Well, if all my workdays are going to be 11 hours long (including commute), I'd better learn to write during my spare! Last night I came home at 6, lay on the couch for an hour until the food arrived, ate for a half-hour, spoke to my parents & caught up on LiveJournal until 8, and then spent an hour frantically (and crankily) planning for the rest of the week. The good thing is that I documented all of my first units last semester before I succumbed to laziness, so I've got a neat, easy & detailed plan for the next 3-4 weeks. After that: chaos!! Fire! Hell!!

I suppose I'll actually have to do my course filing sometime soon, as spending a half-hour picking through 2-foot-high stacks of bond paper for an old sheet instead of planning a new sheet just isn't doing it for me anymore. I have things to do! I have sleep to catch-up on!

The really good news is that none of my anxiety symptoms have returned this year: no panic attacks, no stress spirals, no nightmares, good appetite, sleeping through the night. I was terribly afraid that I wouldn't be able to cope this month without some kind of Sprout-safe anti-depressant, but it actually seems that Sprout is doing its part to make my teaching life much easier. Thanks to the surges of prolactin coursing through my veins (which is a major pregnancy hormone that's also a natural sedative), I remain calm during the day and sleep well at night (except for getting up twice a night to pee, that is). I get to rush to the bathroom between classes and sit down during classes and eat little snacks with no warning and nobody bats an eye. Many, many staff have stopped me to tell me how fabulous I look: clear skin, nice clothes, snazzy haircut. Nobody cares that I start to waddle as the days go on.

Yep. Life is a pretty sweet fruit.

The down side is that although I'm getting 8 hours a night, I need more. More! MORE!! I woke up this morning and felt like I hadn't slept at all. Fortunately, I'm pretty well-rested from the summer and I can run on "tired" for awhile before the needle slips to "exhausted."

School itself is going remarkably well. I find that the more I can joke and laugh with my students, the more I enjoy being around them. I even like my General level homeroom right now, which I never expected in a million years. My last period of Generals is no treat - I have 3 repeats in that one, and yesterday they were all out to score points off me. Had to kick more ass than I wanted to on the first day.

Fortunately, I kick ass just as well in respectable clothes as I do in combat boots.

2 years ago today: Best. Vacation. EVER.