I finally have some breathing room. I was in Chicago last weekend after my fist week of teaching a couple of sections of Intermediate Algebra at the college. I was really beat from that first week and then I found myself in the car with Stephanie as we drove 4 hours to Chicago on a Friday afternoon right after I finished teaching. Sunday afternoon, we were back on the road driving another 4 hours back home, only this time in separate cars (I just bought my sister's 10 year old Nissan). After getting back into Iowa Sunday night at around 7, I had to prep for Monday's classes. We also got new furniture, and on Monday, I spent all afternoon and evening putting it together, saving myself an hour at night to prep. The next day, more furniture, a dinner party with Stephanie's department, and then back home at 9 and more prep to do. By the time I hit the pillow last night, I hadn't slept well nor had a moment's rest for almost a week. Finally, today I feel like I can breath. I got about 8 hours of sleep, which was the most I had had lately, and am caught up with course work and the furniture is finished (for now).

Nonetheless, Stephanie and I will leave on Friday, after my classes, to fly to MA for our East Coast marriage celebration, meaning these next few days we are again cramming ourselves into tighter schedules to make sure that when we get back on Monday we will be able to breath a bit before diving back into teaching. I still have a couple more pieces of furniture to look forward to, but at least, they will not be imposing themselves on me in the midst of other stressful events and goings-on.

Over and out.