A few recommendations.

a big YES.

1. Getting things done. Yesterday, I messaged all the students who had not yet attended an orientation. Out of nearly 100 students, the people, just over thirty had taken the course compass in
hand, as it were, and set themselves aright. That's just over 30%. That is a failing grade on any Bell curve.

Dammit, students, I said in the message, this cannot stand. Or words to that effect. Well! Today, forty or so more came, to five different orientation sessions. Which happened at all hours of the day and evening. While this does mean that I am all orienteered out, it means that we're passing, grade wise, at about 70% percent. Very satisfying.

2. A schedule, a calendar, a plan. Until Labor Day has passed, I confess that I can barely be arsed, as they say, school-wise. I am pretty sure that this is an insouciant overstatement. But the spirit of it is true. While I am doing the steps, I am putting in the work, my heart is not in it. I will not go

I'm pretty sure it was like this

when I was swimming at Redondo

Beach after Labor day but before

school started.

into my whole nostalgic deal about how in the olden days, we did not start back to school until after Labor Day, a conviction which leads to what are, I'm sure, wholly falsified memories in which I had the whole of Redondo Beach to myself and I wandered lonely as a cloud and school was on the horizon but not yet at the door.

I will not, as I say, go into it. But let's just say that any person responsible for educational calendars who starts the official school year before Labor Day is living in a fool's paradise, if said person expects any serious work to get done.

That is why one needs a plan, the people. One needs to update one's calendar. One needs to make a little weekly schedule that represents one's fixed points, one's points of navigation, one's north stars. One needs to update one's Outlook calendar. One needs to look at one's schedule until it is imprinted upon one's eyes, one's heart, one's brain. One needs to get real with the new school year, and a schedule, a calendar, a plan is the way to do it. Just not till after Labor Day. Otherwise, Educational Calendar Czar, you're just asking for it.

these are they,
boots of joy.

3. Cute shoes from abroad. Well, now that I've got that off my chest, let me say that I acquired new grey suede boots from Marks & Spencer, that venerable department store of the United Kingdom, which now ships to America. Let me start over. When I was shopping with my daughter in
Aberdeen, we went into Marks & Spencer and I found the grey suede boots that completed both my quest for grey suede boots, and me, myself. That's right: the boots completed me in some deep spiritual shoe-based sense. And then, I talked myself out of getting them. Did I already have grey boots? Yes. Even grey suede boots? Well, yes, maybe. Okay, yes. Did I, strictly speaking, need grey suede boots? or any boots whatsoever? Possibly not.

And yet, once we left the store, I yearned for them. I looked on the M&S site when we got back home. Where were the boots? They were nowhere to be found, mere ghosts of memory. Soon, we left for America, bootless. Literally. I looked on the Marks & Spencer website. Still no boots. And then, a few days later, lo! they appeared. And reader, I did buy them, with free shipping. And today, I wore them. And they are perfect.

...except fluffier, and with
feta.

4. An omelet for breakfast. Chorizo and feta. Green onion. With the most perfect hashed browns in the world riding shotgun. And toast, sourdough. Eaten with a friend who knew you from back in the day of young motherhood. The breakfast the end of the birthday celebration line. This is food to fortify the soul. This is food that  gives courage and fuerza. With this food in the belly, one can make a plan, and orient the students, and update the Outlook calendar, and wear new boots even though it's still just a little too hot for boots. The omelet stays with you all day; the omelet is steadfast.  The omelet is helmet, buckler, and shield. The omelet keeps watch. The omelet will not let you down.