I went from raisins to grapes in one week!

Okay, let me start by saying that I have STUPID DIAL-UP. For whatever reason, all the companies that make high speed internet have forsaken my little community. I don't think anyone else around here (except David) is really concerned about though, because if they did, we'd have it by now. I say this, to you dear reader, so you'll understand my frustration. The picture of my friends you see on the left here took 10 minutes to load. I'm not kidding. I timed it. So if you wonder why I don't have all the fancy pictures and whatnot, now you know.

Laura T., Jessica, Me, Catherine

So the rantings for this post: Shriveled up social lives. As a teacher/superhero, I find my social calendar very dry between the months of August and May. In June, I may have a few social encounters with my family (this sounds odd, but with both of us teaching, it's difficult to do stuff), but it seems that my hot month is July. I think this is because my friends (mostly teachers), see the light at the end of the tunnel. Although doesn't sound like a good analogy since the tunnel here represents our freedom in summer and the light at the end is the next school year. Whatever, but you get where I'm going with this, right?

We can see that precious little time remains of our freedom. Many teachers, like myself, continue to "work" throughout the summer. By work, I don't mean actually teaching the kids, but doing all the little behind the scenes stuff that most people don't think about. It includes the big stuff like lesson planning and partaking in much needed professional reading. Some of my friends actually spend time during the summer going to professional development meetings and conferences. But it's the little things that take so much time and mental energy. You have to unpack and organize your classroom. It takes 2 days to get everything off the floor and crammed in drawers and cabinets at the end of the year. Then the waxing occurs. That will be a different post for later. But now I'm in the mode of making nametags, cutting out stuff for bulletin boards, sniffing crayons, making labels for binders, contacting parents...the list never ends. So to avoid the stress, we socialize.

Last week I went with some of my friends pictured above to the State Theater. Before that, Jessica and I went to Old Venice and had some dinner. I had a good time and provided Jessica with some much needed laughs. So yesterday, I went with Jessica house hunting. Read her blog to find out how fun that is. Today, I am eating lunch with my Bunco buddies from school. It'll be nice to see some of the people there, since they have now left our school. Bunco is super fun and I will have to remember to make a post about that soon.

I also got a call from my dear friend Kathy, asking if I'd like to go to the movies with her this weekend to see Momma Mia. Since I love ABBA and Meryl Streep, I think this will be a good one. So I have that to look forward to.

I'm also in the planning stages of having either lunch or dinner with my MTM (More Than Mediocre) teacher friends. Still waiting on one person to reply but I feel it'll be soon. You must be thinking that we seem to eat out a lot. Let me tell you, teachers NEVER get to eat out during the weekday between August and May. I eat with the kids. Not just mine, but several hundred of them. Going out to eat is a real treat, so you see why we like to do it!

This is probably my last week for going out. More than likely, my social calendar will start wind down some next week as I tackle my classroom for real. Of course, I have Raelynn with me and she always add some excitement to the mix.

So just think.....sometimes you're social life may look like one shriveled up raisin, but in the blink of an eye, you have many wonderful grapes right in front of you, waiting for you....