Second cup, ready for this first day of summer.  Everything kept simple, from assignments to assessing them to the grade book itself.  Bringing in two poems, one from Plath the other from Kerouac, of course.  I’ll post to maddenedread and talk to the students about the blog and for what it’s intended, at some point in tonight’s introductory meeting.  Jackie over on the couch, watching his Mickey Mouse show, and I hear the alerts on my phone, either people “liking” or responding to a poem I just posted…  And I was right.  The phone situates atop the TV cabinet, and I’m back over here on the couch, watching Jackie wag and shake his feet with a large careless smile, extending his cheeks outward like a famished animal enjoying its first meal in weeks.

First summer semester since 2009.  Five years.  Just my recognition of such scores another victory for Time.  This is the term that will free me, I promise mySELF.  Write everyday, check the grade book everyday, and always be writing for the blog and lectures.. especially if you want to be on the Road with your thoughts.

9:53PM.  Posted to teaching blog.  Great first night…  Now I sip the beer Mindy brought me for Father’s Day, relax a bit before sleep.  I need to wake early, get my writing in before going to winery, as I have to head straight to class after shift.  I am certainly going to have to change my character for this semester if I hope for it to change my character.  I want this term to free me, in the way that Spring didn’t.. namely, get me out of the wine industry.  The quiet right now, a loud slice of peace, just what the writer needs, really.  So, my plan, simple for this summer semester: wake early, everyday, just after 5, write, go There, then to class, then home to write, grade a bit.  Lunches at work, M-Th, spent doing something for this class.  I will have this semester separate me, have me be noticed as that passionate advocate educator, truly for student empowerment.

Getting a little tired now, but I have to keep typing.  How am I going to focus on work, tomorrow, on wine, and repeating that same script, over, over, when tonight I was endorsing individualism?  Am I a hypocrite?  Can let mySelf fall into the humdrum.  This class drives me.. this is the class that will free me, from everything pressing me into any type of mood mud.

Had a wonderful run earlier today, about 6.2 miles.  Can’t remember my time.. I think 48:57, if I remember right.  Not bad, but I still wish to bring that down dramatically.  At this point, 35.. I will have no objectives unmet.  And I will let not one of Them into my armor.  I’m done.  And the students tonight affirmed what I should do.  Not sure I’ve had a first session have this forceful a forward on me, before.  The grip it exudes designs me, a new ME.  In love.  -6/16/14