This might be TMI

I spent part of Monday morning throwing up. For no apparent reason. No flu, no food in my belly (I mostly threw up the apple juice that I drank when I woke up). That, combined with another odd symptom or two, which I will not list here because they are too private, had me convinced for a couple of hours that I would soon be in for mommyhood. I counted back to when I went off my birth control shot. Only about a month. And now I'm on the patch. Surely I'm not that fertile, right? After consulting some internet chat rooms about the effects of going off the Depo shot and then consulting my home pregnancy test, I am not pregnant. But that was a scary couple of hours. Thank goodness for the internet to ease my fears. Apparently the effects of going off Depo can be pretty strong, although I had no such symptoms last time I went off. Then again, I was on it much longer this time.

Anyway, Tuesday was fun. Students and staff members assume that if I'm sick or have a doctor's appointment that I'm pregnant. And they feel free to ask me. I was glad that I could laugh it off. At least for now.

School is still going well. I feel much more energized and happy and just in my comfort zone than I did last year. It almost makes me wish that we weren't wanting to leave, if it just gets better every year. I'm busier, with the extra class and supervision, but I also feel more connected to the students and more fulfilled. So all around goodness. I do miss my husband, but I guess I'll see him at the end of May. And maybe it will be a little better after the Democratic National Convention is over.

And so it goes

Another school year has begun. So far classes are going well. I have fewer students in each class, which is nice, and they don't seem quite as rambunctious as last year's group. So I'm hoping for good things. So far only 16 students in my Business Math class, and I hope it stays that way. That would be amazing.

My student workers are great. Eager to learn and helpful. I have high hopes for a much less stressful year, even though I've added a class and supervision to my load. Still, I'm optimistic.

I had some crazy nightmares the few days before classes started, and there has been some difficult sleeping, but all around, much better than the last two years. Michael has about a week left of his two online courses, so he has a lot on his plate, but is glad to be teaching two Bible classes and one History, instead of three Bible. That's a lot of Bible classes to try to make interesting.

Anyway, that's the short update from here. I'm excited for a new year. Also, the weather's been beautiful, so I've been trying to soak it up before winter invades.

Here I am in my newly green office on the third day of school.

Piazza San Marco

I've been trying for weeks to upload this video. I'm sure there's a better way to do it, but Blogger didn't like it, so here's a link to it. Hope you enjoy. I did. I hope you enjoy our conversation.

Video of St. Mark's Square

Goings on

It shouldn't be humanly possible to sleep as much as I have been lately. Between 10 and 12 hours a night. And I still wake up groggy and force myself not to take naps during the day, or go to bed at 8:30, which is when I want to go to bed. I hope it has more to do with my medication than my mental state. I've been slowly reducing the dosage on my antidepressant, and would like to go down a little more, but I'm afraid of impending doom if I go too low. Where is the line? The balance? I wish I knew. And also, I wish I knew whether last winter's disaster was just caused by the perfect storm of small contributing factors or whether this is something I should expect in my life. A few years of relative okay and then a year of horrendous disappointments? I guess there's only one way to find out. And having anxiety attacks about it in the meantime probably won't help. Okay, it definitely won't help.

So besides the enormous amounts of sleep, we started having pre-session meetings this week with our new principal. I like him. He's punctual, a quality I probably over-value in people. He's also into building staff relationships and he's fairly blunt. I like that. Also, he wants to pay me more. I like that. He came to me and said he was confused by my contract. I told him in the nicest way possible that I didn't think it was fair, but that I like working here, and that there are a lot of injustices in the world. He said that just because life isn't fait doesn't mean we shouldn't try to correct it. So to make a long story short, I may be making a lot more money this year. I'm excited about that.

Also, I agreed to teach one section of Business Math this year. Because I have lost my mind. And Michael's and my schedules overlap this year, so I can't have any breakdowns because he won't be able to sub for me. So here's hoping that last winter's difficulties will stay in last winter and not infect this one. Because as nice as it is to have a husband who is willing to teach for you when you can't get out of bed, it's even nicer if he doesn't have to do that for you.

And to assist in that, I painted my office a light green. The plummy-mauve was killing me. It wasn't enough that it was cold and gray outside, I had to have a dreary hole to work in? No more! Light green-a color that exists in nature, that might brighten my mood on some dark days. That's the hope, at least.

