Feeling Friday

I have no idea what my title "Feeling Friday" actually means -- I was at a loss for a post and since I really had nothing cogent to say, I sat looking at the Title Box that Blogger puts up there for writers to fill in first and found my fingers typing the alliteration. I think maybe "Feeling Friday" means I'm finally feeling pretty darned good, I won't have to get up at 4:30 tomorrow morning making me feel deliciously lazy, and the sky is cloudless blue with the weather "coatless" warm.

What a non-winter we have had! Currently we are leading the historical accumulation of a no-snow winter -- and that convoluted sentence means, we have had less than two inches of snow all winter, the least snowfall ever recorded in our history. Last year was a feast of snow -- this year famine. Being the mid-west, we are now all direly predicting an unbelievable summer of way too much heat, snow in June, or debilitating drought. And being the mid-west we might get all three.

I inch toward retirement -- terribly fearful and totally exalted all at the same time. Every time I sit down to figure out how much money we're going to have to live on, the sum shrinks. That's the terror part. Then I think about October and being able to get up at 9 a.m. and throw away the towering mass of furniture in my dining area -- and move the library table over there where it really belongs and heft up the gaming table from the basement so Hubby and I can actually use it -- and I feel deliciously confident that this is the next step in my life -- and that if I don't take it, I'll be missing out on an incredible adventure -- and time with Hubby.

Maybe this post should have been Ambivalence!

We are still happy with our Omaha Steaks -- we each ate a hot dog from this yesterday for dinner. I just assumed that the hype Omaha put out about their gourmet hot dogs was a ruse to throw in some cheap meat in our beef / pork bundle. Honestly (I almost typed "frankly" -- but that was just too punny, even for me), these are just pork hot dogs -- but big, fat juicy ones that taste -- well, the way hot dogs should. And with the left over chili that Hubby made last weekend, we had a couple of fantastic sandwiches.

Hubby still loves his pool exercises. I'm so jealous I'm working up a spiel for my doctor so I can get a membership to Research's exercise gym, too -- another exciting adventure awaiting me in retirement. Just imagine if I actually got fit and trimmer?

School life is strange. The kids have improved but I keep running into odd problems with co-workers. One of the math teachers got so angry at my resistance to her re-scheduling one of my kids, that she verbally assaulted the kid. That was a pretty awful event and done in full view of a public audience -- and it led to meetings in the principal's office where I was not very cooperative. In fact, it led to me telling my principal that I was actually going to retire at the end of the school year, and she happily "congratulating" me (with the sub-text of, "Thank God!). Then I attended a professional meeting that was so far from professional, that I decided to walk out rather than sit and steam and fume and get all angry over it -- and boy! did that cause repercussions that I'm still dealing with. And I thought my leaving the meeting was the best way to handle the situation quietly! I think the universe is re-enforcing my decision to retire this year in not so subtle ways.

Valentine's Day was quiet. Hubby got a silly card from me and he brought me Andres chocolates and a whip-cream chocolate cake. He also made me a big pot of chili that I had requested. The chili was the best part of the deal!

We attended two concerts over the past weekend: Bach's fugues on Sunday and Carmina Burana on Monday. The Bach was very technically wonderful -- as Bach fugues should be, but after the first 10 I was ready for a Strauss waltz. The Carmina Burana performance at our new symphony hall was "out of this world" - with ballet and chorus and symphony. Even though I didn't get to bed until 11:30 Monday night -- with Tuesday being a school day, it was worth it.

Today at school most of our health students are on a full day field trip to a local college; I'm helping my kids and the ones failing English to pass a lit test over point-of-view, tone, mood, flashback, and foreshadowing -- as well as some figurative language bits and bobs; and the 8th graders are roaming the halls of a half day visit, wondering how they will survive the terrors of high school life. I have a spat of forms that need completing for my mentee -- she and I did a couple and then we let the whole process lapse (it's so boring filling out forms in educational jargonese when what she really wants to know is: will the principal's observation include whether Luis is sleeping during class or how do I fill out the PWN on the IEP).

The weekend is ahead of us, though. The freezer is still full of yummy meat. We may need food stamps to survive, but retirement is only five months away. In 11 days we have spring break. The last day of school is May 25th. The weather is incredible at right this very moment. The suspension has been fixed on the 16 year old Lincoln and it's running in top-notch condition (for a 16 year old car). Luie and Gus have been groomed, look hale and healthy, and are enjoying 36 cans of Merrick dog food (a little splurge for dogs as sweet as they are).

I'm certainly "feeling Friday!" And spring is most certainly on the WAY!!!!!!