I can hear M and the boys upstairs, talking, as the boys get ready to fall asleep. S and I just watched most of the Packers/Broncos first quarter. Our street is eerily quiet when the Packers play. I’m slightly wired, although I wish I could fall asleep early.

This morning before dawn Shadow and I walked to the library and post office to drop off books and movies. The stars were bright, the air cool, and I was glad to move my legs. My ass/back still hurt, though, so I sort of limped the last few blocks home. I arrived at work just before eight and spent most of the morning grading papers and feeling a bit under the weather. I taught, somewhat badly, through early afternoon. Some student/staff drama seems is emerging. Oh well. I guess I’m due. I’ll hit it head on in the morning. After teaching I stuck around and finished my paper-grading by just before four. I was going to drive west to half-priced books because of a 40% off coupons, but I was tired, and I have a ton of unread books, so I skipped the trip and hit the freeway north. I scarfed way too many enchiladas way too quickly, chased by Halloween candy. Man, I was sure I was going to barf. A quick bath, followed by a “rocks, papers, scissors” tournament with T, kept me upstairs until close to seven. S and I read a bit, too. While reading I caught on the idea of titling a poem “walking to the library at night.” I don’t think I’m beholden to any coffee house or book store idea of a poem’s subject matter, and I don’t want to recreate poems I wrote twenty years ago. I also may title the collection “Afterlife”. We’ll see.

I’m trying to find my way post-doctoral, post full-on administrator. I’m teaching way too much this term, honestly. Next term will be easier. More later. Good night.

Sunday morning, just after 10AM. N just got in trouble because he wouldn’t stop bothering his brothers while they were preparing for a Halloween party at church (yes, we Unitarian Universalists have Halloween parties at church…we’re wacky that way). Oh well. He’s got the bratty little brother thing going on today.

I’m not attending the party. I thought I would but M gave me “skip” permission. I’d essentially get in the way during the party, I think, and the “upstairs” service wasn’t that interesting. However, the real problem is my ass. I’m serious. On Wednesday morning I went up for a layup during YMCA morning basketball and collided with another player. I fell HARD on my ass. With the adrenalin running, in the heat of the game, I laughed off the injury and kept playing. Within fifteen minutes I was struggling to get up and down the court. By the end of the day I had told all my friends at work about the injury, but I was doing ok, a little better, even. However, since then I have proceeded steadily downhill. Yesterday exquisite pain accompanied any rising from a sitting position. I don’t understand how I could be getting worse, but if this continues, I’m going to see a doctor. M seems to want me to wait out the pain, which I’m trying to do, but that plan doesn’t appear effective. We’ll see. In the meantime excuse me if I sound bitchy.

I still feel as if I’m adjusting to life after Italy. My sleep pattern returned to normal late last week, at least, but I’m not quite in the groove as far as work, etc. in concerned. Maybe the ass-pain is interfering. I don’t know.

This weekend has been decent. On Friday night T and I fell asleep early while reading. I woke near two, so I watched “Clerks 2” and Sportscenter until everyone else woke. Once everyone was up I returned to sleep, until about nine, and hung out with T while M took N and S trick-or-treating at the downtown businesses. T thinks he’s getting too old for that sort of thing. We watched “Empires Strikes Back” together while they were gone. I wish T had more kids his age on the block…he’s always the older, responsible one. Later in the afternoon S played at the girls’ house, N built a heroscape village, and M watched “Catch and Release.” I felt badly for T, so he and I hit the coffee shop and read our respective books (one of the Harry Potters for him, a St. Francis bio for me). Later I made chickpea/spinach pitas for dinner and read while M and the boys hit church for (another, separate) Halloween party. Oh, I also downloaded some old Chicago punk rock (Out of Order) and played some songs on Dan’s answering machine for him to identify. We may hit a film on Chicago punk rock history later in the month. Here’s the info:

www.regressivefilms.com

When they returned T and I read and fell asleep next to each other again. This morning he and I walked the neighborhood, pre-dawn. He’s a good kid.

I finished “The Reluctant Saint” last night. I find Franciscan scholarship fascinating. More later. I’m listening to the latest Shins CD and getting ready to clear my head and maybe work on some poetry. More later…hope my ass feels better.

Ok, I’m trying to stay up past eight tonight to combat my crap-ass jet lag. Except for Tuesday night, the night of my return, when I collapsed on the futon and slept all night, I have fallen asleep early and risen in the middle of the night. I have to break the pattern, so tonight I pledge to remain awake until at least 9:00PM. Rock and roll!

