summer's end

Thomas has been home for 2 1/2 weeks now, and it has been wonderful! My trip to Notre Dame to pick him up was fantastic. The drive there was pretty boring but I listened to The Sisterhood of the Traveling Pants on CD, and that helped it go a bit faster. It was not my first choice for a book, but there are somewhat limited options at the library and it was about the same length as the drive. We stayed in South Bend for a few days and had a mini-vacation. We went to some really nice restaurants (including this one: http://www.tippe.com/ ... it was SO beautiful!), saw Julie and Julia (which we both really liked), and most importantly just spent time with each other. I hope we never have to be apart that long--or anywhere near that long--again!

Since he's been home, we've both been working a lot. Thomas has been back at the pool, and I kept working at Hy-Vee til the beginning of last week. I applied to be a substitute teacher this year, and I was lucky enough to start subbing on the first day of school, which was last Wednesday. Our old drama teacher Mrs. Clark had to have surgery a few weeks ago and is not supposed to be working yet, so I got to sub for her for a week, which was great because subbing pays better and is more fun than working at Hy-Vee.

Today is our first day of school, which I am not at all excited about, but it is my last year, and that is extremely exciting! This semester I am working on my master's thesis (which is focusing on depictions of gender in Victorian children's literature), taking 2 other classes, and teaching one section of freshman composition. I'm also going to continue subbing on the days I don't have class. I think that sounds like a pretty full schedule, but Thomas is taking five classes, teaching a section of freshman comp, rehearsing for The Importance of Being Earnest in which he'll be starring this October, and continuing to work a few hours at the pool every week. I consequently doubt I'll be seeing much of him, but seeing him at all is going to be better than this summer was!