Teaching from home is not new for me; I’ve been an on-line instructor at the college level for, oh, about eleven years. But being solely from home, though it has its advantages, is starting to wear on me. Maybe I’m in a funk because the kids had a random mid-week day off and I am starting to stress about Thanksgiving. Honestly, I would love to just be done teaching for the year but I have to hang in there for a couple more weeks. Anyway, here are thirteen random thoughts about stuff right now.

1. November is already chugging along, isn’t it? I really love from about the start of October until year’s end. It’s such a time nice of year, weather-wise, and we have school and sports activities, and then all the best holidays. And this is the only thing I will say about voting: I went and did it early and my life will be good no matter who wins. Because my success and happiness are made by me and my choices.
2. Since the weather change, my sinuses have been out of control! I don’t know about y’all but for some reason, the pressure just kills in my face whenever this happens.
3. My kids BANKED on Halloween this year and instead of saying I could take some candy, they just went ahead and put it in a bag for me. They know what I liked and just gave them to me. (How do my kids not like Butterfingers??) But now, I am eating fun sized pieces ALL. THE. TIME. I almost want it to be gone so I can stop. LOL.
4. The hurricane that was originally heading right for my area of the panhandle shifted so the middle of the state is getting it. I am super glad that we avoided that one!
5. My students are fading fast, y’all. We’re finishing paper 2 of 3 and they are falling off the boat. I don’t know what I can do to get them on board but they have to want it, you know?
6. I finished reading Rob Halford’s new book, his sort of autobiography; the story of how he began in music and of Judas Priest. Something keeps resonating with me when he discusses that his mother always asked if he was happy and if so, so was she. I feel like I think about this in terms of myself (am I happy? In general, yes.) and then, for my kids. Am I making sure I am happy that they are? It shows up often when my normally happy and even-keeled teenage boy goes off on how he just wants to play video games for a living. I do want him to be happy but I cannot imagine allowing him to play for hours on end.
7. Oh, and Rob liked my Instagram post about it and I mean, how awesome is that?? A little cooler, even, than when Dee Snider of Twisted Sister liked a tweet of mine.
8. I’m getting burned out on teaching, to be totally honest. Just when I think I am caught up, more submissions get turned in and I’m right back to where I was. I need a week-long break! OK I allowed myself to take off Tuesday afternoon and then we were off yesterday so I need to be grateful for that break and use it to propel me forward into the end of the term.
9. Isaac’s flag football coach is/was a hot mess (not sure if I detailed it here but he was consistently 15-30 minutes late to every practice, was 7 minutes late to the last game(!), and made promises he never kept about drafting up plays and having wrist bands, etc.) The worst two things involved his wife and kid’s mom, being at the games. She was unhappy about a play and dropped about 30 f-bombs and threw her chair around. This was the one the city officials saw, thankfully. What they didn’t see was when her and their oldest daughter sat in the family mini-van during practice one night, smoking pot. Right near all the kids! I was THIS CLOSE to sending an email to the woman who runs the sports stuff when one of the dads emailed us all to say that he was approached by the very same woman to step in as our coach. Yes! Victory! Even if  we don’t win any games, this is way better. The team suffered from a lack of organization and understanding about what that coach wanted. The kids have talent but didn’t understand the way he had things set up. I feel like this is going to be much better for us going forward.
10. To hearken back to #6, I feel very unhappy today. It could be just stress of upcoming stuff or this cloudy weather. It could just be I woke up on the wrong side of the bed and I am going to have to try extra hard to turn around my attitude. I am excited for lunch (Mexican today) and I know I will feel very relieved to be done with my two afternoon classes. But at the same time, we don’t have any kid obligations today so once the classes are done, what do I do? I don’t want to just sit around feeling blue.
11. Admittedly, after that last point, I started class (they’re working now) and I already feel better. A bunch of them said they want to take my class in the Spring. How awesome is that?
12. I finally bit the bullet and ordered a new phone. I was suspect of the deals and stuff but once I did my research – hours of it in fact – I decided on the Google Pixel 4a. It’s a budget phone but I’ve been buying high end ones for years with no real gain. I have he Samsung S8+ and though I like it, I really only do a few things on there: play small games, browse apps, and take pics of my kids. The Pixel has an excellent camera so for me, this was a good choice. I damn near bought the phone through Verizon but then decided to just get it on Amazon. It should come today!
13.  The sun finally came out and as petty and silly as it is, I know this affects my mood immeasurably. I am so much more likely to press forward in a good mood when the sun is even just a little bit out.