Well, we’re at a few halfway points. Mark has been in Iraq for more than 100 days, and by the time I get back from Europe at the end of the month, he’ll be home in 100 days for his mid-tour leave. Plus, if we factor in the fact that he’s basically been gone since January with the pre-deployment training, we’re at the halfway point of being done with this whole process. All good things, right?
I threw myself into work tonight so I could try to not miss Mark. I think this has been my first real Saturday at home. I’ve been lazy. I slept in, worked out, talked to Mark, napped when my allergies acted up, baked banana bread, made dinner, and played Lego Star Wars. Mark should have been here; it was our kind of relaxed day.
Despite missing Mark, it has been a good week. I had OK meetings at SLU. I’ve loved everyone that I have met from St. Mary’s so far. I think I’m really going to enjoy working there. I just can’t get over how friendly everyone is. I sense a very special, open, and warm community. I’ve been in and out of a lot of schools during the last few years, and I haven’t seen this sense of warmth anywhere else. I’m definitely intrigued, and I hope I love it as much as I do now when I finally meet my students.
I spent my evening working on my English 190 class. I’m a little frustrated because the text that was used in the past isn’t really an argumentative writing textbook. I also want to make sure that I am doing what I want my college education students to do, so I’m going to have to go back through my weekly plans and work on varying my assignments and class activities. I’ve got some good ideas, but I need to come up with more. It’s been a while since I’ve taught this class, so I need to make sure I have a new and improved approach.
In other work news, I survived my week of teaching a Regis class. The professor was very happy with my performance, so hopefully, I’ll get my own class sometime this fall. I just hope it’s a content that I can actually teach! And my summer tutoring endeavors went well. I just need to make sure I don’t get in over my head with it…I can see it exploding, and I don’t know if I can handle it on top of my work at Seton, Regis, and St. Mary’s.
So we shall see…I just hope good things continue happening and Mark and I can keep on surviving this. I know we definitely won’t take each other for granted after this experience. I now appreciate Mark so much more…everything he does for me physically, spiritually, and mentally. Life is so much fun with him. I can’t wait till we get that life back.
