day one

When I was a kid, I seem to remember summer starting well before Memorial Day weekend and not going back to school until a week or two after Labor Day.  Summers were long enough to become boring under the sweltering sun of Southeast Arkansas, with it’s mosquitos and humidity.  We loved it nonetheless, spending our days harassing babysitters and lifeguards, eating junk food and watching movies.  

Being a public school teacher, I still have summers off, but they’re nothing like the dog days of my childhood, and they never really get going until mid-June because of snow days (13 this year!), professional development, meetings, conferences, and teacher stuff.  Add to that teaching a section of summer school for two weeks this year and my break didn’t actually start until today.  For the record, that’s one day in June that i’ve been away from the halls of BHS.

There’ll be no complaining, though, as June has been a great mix of teaching, running, time on Beaver Lake, and parties with great friends.  One of my favorite events every year, the Cancer Challenge 10K, was last weekend and true to form, it delivered hills and heat like no other.  This weekend-long event of golf, tennis, and running is first class from start to finish and offers up one of the best swag bags on the racing calendar.  There’s also a great party the night before, with proceeds staying local to fund cancer research and support.  A big group of us went to the party on Friday night and then were up bright and early to run the 10K at 7:30.

The first day of summer is always a tricky one for me, because I struggle with the idea of slowing down and not going to work.  For a lot of my colleagues, summer is the reward for a hard year in the classroom doing what teachers do: creating lesson plans, assessing learning, tutoring stragglers, prepping for standardized test, and dealing with the bane of a teacher’s existence:  make-up work.  In the middle of all that we try to build relationships and show unconditional love to every single student.  All professions work hard, there’s no doubt about it, but please understand that teachers are completely and totally worn out in May and ready for the break.  They deserve a few months of sleeping in, not always showering, and general loafing.  

But I can’t do it.

I’ve got to get up and read the paper over a cup of coffee.  I feel the need to run errands.  There’s always yardwork and laundry.  Sitting on the couch and doing nothing, even for 30 minutes, gives me anxiety of being lazy.  For example:  this morning I tried to watch talk-show television after mowing the yard and it was a disaster.  It was the show with Whoopi Goldberg and Jenny McCarthy, both of whom are really cool, and they were talking to a guest doctor who was revealing America’s favorite foods.  In the three minutes before I couldn’t watch anymore and had to turn it off, this is what I learned:  American’s favorite overall food to eat at home is pizza, followed by tacos.  Additionally, the favorite happy hour drink is a margarita.  The favorite comfort food?  Mashed potatoes.  (Nobody makes them better than Cynthia Puckett.) The most frequently purchased health food is avocados, which is a type of berry.  Who knew??

Despite the ninety degree heat, I had to do something to keep myself busy, so I went for a run.  A six miler to be exact, on the Skull Creek and Frisco Trail.  Because it was hotter than hell and the sun was directly overhead, there wasn’t a single soul out there with me, but there was nothing I would have rather been doing on the first day of summer.  Of course, the second day of summer starts really soon and i’m already thinking about what I’ll be doing that doesn’t include sitting on the couch.  There’s only so many times I can make an errands list, mow the yard, clean baseboards, and read the paper, so i’ll suppose that it’s a good thing I have a new pair of Asics that need some mileage on them sooner than later.  Heat or no heat, i’ll probably be out there again tomorrow.

Run.