I’m up early, just before 3:00AM, but as I fell asleep by nine, at the latest, I’m not that worried about the day. I just woke from a scary dream, however, so I want to write down the images first. I was at the grade school I attended, then walking home from school. Now, I know the times were different, etc., but I regularly walked home from a pretty young age on my own, a good mile and a half or so, but the most harrowing stretch was often the last block or so, past a couple huge dogs in the home stretch. In the dream a snake guarded that was following me and talking with me, obviously trying to attack me, as I walked. He talked as he moved swiftly to block my way to the back yard and the front porch, saying some professor with whom he was working was an idiot because the professor said he had to try to use hypnotism in his work. I didn’t feel as if I was going to escape, and I couldn’t tell if I had a butcher knife to protect me or not. If I did, I was going to chop off that fucker’s head with one fell swoop. I just read this great Murikami story about a woman who never sleeps in which he describes sleep as releasing excess sparks and energy, tension, really. What do I fear?
I’ve done ok the last few days. Monday was long, chairs, teaching, etc., nothing particularly interesting to report. Same with Tuesday. I’ve been more than passably productive. Allow me to focus on yesterday. I woke by 5:30AM and drove to basketball, barely arriving as the tenth man for the first game. I was playing pretty well, but I came down from a rebound in the second game and twisted my ankle badly. I yelled the F word as loudly as I could, hopped around for a minute or so, and drove home. As I was driving I felt like a bit of a wuss, like perhaps the injury wasn’t that big of a deal, but the pain lingered all day. I need one of those ankle braces. Rich says I can get one at Target. Maybe I’ll stop on the way home today. Anyway, I arrived at my office slightly earlier than usual, by 7:45AM or so, and managed to knock out a load of paperwork. Hardly anyone was on the floor…that always helps. Next year I think I’ll stay out of the office more often. After a cafeteria lunch (high school kids invaded, way too loud for me) I took in another meeting before cutting out by 2:30PM. I don’t know how people with normal hours survive. I guess they don’t work nights and weekends as much as I do. I picked up the boys from school, and we hit the library. The boys were excellent. T picked out a book about medieval times for a research project on which he’s working. S chose a video game, rather than books, but hey, he’s a good reader, so no sweat. He’s actually somewhat obsessed with an Atlas we purchased at Half-Price Books a while ago. When I was his age I loved maps as well. Last night M had a church meeting, so I hung out with the boys. I felt like a good father for the first time in a while. T wasn’t feeling well, so he and I chatted on the bed after dinner. Then N and I read three books together. His academics are coming along well…I was worried. S stayed up a little later with me, reading his Atlas while I read Murikami’s “The Elephant Vanishes”.
Today is the last “official” day before spring break. If I work my ass off this morning, I think I can avoid driving into work tomorrow. Maybe I’ll hit the Bacon exhibit one more time before the exhibition shuts down. Maybe I’ll sleep all day. Good night.