Angsty.

Ever have those days when you're surrounded by angst? None of it's really my angst, it's just some angst that's near me. I've tried not to get any on me, since I'm in a darn decent mood today, but I'm starting to feel like I should give into peer pressure and join the crowd. Therefore, to be in the spirit of things, I'm going to write about the saddest thing I can think of:

Summer Ends in Just Ten Days

by SingingPig

That statement alone makes my stomach hurt. It gives me Sunday Night Homework Fever like nothing I can describe. It brings about the tight stressball in my chest that squeezes like a vice. Tears come to my eyes as I mourn all the things that I am going to miss about the joy that is summer vacation for teachers.

1. Getting out of bed whenever I darn well please. I generally wake up at approximately the same reasonable hour each morning, but it's just the joy that comes with knowing I can lay there as long as I want to. If I want to hear the Hollywood Top Five report on my morning talk show, I can lie there and revel in the celebrity gossip as long as I choose to.

2. Eating real food and using my kitchen. I've had two months without frozen dinners, Lean Pockets, or crackers for breakfast. I can cook when I want, graze all day long, and be healthy. I've had time to cook fun new things and eat them at my leisure. And take longer than 30 minutes.

3. Peeing. It has been such a gift to be able to drink all the water I want and to pee freely. Each time I pee, I relish the few moments of urination liberation and try to restore stability to my bladder. Sometimes I even sit there and read Cosmopolitan just because I can.

4. Being a Lady of Leisure. There is something delightfully fabulous about calling up my other teacher friends and meeting up for a lunch or a drink in the middle of the workday. There is something mysterious and enchanting about stretching out on my raft-o-lounger in a sparkling blue pool while everyone else is at work. My golden tan is highly coveted among my summer-challenged peers.

5. Running errands when no one is in the stores. This is the gift of summer that keeps on giving the whole summer long. I am unspeakably grateful for the rockin' good customer service I receive everywhere I go. Their boredom is my reward. I will miss Dale, Shandra, and Kristy for the next 10 months.

6. Liking children from afar. I've never said I don't like children. I just don't think I could eat a whole one. I love to love them from a distance for a couple of months. It makes them intriguing again when I see them in August. I forget all of their peculiarities and their annoying nuances are somehow funny and endearing again.

7. Having a Super!Clean house. Just won't happen during the school year. I lose the energy to maintain it (unless company is coming, in which case I Flight of the Bumblebee clean) and I lose the ability to notice it. Right now there are some dirt remnants, courtesy Gus, on the kitchen floor. I will be sweeping upon completion of this post.

8. Not having a schedule. For an anal-retentive person like myself, it is the most therapeutic experience to just wing it every day. Wake up....check some email....breakfast?....Regis and Kelly....shower?....Days of Our Lives....how about lunch?....phone....plans? Deep breaths. Cleansing leisure.

9. Doing just "the fun stuff" in my classroom. Just the organizing and the decorating and the planning of the fun stuff. I can't describle to you how wonderful my classroom is right now. And those kids are going to come in and squirrel it all up. Quote of the summer from my teammate: "Teaching would be awesome if we could get rid of the kids."

Those are the things I will miss most about summer. In just ten short days I return to the indignity of staff development, the travesty of alarm clocks, and the enslavement to someone else's agenda. I will resume my role as public servant extraordinaire, it is my wish to serve the needs of every overprotective parent, unmotivated child, and misguided administrator.

Ohhhhh...the angst. Now I'm right down there with everyone. All angsty and gloom-ridden. Aren't you glad you came by to read me today?