Back to Life, Back to Reality

(I bet somebody started hummin' the song)

I've realized that everything that I post here need not be life-changing news. Besides, most of the time, we are unaware of the signficance of life's daily events until long after they've passed.
I don't know how much this afternoon will matter in the grand scheme of things, but I do know that, right now, it matters.

I need it.
It very well might be my last stress-free Sunday evening for a long while.

Usually, Sunday afternoons are fraught with the panic that comes from realizing that tomorrow is Monday and there's still a whole weeks' worth of lesson planning ahead. In spite of random bouts of binge-grading throughout the weekend, the pile of quizzes/papers/homework is still hurricane storm surge high.
Sitting at the computer for hours, hands on my forehead, trying desperately to squeeze out meaningful, culturally-relevant, student-centered, intellectually-stimulating activities and assessments for a group of people more interested in L'il Wayne than writing analytical paragraphs. (And I doubt L'il Wayne could write one)

This. Every Sunday of the school year. Without fail.

But not today. Today, I will eat orange-cranberry scones and watch B movies on DVD with my daughter and bf. They will be spared my desperate, semi-rhetorical questions about objective tracking. Their "Did you see that"(s) will be met with something other than a grunt from behind the electric glow of my laptop.

No, this afternoon probably won't bring breakthrough in the field of college-preparatory education for under-privileged youth, but it will be good for me.

Makes me wonder which life is real. This one? Or the planning-grading-teaching-meeting frenzy that is my other life?