Whew, this was a long first week of classes. I had a great time and felt pretty good about my teaching and work in general but my brain was fried by the end of just about every day this week. We had a slew of student issues, finished a schedule draft, a couple of U-wide emergency meetings, and I taught a new class. Last night I ate dinner, inhaled a couple beers while watching The Office/30 Rock, finished Revolutionary Road, and collapsed. S was up before five, watching Sportscenter, but a couple minutes ago he declared he was returning to bed.

Maybe I should bullet point this week. Shall we?

• I’ve pushed hard at the gym. On non-basketball days I’m doing either twenty or thirty minutes on the elliptical and running either three or four miles at a 7MPH pace. On basketball days I’m knocking out thirty minutes on the elliptical then playing hoops for an hour. Yesterday by the end of the hour I had nothing left in my legs. I’m considering taking today off. We’ll see. The gym opens in an hour. I’ve only taken off six days since November first.
• Tonight we have symphony tickets. We’ll probably go out to eat beforehand. I’m looking forward to it. The temps are supposed to hit single digits, but this week was a little warmer, and the symphony hall’s parking garage has a skywalk that leads directly to our seats, so no complaints.
• S scratched his eyes this week while playing football with T. Or maybe I should say T accidentally scratched S’s eye while they were playing football. He had to wear an eye patch Thursday. He’s fine now, I guess. Pirate jokes abounded.
• N’s reading is improving but I still want him to read more. I don’t think he tests well.
• Basketball…on Wednesday I couldn’t miss, on Friday I couldn’t hit one.
• I finished Revolutionary Road. More on that on Goodreads. I started The Soul Thief…good so far.

I feel calmer and happier than I have in a long time. I’m not sure I can explain why.
When something negative takes place, even something small (e.g. traffic, I miss a shot) I can breathe through it and let it go better than before. Let me talk through this a little. Shadow’s death impacted me a ton. I still miss her. Last night I wanted her next to me, I wanted to play with her upstairs, I wanted to kiss her head before we fell asleep. But I value so much the time we had together. And I guess this will sound a little clichéd, but when I get caught in traffic or something pisses me off I can breathe through the frustration and frame the momentary inconvenience as not that important. I can let go of drama and carefully choose my interactions. I can treat people well. I want my kids to grow up watching me handle issues without losing my cool. They need that model, and I haven’t always provided it. So I guess I can see a little further lately.

That’s it for now. Have a good Saturday.