A couple weeks ago I got bored, so we made a trip down south and saw first Michael's family, then spent a day at camp and remembered how good it is to be with best friends, then spent a few days with my family. The house that I was dreaming about sold, so I'll have to find a new house to dream about, I guess. We're still tentatively planning to move to Nashville after this school year. Of course we want to follow God's plan, so we're planning with hope that this is God's plan.

Students arrive next Friday. Registration on Sunday. School starts Monday. The nightmares have begun. It's the initial plunge that's painful. By October I should be fine.

I finished four books this week. But no lesson plans.

Roma - Ciao!

The drive from Florence to Rome was beautiful. We saw many fortress cities - perched on the top of a hill, surrounded by a wall. It gave a new meaning to the verse about being like a city on a hill. You can't see much of anything but hills all around, and there is this city sitting like a crown on top of the hill. Quite impressive. There were also fields of sunflowers and mountains and many other beautiful things to see.

Rome had crazy traffic, like nothing I've ever experienced. Not in Costa Rica or Jamaica or Paris. Sometimes there were no dividing lines for lanes, so the cars just filled all the space possible, bottlenecking, until it broke out into two lanes, with lines. Then all five former lanes jam into that space. And if there isn't enough space on your side of the road, and no one is coming on the other side too soon, just drive over there. No big deal. And all the scooters and motorcycles weave between the cars. It was stressful. So after finally finding the airport (signs were not very helpful) we dropped off the car and took the train back into the city. Unfortunately, we didn't remember where our hotel was. So we had to ask a lady at a tourist information booth. We only knew the name of the hotel. She helped us and we got back safely.

The next day we took a bus tour of the city and saw many sights: Circo Massimo, the oldest standing theater, the Jewish Synagogue, Saint Peter's, Vatican City, the biggest dog ever (or small horse, if you prefer), the Trevi Fountain and the Pantheon. We also happened upon the changing of the guard at Parliament. (?) We were just walking down the street, heard a band playing, and followed the music. There were lots of soldiers with guns.

The next day it was our mission to see the Coliseum and the Sistine Chapel. The Coliseum was very interesting, and of course, huge. Looking out of it and watching the cars whiz by, I wondered what it would be like to drive by the Coliseum on your way to work every day. It was just mind boggling. There are ruins that were buildings before Christ walked on earth. It was amazing. Because of a bus strike in the city that day we had to wait a long, long time for our tour bus, but finally we found one and went over to Vatican City and made the hike to the Vatican Museum and the Sistine Chapel. We really just wanted to see the Sistine Chapel, but they don't let you do that. We went through dozens of rooms filled with sculptures, tapestries, paintings and other priceless works of art. Almost every ceiling was covered with paintings or frescoes. The amount of art was stunning. I couldn't even take it all in. Finally we got to the Sistine Chapel, where there was a guard yelling, "Please be quiet! No pictures!" Most people ignored him and talked as loud as they pleased and snapped pictures (some with the flash on). I'll admit that I held my camera down by my waist, pointed up and took a couple shots. But I turned my flash off. It was amazing and beautiful. Go see it for yourself. There are no words.

So after the Sistine Chapel we ate at a creperie, had some more gelato and headed back to our hotel. We had our very best gelato that night when we were out searching for food around 9:00 near our hotel. I had ciocolato and frute de bosco (chocolate and berry). We were tempted to go back as soon as we finished. We should have.

The next day we flew back to New York.

All in all our trip was amazing. We saw amazing things and walked a lot and ate a whole lot of gelato. I recommend the limone. Yum. We got really tired of pizza and pasta. We planned the whole trip on our own, and I think it was a smashing success, if I do say so myself. And now, the final pictures from our amazing European adventure!

A city on a hill



On our bus tour


Castle San Angelo - the Papal fortress


The changing of the guard


Inside the Pantheon


Us outside the Pantheon


Some nuns outside the Piazza Venezia - there were nuns all over the place in Rome


The entrance to the largest park in Rome


Some ruins


Us at St. Peter's


St. Peter's


The Trevi Fountain


Inside the Vatican Museum


Also inside the Vatican Museum


The Sistine Ceiling


Leaving the Sistine Chapel/Vatican Museum


The Coliseum


Us inside the Coliseum


Inside the Coliseum


Piazza Venezia - where Mussolini used to give his speeches. Impressive, no?