This morning I was up by three or so. I watched the rest of “The Office”, polished the Italy journal (slow going, by the way, I’m still early in the trip), and ate pizza. In fact, I’ve been eating like a madman since my return to the states. What, I can eat whenever I want? I’m all for it. I also think fatigue is playing a role in my gluttony. When I’m tired I eat everything in sight. After breakfast and a shower we decided to drive west to Holy Hill. Here’s a link to their website:

http://www.holyhill.com/

Mapquest had the trip clocked at just under an hour, but I figured we could knock twenty minutes, at least, off the predicted time. However, someone (probably teenagers, according to T) fucked with a street sign, and we detoured in the wrong direction. Still, we probably arrived at the site within the mapquest hour. The trees along the route were brilliant red and yellow. S was pissed from an earlier incident in which he lost Wii privileges, so he was a bit pouty, but the kids brightened when they saw the church. They agreed the church (basilica, whatever) was the largest they had ever seen. T, God bless him, said, “Didn’t you get enough of this in Italy?” He’s a smart kid. I think I wanted to visit Holy Hill to compare the shrine to those I saw in Italy. The experiences paralleled each other in interesting ways. For example, while we were approaching the church a group speaking what sounded like Polish or German stood around the door taking pictures. Put me back a week and move me a few thousand miles east and I’m one of those people, speaking a foreign language and hanging out at pilgrimage sites. The church is huge by local standards but has nothing on Rome, of course. Also, the church is pretty much brand new, fresco-less, and the bathrooms were probably clean (I didn’t check). We first took an elevator to the church entrance, way up high (another similarity to some of the Italian pilgrimage sites). The colors on the trees were beautiful. A hawk cruised lazily back and forth at our eye level. We walked through the church (T noticed the Hail Mary written on the walls, and said, “that’s a football play!”) and looked for a walking path, but we couldn’t find one, so we headed home.

I gave S a free pass on the Wii-banning, so he went upstairs for some backyard football while N and I played heroscape and M and T hit autumn’s last farmer’s market. Later she took the boys to the park while I inhaled cookies and screwed around on the computer. I also purchased a cool pencil box from an Australian girl I know from the eels board. I’ll post a picture when it arrives.

Ok, that’s it for now…S and I may watch the Indians/Red Sox soon. Get some sleep.

My Italy report might take a while to post, so I thought I’d get back into journal mode with some post-return entries. Here we go:

Today was a decent day. Stupid jet-lag won’t let go, however, so I’ve been up since about 3AM. Still, yesterday I was up at 2AM and asleep by 6PM, so I’m slowly improving. I watched last night’s “30 Rock” (probably my favorite television show) and part of “The Office” before grading papers and cruising the web. M woke at about six. I showered and left home a little after seven. Today’s weather was awesome. The wind was blowing hard, the sky filled with low, bilious clouds, and the long-colored trees losing their leaves. I drove to work, watered the plants, and cleared shelf-space for my Italy booty. I hit a school (as opposed to college, as opposed to university) meeting from 9 until eleven (cutting out during the boring parts, of course) and facilitated a semi-conflict resolution between two school entities from 11-11:40. I hauled ass out of the meeting before noon to get lunch (I was starving) and check Blockbuster for “Meet the Robinsons”. After a fruitless search the Blockbuster guy told me the movie won’t hit the stores until Tuesday. Oops. I returned to work where I was chided for failing to pick up Jimmy Johns for anyone else besides F (a colleague and one of my best friends at work). I countered with the “I am not the food guy” argument, complete with a harrowing story about how last year I lost about fifty bucks because too many lazy fuckers never paid me back after I picked up their lunch on the honor system. I wasn’t going to send them bills, you know? We essentially goofed off through the lunch meeting, as we were loopy from the morning, and ended before one. I answered a few calls and closed up my office before two. In Italy I acquired a taste for quality olive oil, so I stopped at Sendiks for some garlic olive oil (five bucks) and decent bread (two bucks) before driving home. After N recounted his pumpkin farm visit (sleeping pigs) I took a quick bath and left again to pick up the boys from school. M called with a request we mail a letter for her, so after a quick detour home (S ditched us at that point to play Wii backyard football), T and I hit the library. I snagged “Clerks Two” upstairs while T grabbed historical comics and football biographies downstairs. We checked out the books and grabbed two pizzas at Papa Murphy’s. After we hit home I cooked both pizzas and ate way too much, but what the hell, the jet lag has wreaked havoc on my appetite. I started the Italy journal, recognizing the text will run way longer than expected, before deciding I should update the journal now rather than wait until the Italy journal is finished. S is currently upstairs, playing Wii, and M and the boys are finishing up their jack-o-lantern carving. The weekend should be mellow, I think. I could use a walk. More later. Good night.

This journal entry will most likely be my last until Oct. 16th or so. I’m leaving for Italy tomorrow afternoon, and I won’t have blog access in Europe. This last week has been crazy busy, too, so I haven’t written much. I can’t complain about the week, I must say, even though I didn’t have much time to think. In order to feel even remotely ready for my departure I worked pretty much every second of every day until four or so, then drove home and attended different football practices, etc., until I collapsed with a book on the couch. More soon!