One More Lazy Weekend

Wow, I can't believe summer's over.

And yes, non-academics will argue that, according to the "regular" calendar, summer doesn't officially end until September 21 or something. But to us academics, equinoxes matter not; when the bell rings on the first day of school, the entity known as "summer" has ceased to exist. In light of that, besides playing in church this morning, I didn't do jack squat today.

So does school just start too early? Sure, the state legislature has been trying to tinker with the calendar for next year, forcing everyone to start after Labor Day. As you might know, I'm not in favor of that, since it would push final exams into January, so if you go back eighteen weeks from mid-December, you pretty much land...here. I guess there's not much we can do about it, besides eliminating every school holiday known to man...and I gotta tell ya, those holidays are nice.

I don't actually teach the first day of school, and this year, I'm not likely to even darken the hallway of a school tomorrow. Normally I'd go in and post my schedules and all that, but I've been pretty good about emailing the directors and reserving my practice rooms that way, and I also have email addresses for nearly every student and/or parent that I teach, so I'll notify that way. I'll still force myself to get up at six in the morning tomorrow, so that'll be a great time to send the emails. Besides with gas at $2.45 a gallon and rising, the less driving I can do, the better.

Last year I did an ode to summer on this day. I'm not sure if this entry will qualify as an ode...maybe a sonnet? (Is an ode longer than a sonnet? I have no clue, and I'm too tired to Google it.) So will I call it the "best summer ever" like I did a year ago? Meh. I'll just say it was a really, really good one. The trip to Vermont was excellent (to read about it, start here and scroll up in succession), both musically and in terms of seeing Really Cool Scenery. It was the busiest summer I've ever had, thanks to more students than ever, along with the addition of the summer combo. It was also the first summer that I didn't go broke (OK, I have 52 cents on me at the moment--the result of draining a Starbucks card to get my evening Frap tonight--but the money starts coming in during my post-school stuff tomorrow). I also made some great new friends and really strengthened the bond with some existing ones, so yeah, this one was good.

But the big break is over. Time to "edjamacate" the young'uns in full force and make the most money of the year. And when I come up for air...well, it'll be time for a blog post.

(An essay on the good and bad of summer-vs.-fall, from a year ago, can be found here.)

Move mania: A miniature "bon voyage" to Dingus, who moved into his new place in Arlington today. A bigger bon voyage to Houston, who moved to Austin (don't think about that one too much, OK?) Also, Coop is comfortably ensconced at his new school, and the UNT crowd has another week before they take off. It's that migratory time of year...

Stupid criminal of the week: Two guys robbed a popular TV host in Ft. Smith, Arkansas; unfortunately for them, they did so while he was on the air, seen by hundreds of viewers, some of whom called the cops.