Starting a New Month with Old Friends

 

Friday – August 3, 2012 – Starting a New Month with Old Friends

First, an update on Elliott’s recovery from surgery on his eyelids:  We’re into our second day of the post-op eye-icing regimen:  20 minutes on, 20 minutes off.  There’s also a timetable for pills and for eye ointment.  Timers are constantly ringing to keep us on schedule.  Elliott still looks scary, but he says he feels better today.  

And here’s an overdue report on Wednesday’s luncheon welcoming back Meredith, a former AHS ESOL teacher, and her husband, Lee.  They came over on Wednesday, along with their two little boys.  All of us at AHS missed them while they were living in Doha, Qatar for the past year.  Thanks to everyone who attended, and special thanks for your delicious edible contributions.  We certainly know how to eat well.  The shot glasses that you see people holding in the photos contain a chilled zucchini-pesto soup (super simple to make).  

Meredith and her family are only back in the U.S. for the summer, as they’ll be returning to Doha soon for another year of teaching.  It was great to see them and so interesting to learn about a very different way of life.  It was even fun to have my house filled (temporarily) with the noise and activity of three children (including Bethany’s daughter) under the age of five.  Seeing old friends was a wonderful way to start a new month.

A lot of the conversation on Wednesday focused on school, which isn’t surprising since everyone had some connection to AHS or teaching.  This kind of talk makes me a bit homesick for my old “home away from home.”  And there are other signs that I’m still going through a withdrawal phase.  The cycle of the school year is so deeply imprinted in my mind that I’m having new-school-year anxiety dreams (where’s my classroom?  can I find a restroom?, etc.).  Another indicator that I haven’t completely cut my ties to my former job – a compulsion to go out shopping for school supplies:  pretty pencils, colorful folders, cute erasers.  When the Sunday paper comes, I scan all the ads.  I’ve already picked out a new lunchbox. 

I recognize that familiar sensation, a mixture of anxiety and excitement, that starts at the mid-point of summer break and grows steadily through the month of August.  My subconscious obviously needs to get the message that I’m retired.  But I can still go to school for the teacher workdays at the end of the month, right?  I’ll make copies for people, I’ll arrange desks, I’ll stamp books, anything at all to be back – for a little while.