Things Have Gotten Done

Grad school is finished for the spring semester. I'm not going for the summer - summer's need to be mine, and mine alone. The grades haven't been submitted yet, but the prof told us that we all had A's. I hope that's right because that would keep my 4.0 in tact.

My hair was cut, permed, and dyed on Wednesday night. I feel much better now that the hair is manageable once again. My regular stylist wasn't in but I sized up the staff and chose perfectly. She gave a a great cut and an even better perm. I've been going to Fantastic Sam's because I like the walk-in aspect and the fact it's cheap. However, this cut, perm, and dye ran me $115 (with tip).

The seniors graduated Thursday night. Hubby got me there and home without stress on my part. The audience was very rowdy but the ceremony only last eighty-five minutes.

This morning at 9 a.m. the Bishop of the Methodist Church met with at our church for a congregational meeting to select a modified Administrative Council. For the first time since I've joined the church I do not hold a key position. Yes, I was offered a spot as representative of the Trustees and I suggested that this go-round Hubby fill the spot. He was pleased to accept. I've told him that I will support him in any way that I can but at this point in time, he's the main force behind our church attendance. And I stuck to my guns, accepted no position, and actually walked out of the church happy for the firs time in many months.

The Bishop also introduced us to our new pastor, a lovely, young woman with a four-legged dog child. She is African-American, has been serving as youth minister in the largest Black Methodist church in the city, is married to a musician who is Hispanic, and is bi-lingual in the bargain. I was immediately impressed.

If our church is to survive, if we can overcome our personal difficulties, if -- and that's one HELL of a big IF -- then this woman has all the qualities to help us grow and diversify. She is exactly what we asked the Methodist church for. I honestly didn't expect them to come through -- but they did, in a big way. There is hope. There is also going to be a whole lot of turmoil before things turn around.

Tomorrow is our current pastor's farewell Sunday. Last Sunday his wife announced that I was in charge of this service. But I'm not. Nothing had been said to me about it or the reception / dinner to follow. However, I did swallow my anger over current church action, and e-mail the nicest man I know who actually is REALLY heading up the farewell, and told him I would create the paper program for the service. Sometimes these publishing things go easily. This one did not but by Wednesday I had the program ready for delivery and printing.

I have already begun to hit summer sleep mode. During the school year I get up at 5 a.m. which means that I have to go to bed very early to get even six hours of sleep each night. Given my natural sleep rhythms, I like going to bed at 2 a.m. and getting up at 10 a.m. Yes, that's a lovely eight hours of sleep and it's during the time I actually can sleep. Otherwise, I'm usually a fitful sleeper, two hours here, two hours there.

Next week we have three days of school. Monday is the last day of finals. Tuesday is make-up day for anyone missing finals. Wednesday the students attend from 7:30 until 10:20 and then are bussed home. We have room check at 1 p.m. After that we are delivered for the summer.

The SPED head has asked me to serve on a curriculum development committee for the new course the district has allotted for English. I agreed on a tentative basis that I would go to a couple of meetings -- but if they argued, threw jargon around instead of real ideas, or just pontificated at length, I was outta there in a jiffy. So June 6th I'm back at work, at least on a limited basis.

It feels really good to be looking at 11 weeks of rebuilding, resting, nesting, cooking, cleaning (on a limited basis), and lovin' the Hubby and doggies to distraction. I need the time to regroup.