I’m writing later on a Tuesday evening. This is my first April entry. The last four days have been exhausting. On Saturday afternoon we took the boys up to a waterpark in Sheboygan to hook up with my sister and her kids. I don’t know if I was looking forward to more of a mellow weekend, starting spring break, but I was exhausted. Plus, I hadn’t slept well Friday night, and a lack of sleep combined with too much activity inevitably sends me down the path towards exhaustion and depression. Steve (my brother in law) and I managed to sequester ourselves in another room and watch the NCAA tournament for a while. That night I slept on the floor, badly, leading to a second night of questionable sleep. T woke up by 5:30AM or so Sunday morning. He and I hung out in the lobby for an hour before dawn. We had the space to ourselves, and we spent some time on the balcony, despite the cold, watching the sun rise and listening to the waves. Later, after the kids woke, we returned to the waterpark. I nearly had a meltdown, as I wanted to go home, but I waited for a couple hours until we all left more or less together. Later I took Steve and my sister to Cabela’s, returned home, said goodbye, and collapsed. Oh, here’s a video of N running into a guy in the waterpark. Pretty funny:

http://youtube.com/watch?v=81E_ZsD0K-I

On Monday I had to take a stress test/ultrasound related to the emergency room visit. I felt like I was wasting the staffs’ time and running up my insurance. One guy gave my heart an ultrasound, then I ran on a treadmill (fourteen minutes, the last minute or so was a motherfucker), then I jumped off and the guy did another ultrasound. The doctor was interesting. He and the other guys in the room chatted about the Brewers opening day and looked more or less bored. They all knew there was nothing wrong with my heart. Well, apparently there is minor damage to a wall, which indicates I should lose weight, but that’s not serious, I guess. After the doctor’s office I hit work for a few hours. I answered email and planned for next week. I’d like to stay out of the office for the duration of break, but I also want to write next week, so we’ll see how that scenario works itself out. If I can get a lot done on Monday and Tuesday, I should be ok. I taught in Kenosha, more or less successfully, I think, Monday night. This morning I drove down to Inverness to see Dan. I hadn’t eaten much the last few days, and I ran into a mad sugar level meltdown in the car on the way to a used CD store. I had to run into a supermarket and buy some chocolate, or I might have fainted. The chocolate tasted gross, though. I bought some books, probably too many, at a half-priced bookstore near Dan’s house. We exchanged CDs, etc., and I drove home, arriving in the garage by four. Some work drama emerged on the computer, but nothing serious, and I’m practicing avoiding the pattern of getting too caught up in that bullshit over break. The boys and I played football for a while in the backyard. We watched some of the Brewers’ second game on television, I told them a story before bed, and here I am. Tomorrow is wide open. I feel badly that M doesn’t have too many wide open days. Good night.