End of Summer Blues (or Back to Work with Earth, Wind and Fire)

Well, the dreaded day has arrived.  I have officially returned to work and left my summer time life of leisure behind me.  Right now it is the calm before the storm, literally and figuratively, but more on that in a minute.  I am excited about being back in Kindergarten, getting to know our new principal, and making some big changes to how I teach. 

Having said that, this year is off to a really wierd start.  I am in another new classroom and it is not fitting together for me yet.  I have moved furniture in and out, moved bulletin boards and alphabet letters (mostly due to my inept measuring) and it still doesn't feel right!  That is just the least of it though.  Sunday (the day before "D-Day") it was so smoky here from a swamp fire that you really couldn't even leave the house.  It did get better, but we are still getting smoke off and on.  Monday I worked from 7:30 AM to about 7:00 PM.  Tuesday was all meetings, not normally exciting but we did have an earthquake in the middle of one.  Since I live on the East Coast it was quite the event.  I felt like my chair was on a big bowl of jello and someone was jumping on it.   It really ended quickly, but it was still bizarre.  Also Bella had another seizure right about the same time as the earthquake.  Luckily Belle and Peter Pan had to deal with that.  Now we are all watching to see what Hurricane Irene is going to do.  I am sure there is some reason why we are afflicted with a swamp fire, earthquake and hurricane all in one week, but it is rather disturbing. 

So now I am trying to speed up my classroom prep, just in case we are not able to get in there on Monday.  Today I managed to burn both my hands with the hot glue gun (this is actually an annual back to schoool event for me, just not usually both hands at once!)  It isn't serious, just annoying and painful.  I did tell Peter Pan that I certainly couldn't wash dishes with this injury!  Belle is working on a "hurricane emergency kit" that would include all the staples we need.  Peter Pan isn't really worried at all.  I just hope that this is all the wierdness for the year, but I doubt it.  I got a preliminary look at my class list today and I have more than twice as many boys than girls, looks like a really "active" year headed my way!