Wednesday, September 09, 2015

First Day of School 2015

We've all been eagerly anticipating the first day of school, especially the high school kids who were working all summer (ha ha!) on their Advanced Placement prep assignments. And ended up working on it right up to the last minute. Because some of it took longer than they had anticipated. (Or perhaps their ability to stay focused on the assignments for longer than five minutes was not quite up to par.)

I'm not ready. The beginning of the school year means that the Marching Band kicks into high gear, and we start having games, and the pit crew (for which I am chief) has to get serious about making sure everything goes smoothly. Moving the instrument-laden carts into place, helping the kids get everything ready, setting up podiums and speakers and power cords and microphones and ladders, keeping the tractors in tip-top shape so they don't stop when they are supposed to be moving forward, and all those other little activities that keep us busy during performances.

The kids are not ready. They're still stuck in their weird summer sleep schedules and will be struggling to re-orient their inner clocks so they don't oversleep or end up being too tired at the end of the day. They have their summer homework mostly done, but that's not the same thing as all done, and no one ever knows how the teachers will react when someone presents them incomplete homework. Some of it is pure busy-work, and some of it is crucial so that the student is not left behind.

Cheryl is not quite ready to jump back into the parapro routine, judging by the frazzled expression on her face. She'll be getting up early in the morning, much earlier than she is used to getting up, and heading off to school so she can be there by 7 a.m. Which means that the coffee needs to be ready by 6!

This is the only time of the year when everyone else in the family gets even close to adhering to my very logical, very early-bird schedule. If only the cat would meow in their faces when she's ready to be fed at five-thirty in the morning.

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