessons.

Or not. So. Anyway.

We are back to work over here and things are clipping along. Week one is almost on my Dunzo List and I’ve been managing to get dressed like a grown up (for the most part) and show up early and pack my healthy Vegetarian Whole30-ish lunches (for the most part) and it’s nice to be back. For the most part.

Speaking of lunches, I didn’t pack one today. I’m free to head home at 1:00, so I decided I didn’t need to if I could eat at home instead. Except I also left my coffee sitting on the kitchen counter at home AND I had a less-than-satisfactory breakfast (a failure of a smoothie where none of the fruits were frozen so it was too runny and it just tasted like hemp protein powder, which is nasty) and then I found myself here at school with no lunch and no coffee and thank dog I found a calcium chew in my pocket, you know? But don’t cry for me: I have some nuts squirreled away in my desk drawer and I bought a fruit cup from the snack counter downstairs, so I will survive. Stoically and with a far-away look in my tear-stained eyes, but still.

I have pretty new school supplies (Target!) and a strange assortment of notes in my textbooks from last semester, so I’ve got all that going for me, which is nice. It’s fun how much better some pretty folders and nice new fine-point pens can make me feel about things. I’ve got one more class to go and then it’s the weekend, hooray! Hope you all have something nice in store for you.