Cruising up the bike trail and feeling strong this morning, with a breeze in my face and the river beside me. It's going to get steamy later, but in the morning cool, it just feels so good!

A whole other day at work without anyone freaking out. I realize that's a small thing, but after you go almost a whole year without it, you appreciate it. Being able to walk through the halls or talk to co-workers without wondering what fresh hell lurks around every conversational corner. I can just do my work, and that's kind of great.

It was a great first day. And in the course of that day, my boss clarified a policy issue, received several respectfully dissenting opinions from staff, and by the end of the day had modified the policy to reflect the concerns staff had expressed to him. It's a nice thing to work for somebody who listens and responds.

A really good and uplifting in-service today, but in a good, realistic, on-this-planet way and not in a unicorns pooping rainbows way. Still had some time to get some things ready, and I'll have a little time to continue that process tomorrow. I'm excited to get things going, probably a little more than  usual because Amanda's excitement is leaking all over the house. It is so great that she is finally getting to do the work that she was born to do. Kids tomorrow for her.

There is something warming about driving with a loved one sleeping in the car. I don't know-- maybe it appeals to my caveman protective side. But it's a real privilege to be able to drive my daughter to the airport, before sunrise, sliding down the highway into the morning. And it's a real gift to make the whole trip with my wife beside me.

I'm behind, and as much as I was afraid of trying to meet my daughter's standard of three things, I may end up going there.

Wednesday night we were all up and out late, first sitting and cutting things out for Amanda's classroom. She is so pumped and so anxious but it is so cool to see all this stuff come together into a room that looks just like her. And then we wrapped up the day with some Just Dance, and I still suck, but it's fun to take turns flopping around the living room rhythmically with my wife and daughter.

Yesterday Barbara went shopping with me for shirts and ties. Then last night Barbara's date canceled so I went with her up to Erie to see Melissa in Legally Blonde. Melissa did really, really well. I also got to see Evan O'Polka, who was my Hamlet-in-the-park years ago. But mostly it was fun to see a show again with the woman long-ago dubbed The Critic because she has such a good eye for theater and what's working and what's not. It was a great evening.

There's nothing quite as exciting as an in-service that provides good information that you can actually use. The trainer for MBC was an actual classroom teacher, and the information she provided got me excited about some of the uses I can find for the program-- particularly nice because I have not been loving MBC and have been a little grumpy about having to give up moodle for it.

In other teacher new, it is also exciting to watch my wife get so cranked up for her first full year of full time employment in her own classroom. Elementary people have so much labor-intensive bit-work stuff to do for their rooms, and after a couple of decades of being able to just saunter in on day one, I get kind of cranked up to see how cranked up she is getting.

My daughter is home. Almost nothing warms my heart more than having one of my kids under the roof here. It's worth every trip to the airport, day or night.

Baking

Right now Amanda is baking zucchini bread. She bakes many good things, and it is a challenge to my desire to take some weight off, because whatever she makes, it's generally a 24-hour supply of it. I already ate one of the vegetarian stuffed peppers today. The steady steam of co-op food creates pressure on us to make things out of the better-than-storebought local produce (and meat) that comes into the house, but the baking is the best part. I can finally learn to love zucchini if it comes bread-shaped. It is also an opportunity to reflect on the philosophical differences between bread and cake. I would feel REALLY irresponsible if it were called zucchini cake.

Lisa Frank Jesus and My Daughter

There were lots of things to love this day, but by evening Amanda and I were sitting at Lisa Frank Jesus, the home of Mexicannish food near the Grove City outlets. Tonight we got to sit in one of the booths against the wall where the world's worst rendering of The Last Supper is plastered on the wall in colors that would have made Lisa Frank say, "Damn, man. Tone it down a bit."

But the colorization is only part of the beauty-- the rendering of human forms has never been so delightfully off. Right by my head was a foot on which the big toe extended several inches beyond everything else on the foot. Skulls are distorted as if the apostles had been squoze through God's own bowling ball polisher. It is huge and so earnestly awful that it makes me smile. Not even the Pope table at Buca de Beppo does it so well.

Also, this post "http://sunshineguerilla.blogspot.com/2013/08/final-thoughts-on-camp-galileo.html" from my daughter's blog I read today (there's a fine sentence construction). Her combination of strength and honesty continues to be amazing and awesome to me. It has been hard to watch her struggle these past few years and not be able to fix it, but it fills my heart to see her get into a marriage with an exceptional man and to spend the summer letting her own bright spirit find expression again.

My day starts

by waking up and looking out at a beautiful morning with the river stretching past blue and smooth. I have the use of my body, and I get to bike 11 or so miles up the trail and back, because it's just across the river, and though today it punched me in the legs, I pushed on through. The opportunity and ability are blessings that not everyone has.

This woman

We have spent hours in cars, in planes, in strange places far from home, and just generally around each other all summer. It never gets old, and it never gets difficult.