The REAL First Day of School

Before we begin, let us note some things that one shouldn't do on the night before one's real first day, i.e. the first day that one is back in the classroom.

1. Watch the Democratic Convention all night long (though I will say, from what the pundits described I timed my tuning in just right - I came in with Kennedy and so apparently missed 2 boring previous hours), feeling at turns inspired but then also disgruntled (more on that perhaps later, for I think I was just being weird and petty and I really did leave Michelle Obama's speech thinking that I really wish she were running for president, because wow did I find her awesome).
2. Think to self, "Self, it is 11:30, you should go to bed! School tomorrow!"
3. Consider briefly ironing dress for FDoS, but then say, "nah, I'll just do it in the morning."
   
4. Proceed to answer the phone around midnight (you weren't really sleeping - eyes closed, yes, and in bed, yes, but also with mind racing) when FB called. You only talked to him for 8 minutes (3 extra on top of what you said he could have when he first got on the phone, which you think is awfully generous) but then proceeded to go back to the tossing, the turning, the not sleeping.
5. Finally drift off to sleep, but then proceed to have a series of dreams (and I do mean a series - like around 5) that cause you to wake yourself up because you're laughing. I do not remember the dreams, but apparently I'm hilarious. Or at least I think I am.
   
6. Well, and Mr. Stripey thinks I'm hilarious, too. So hilarious in fact that my laughing woke him up and he thought that it was time to play. At 5:30. He was irrepressible, and so I got up to give him and his brother breakfast, and attempted to return to bed. But then, alas, because I woke up, and because the allergy meds had yet to kick in, I was a snotty hacky mess, and so could not fall back to sleep.

So I'm awake. On maybe 5 hours of sleep. And I've got to teach two courses back to back, both of which I have to (well, because I'm me) give actual lectures in.

Things I'm happy about as I embark on the semester:

• One student who never should have been enrolled in my senior-level class dropped. Already. Even without seeing the syllabus. It's like a miracle of some kind.
• I'm really excited to teach every single thing I'm teaching. Again, this is like a miracle of some kind.

More to report later. I've got a post on teaching lit to uninterested folks brewing, as well as some other things rattling around in this head of mine.