"Ride on Me!"

...Says the stationary bike in our gym. I didn't notice it until tonight, when I had to use it instead of our one functional elliptical trainer.

I'm trying to sort out a whole mass of conflicting thoughts in my head, and this weekend was supposed to help me do that. I can't decide if I'm terrified that the end of the school year won't arrive soon enough, or that I won't get done all that I want to do with this year's crop of 9th graders. Dave is thoroughly entrenched in Haverford and thus the thesis, but I want him to hurry up and be with me down here in MIA as well. I don't know what I want to get out of TFA yet, and how FIU/the Master's program fits in to all of that. I don't know a lot of things, but I do still know what I like.

This morning, as the sun rose just a little bit later, thanks to the springing forward of time last night, Miami was just so beautiful. To celebrate that beauty, following up on a Saturday night barbeque of steak and peppers, we made pancakes. Then, before the masses of urban and suburban consumers descended on Biscayne Boulevard, we sped up to Barnes and Noble, in Aventura.

After all these years, even with my predilection for independent detail-oriented bookstores, walking through aisles of tomes and exploring B&N makes me happy. We spent considerably more than the alotted 45 minutes making our purchases, but with the teacher discount I saved $8 on a $20 purchase. Hell yeah. I also, in a fit of sheer indulgence (to be followed with more orange-poppy-themed-Izaak-Mizrahi indulgence in Target) bought a book to read purely for pleasure: a book chock full of literary allusions and bibliophilic puns. It's completely euro-centric, unabashedly elitist, and nearly deifies all the "dead white guys" you hear so much about these days, but am thoroughly enjoying it. It reminded me that deep down in my core, there still exists that spark of enthusiasm and love of words that made me want to get involved in this someitmes horrid profession.

I also bought the SparkNotes for the Odyssey, so I wouldn't have to write intelligent summaries of the books we're skipping. Ha.

As I told the boy the other day in response to a [slightly envious?] comment about how my existence down here is pretty luscious, I have a good life to compensate for my sometimes shitty job. I have good food on the weekends, when I finally find the to cook, palm trees and turquoise waters 14 minutes away, a good cat, and good friends.

Sure, I miss my family, I miss some of the friends that I hardly ever talk to anymore, but I'm making a resolution that once I find some time, I'm going to start a great pan-American letter writing campaign. Note the sardonic realist lurking behind said girlishly idealistic comment. Let's be honest, how many letters do we think I'm going to write before June?

Anyway, it's almost 11:00 on a schoolnight, and that spells b-a-d news for me getting up in the morning, especially when it's going to seem like it's an hour earlier than it actually is. And alas, I've really decided nothing, but I've had a hell of a good time NOT doing that =).