Why hello, loyal blog readers. I'm on the bed in a messy room (the boys', not mine). T is resting his head against my legs while he watches Netflixed (is that a verb?) Psych episodes. S is on Xbox. M and N are at N's swimming lessons. In a couple minutes I'm making dinner but I thought I'd write as the journal has been on my mind but I seem about five feet and ten minutes away from writing just about all the time.

By the way, today's one of the coldest days of the year, take two, if you will, as we thought the coldest day of the year would be a couple weeks back. Tonight's wind chills are meant to hit negative twenty-five. Yay. I picked a good week to get sick and take time off from the gym because walking through the yard at 4:45AM would suck. At least the sun was out today, so bright I had to close my office blinds.

The week has been pretty good, despite the Packers' super bowl win. I'm breathing, trying to meditate, etc. My students are a tougher this semester. Or maybe I'm reading them wrong. It's a good test for me, I guess, you know, to remember what real teaching is like, with students talking on the side and questioning field experience placements or whatever. I'm way ahead as far as planning is concerned. This morning I wrote up an activity for a student teaching seminar that doesn't take place for eight days. I'm already pretty much planned for next week's ASL one, too. I've picked up a few long-term projects that have been in the back of my mind and I should get down to the students' classes just to check-in with some I haven't seen in a while. I know the spring semester is a long, evil stretch. Anything I can do to head off problems early will be to everyone's advantage.

Did I mention Corey and I got coffee Friday night? I don't leave the house much but that was fun. He was running late so I hit the small Mequon bookstore for twenty minutes or so before we met at Panera's. I like Friday nights at bookstores. No rush. Then we work-gossiped for a couple hours and I drank way too much coffee and probably could have stayed until 2AM.

I finished a book on librarians called This Book Is Overdue. Eh. Review forthcoming. Now I'm reading Frazier's book on the great plains. We finished another Castle disc and, assuming accurate Netflix math, we should get another Saturday. Good timing. My sinuses are going bonkers but I've salvaged enough energy every day to rise, teach my ass off, and return home. I know I'm sick because I don't feel like working out even though I haven't visited the gym or lifted a weight since Sunday. I'm feeling the first waves of the desire to move. Maybe Friday. Friday morning I have a doctor's appointment before I drive down to MAM for the members' preview of the new Frank Lloyd Wright exhibit. Here's a link.:

http://mam.org/frank-lloyd-wright/

Maybe I'll work out after the museum. Or I could drive to the Milwaukee Public Market, always lovely on cold, sunny days, for lunch. Or I could return home, crawl into my pajamas, and prepare for a slow weekend with books. And I need Cacti soil, too. Whatever works. I'm ok with being alive today, even though the sky feels about three feet above my head and I know I'm in a precarious place.

Time to make dinner. Good night.