back 2 skool.5

getting dressed at the crack of dawn for back to school.

first day of school for me, moses & cecily.

next week, christian starts teaching and ingrid heads back to bryn mawr.  for the first time since pre-school, eva won't be going back to school this fall.  weird.  & good.  one kid done with college!

a couple of things about 2K12's first day back:

1) every tuesday i'll be in class for 420 minutes.  teaching for 160 of those minutes.  in poetry workshop & seminar for the rest.  i'm so grateful to have this opportunity, and so grateful for state schools that provide an education for so many students of such diverse backgrounds.  here's to even more diversity among college students in the future.

back to school duds.  big sister ambiguity.

2) moses and cecily are so adorable.  i'm grateful we live in a safe neighborhood with a great school, and that they can walk to school.  every child should have this.  i will continue to do everything in my power to make this happen some day.

3) lula made fresh peach ice cream today.  she's still waiting for her school to start next week.  the first days of walden always involve a walkabout--three days worth of backpacking in the mountains.  i'm so grateful for walden.  the teachers are amazing and dedicated and the students get so many enriching experiences.  yay progressive public education!

4) i'm really excited to be in poetry workshop again, and grateful to be able to work with a really interesting poet.  she is asking for a lot of new poems from us, which i love, and i was so excited when she talked about valuing aesthetic diversity amongst the poets of our program.  i'm totally down with that, and glad it's so fundamental for her.  also, so grateful that, against all odds, people continue to devote their lives to poetry.

back to school eve dinner.

5) our back to school dinner last night was:  roasted teriyaki salmon and mushrooms, green beans, corn, and my favorite koshihakari rice, with peaches & cream for dessert.  i'm so grateful for utah peaches and corn.

6)  i thought i was going to have to wear an old dress today, but ingrid and anna thrifted a snakeskin calvin klein sweater dress for me yesterday.  so even though i had to get up at 5.30 a.m. to get ready for school, i was grateful to have a fun dress to wear.

7) class ended early tonight, so i had time for a relaxing dinner with eva and d.j. at red iguana in salt lake.  i'm grateful for red vinyl mexican table cloths, pink doors with yellow walls, and chile verde.  & also grateful to have eva living so close to me after four years on the east coast.

late summer roses.

8) i'm grateful to aunt bonnie for taking care of my rose bushes.

9)  i returned to a clean kitchen, folded laundry, and fresh peach ice cream.  i'm grateful for ingrid, lula, and christian for keeping everything together, and more, at home in my absence.