Home again, home again...

Well, it’s good to be home. We celebrated my birthday a couple of weeks late tonight with cake and presents – it’s been crazily busy, so we postponed it.

My brain is completely and absolutely full to the brim, so I’m going to just try to dump it all here – there will be no order and possibly not much of interest to anyone other than myself…but you never know!

Yesterday was the last day at Hollyhock and the long trip home. The pancake breakfast, much touted and advertised, was, frankly, a disappointment. I completely understand the vegetarian stance, and even the no-wheat, no-dairy, for the most part. But wheat and dairy free pancakes are incredibly heavy and, well…the complete opposite of all that pancakes should be. Fresh blackberries and organic maple syrup can’t disguise that. It was the same with the spelt cream puffs, which were less than puffy. But that’s okay…I wasn’t impressed with the food, but I am notoriously picky. I shan’t mention it again (I don’t think…)

The morning session was good – we went through almost all the songs we’d sung straight through. I recorded it all and need to find a place to upload the mp3 files – something free and easy to use. Then the other workshop members can get the songs as well. We went for a walk and sang around this beautiful pond, and then another lady and I lost the group and missed the final closure, so we and 2 others had our own song in the middle of the path. I loaded up the van, collected my 2 passengers and was bound and determined to catch the early ferry, so we planned to leave before lunch. Then I remembered that I never got my clothing back from the girl who tipped in the kayak the night before, so ran around like crazy trying to find her. Finally did, and we rushed out, and got in line – it looked like we might or might not make it. The ferries only leave Cortes every 2 hours and I didn’t want to have to wait for the 3:50 sailing. Thankfully we made it on, and then drove across Quadra Island (only 15 minutes), and caught that ferry too. Then a four hour drive had me arriving home at 8:30 pm…having left at 12:30! Yikes. I had 2 lovely passengers – one was the lovely lady I drove up with last week. We dropped her off near Nanaimo. The second is a fellow choir member, who I didn’t know at all before this week. We had a lovely visit all the way down to Victoria. It was so nice to be back home, but disconcerting too – jarring in the reminder that I’m back in the ‘real’ world!

What else – lazy day today. We took one of our elderly cats to the vet for routine bloodwork – he’s hyperthyroid. Pricey! $150 later, we came home…but he’s 16 and one of the family, so we do what we must.

I’ve just realized that I need to start really looking at the fall…classes for Xander, my work schedules for both jobs, Rob’s tour schedule and event schedule, things I’d like to do…My life is about to ramp up drastically again, and with Rob out of town so much, and book events we can go to off Island as well as here, it’ll be busy. I really want to make sure that there is time for me this year…I’m definitely going to choir, even if it means bringing Xander with me some nights. I’d also like to take yoga and belly dance, but suspect that it’ll be one or the other for the fall at least. And then there’s making time for walking the dog, and hopefully doing some aerobics or something. And going out dancing again more, since I’ve been reminded that I love it. And part of me cringes at the thought of being greedy enough to do so much for me, but the fact is, the more I take care of myself, the better off everyone lese will be too. And I need to think about Xander’s lesson plans and what homeschooling will look like this year. We need to tackle the reading full on, but also need to explore science and socials more formally, and introduce handwriting this year. That’s a lot – I always knew that grade 2 was a big year, and now we need to work hard to make it work! Plus planning his extracurricular activities…

What else is on my mind? There’s a camp gathering of Whatcom County (and area) people this weekend, and SpaceBand is playing in Fairhaven and I really want to go. We’re trying to figure out how to make it work. Rob has to be in Vancouver on Friday anyways, for a book thing at Chapters, and the ferry is paid for. We’ll be doing those ferries a lot…this Friday, then the 30th for his launch, then the next weekend to Galliano, to a good friend’s store – Lee Trentedu’s Galliano Books. Then the next weekend he’s gone for a week to Toronto…Anyways, I’m steaming off topic…this weekend…how to make it work, allowing me to spend time there, but still have family time in Agassiz as well…I think we may have hit upon a solution that will have me on the road a lot, but should work out…Its been taking a lot of head space to figure out and I think that it’ll only get crazier from here on out.

I think that’s all I’ll say tonight. I know there’s way more, but I need to get to bed earlier. That, eating healthier and getting fit are huge goals for me starting now. September has always been the ‘new year’ for me – and indeed, for many people who work in the school system. That’s when the year starts, plain and simple. Its crazy to think that summer is almost over, and for a lot of camp friends, already done. My Phoenix pals went to work with bums in seats today…how weird is that? But in 3 weeks I’ll be in the same position. I’m working hard at not panicking, but I have to admit that the anxiety is beginning to build…I need to do some stuff to clear my brain, and my physical living space too. And get my health a bit back on track. Curious that, having spent 5 days relaxing, over the past 2 weeks, all the numbness that I’d been experiencing which had faded a bit has returned, even more severe. That’s scary and I’m trying not to think about it…is it heat and sun, as I’ve been out more? MS is triggered by sunlight, and that scares me…I’m not going to worry tonight. I’m going to go and do dishes and read a bit and try to get a good night’s sleep. Wish me well!