School's Back In Session

School's back in session today for my kids. The backpacks are all laid out nicely in the living room, the kids all went to bed early, and the cat even went outside for the night. Summer is ending quickly and life will now return to the tempo of weekdays and weekends for everybody. Of course for those of us with a job, nothing really changes.

We trudge through summer like any other season. The biggest difference is that for half of the year we get to drive to and from work in the daylight. As fall approaches and blends into winter this will turn to darkness and we will wonder if the sun really shines at all. It's dark when we leave for work and darkening when we return home.

Remember back when, back when we were all in school and actually did have the whole summer off? Playing everyday, bedtime optional, and fun, fun, fun all day long. I miss those days. The only pay off is today.

Oh how I hated the first day of school! The new clothes were the worse. Today I am wearing all my well worn and familiar clothes. No stiff collars and weird store smell on my new shirt. No brand new jeans that are so perfectly blue they look like some sort of beacon and so stiff, they rub against you all during the day making sore spots on your hips and "otherwheres" and make it a chore to sit down, especially Indian style. Of course there is also the bright white shoes that scream, "Hey! Look at me!" and feel 6 inches too long, causing you to trip on anything that is not perfectly flat.

Oh no! I hated the first day of school! The new kids all looked strange, the old ones looked goofy in their new clothes, everybody smelt different, talked different, and all the friend groups tended to re-shuffle. Once in class the teacher would try to establish his or her dominance to keep all of us freaks in line, and homework would begin. This of course meant that once home, not only would I be sore from all the clothes rubbing, tired from having to get up earlier than I had for the last three months, not able to watch my regular T.V., but I would be watching the end of the summer days from the kitchen table as I tried to learn the stuff I thought the teacher was supposed to teach us!

Yeah, I'll take the job world. Where we might have to work through the summer, but we don't have to go back to school!