There is a Season

It's the National Cherry Blossom Festival this week, but until today? You'd have been hard pressed to know it, but for the big white tent down by the Tidal Basin. A much colder-than-usual March has pushed the peak prediction back about 2 weeks and bare trees still line those famous walkways. But oh! Even though there's a chill in the air, those days are getting longer. And, friends? There is a certain softness beneath even the most frigid day.

Just this morning I stood at my window and could almost see the buds on the crabapple right outside swelling to open. Nature may be delayed, but never denied. Thank goodness.

Break it Down

There's an old joke: How do you eat an elephant?

And on the Tuesday night of Spring Break when all of our living room and dining room stuff is in the guest room, and color samples emblazon the walls like war paint, and plastic shrouds the furniture as spackling cures in the cracks and holes, and masking tape actually masks the edges of our built-ins, and the walls and trim are cleaner than they have been in years, and all the paint and sponges and mud and pans and rollers and brushes and edgers and knives and 7-in-ones and rags and drop cloths are organized and ready to deploy, but not one single wall is finished, I know the answer.

One bite at a time.

Night Shift

At times I can be a restless sleeper. Then my dreams feature loops of school-related scenarios-- wouldas, couldas, and hey!-I-shouldas. Sometimes productive, sometimes not, I figure those nights push my work week to about 100 hours.

Just last night I dreamed again and again of using an app to reach a student with autism through his iPad. I should try that! I thought, every time I woke up. Finally, around 4 AM I fell into a restful sleep, and not waking until 7:30, I felt relatively refreshed. Even though my subconscious doesn't know I'm on spring break, my alarm clock does! 

Here's hoping the two will sync up before next Sunday.

First Things Last

Plymouth Rock, Coastal Fog, Raccoon Hollow, Cotton Tail, Simple Pleasure, Rock Candy, Vintage Pewter, Short Bread, Crisp Linen, Wedding Veil, White Wisp, November Rain.

The walls are bare, the furniture moved, and the rooms cleared out. We are ready to begin our Spring Break painting project, but...

We can't decide on the colors!

Remember When

The text came early this morning from a friend who had recently lost her senior dog. So, this happened.

Of course we added 'puppy gifts" and "visit puppy' to our to-do list. As yet unnamed, this little 8-week old Australian Shepherd was an adorable handful. In the time we were there he nipped our noses, chased his new big brother, and pranced proudly about with the squeaky bunnies we brought. It seemed hard to believe that our big bruiser of a doodle dog had been like this less than a year ago.

As we bid our farewells with promises to visit again very soon, the intoxicating mixture of puppy breath and cuddles was almost enough to make us consider getting another one for ourselves.

Almost.

Happy Spring Break

Leaving school today, I was seized by the desire to do something special to mark the advent of spring break, but at 4:30 on a Friday afternoon, I couldn't really come up with anything. So we came on home, walked the dog, went to the grocery store, and now we're having burgers and beer and watching a movie with 9 days of vacation stretching before us.

Special?
No.

Perfect?
You bet.

Character Flaws

Two students were working on their fiction piece this morning when I stopped in for a quick conference. "We're working on the character of the antagonist," one told me.

"Tell me what you have so far," I said.

"It's the evil skating coach," her partner said.

"Yeah," agreed the first student, "and we want to her to have a name that sounds really mean. She's pretty old, too, like maybe your age."

Her partner gasped, then quickly recovered. "I think she means upper middle-aged," she corrected.

Oh yeah, that's much better!