All the Things

School starts Monday (for teachers) and to say I have mixed feelings about this would be a huge understatement. I love teaching! I love staying busy! I love knowing what I'm doing makes a difference! Any ordinary year would see me anxious to begin another school year. 

This year, however, I am anxious in a different way. I have so many feelings about this it's hard for me to put words into any kind of eloquent manner. At the end of June, the Education Commissioner of Florida, Richard Corcoran, issued a proclamation stating all schools must open in brick and mortar 5 days a week. At the time, this was not a big deal. However, since that time, Florida has become the corona virus capital of the world averaging around 10,000 new cases a day and yet our governor refuses to back down at all!  Parents have a choice of face to face or digital and so far, it seems split down the middle so that should help to hold class sizes down, but I cannot help but think this is not going end well!  I sure hope to God I am wrong, but I foresee many teachers and children contracting Co-Vid 19 with deaths of some involved. I just don't see how you can put a group of people in a closed room (we are not allowed to open doors and windows for safety reasons) with central air conditioning circulating the same air from one room to another for 7 straight hours without some virus transfer. So this year, most of my feelings are fear and anger. 

I've have enjoyed my extended time off much more than I thought I would. Zack and I get along very well so being in each others company nearly 24/7 for four-and-a-half months was not a problem. Here are some of the things I have enjoyed doing while enjoying this time off.....

- family game nights ---by far this was my favorite thing to do and I am so glad that C.J. thought of it. Normally, we try to go to Universal one day a week in the summer. Since that was not going to happen this year, C.J. came up with the idea of game night. We would play everything from Sorry, Life, Yahtzee, Sequence, and cribbage. 

- sleeping in--- the only part of my job I hate is getting up in the morning. I am a night owl so rolling out of bed at 6:30 in the morning is the worst part of my day. I have become acclimated to sleeping the hours of midnight to 9:30 or 10:00 so the morning alarm is going to be difficult. 

- 9:00 walks ---I took Ollie for a walk every night around 9:00 (unless we were gone or it was raining). 

- reading outside---most days (unless I was tutoring) I would take Ollie out first thing in the morning and then sit outside with him and read. Usually we could get about a half hour in before the heat and sun got to be too much and we had to go in. 

- Friday night dinner and shopping --- Fridays were usually our days to stock up on food for the week. Then, we would order food for curbside pick-up (usually Chilis) and head home to eat. Very rarely during the school year do I do a full week grocery shopping. I am more of a 'I'll pick it on the way home' kind of person. I think my life could be a lot easier doing a big shop once a week so I am going to try and continue that. 

- Drive-in ---Unfortunately we discovered this too late to take full advantage of it over the summer, but we did get there three times in July. We saw Lost Boys, Nightmare on Elm Street, and Ghostbusters. Being at the drive-in is so nostalgic for me. When I was little, my dad would make popcorn, put it in a brown paper bag, we would pack a cooler of kool-aid, and head to the drive-in. Funny thing is, my sister and I rarely even watched the movie. We would usually fall asleep before the movie even started, but it was still a fun memory. 

- American Horror Story and Dexter --- with all the time on my hands I re-watched Seasons one, two, and four of American Horror Story and Seasons 1 and 4 of Dexter. 

Even though we will be heading back to school, my feeling is that it will not last long. I predict we go all virtual within the first month. Again, I could be wrong, and I pray to God that I am.