In the Teens.

No, not the temperature. No, not age. Yep, the countdown! We are in the teens, and I can hardly believe it. Different than we had planned, I won't be at the Homecoming Ceremony for his chalk, which kind of stinks, but because we are sacrificing that special time together, we will get an additional seven days together, thanks to my Spring Break as a teacher. So we both know it's worth it. My schedule is absolutely nuts for the next three months. It looks something like this:

March 31st - April 14: Hawaii

April 15 - April 28: Virginia

April 28 - May 10: Hawaii

May 11 - June 1: Virginia

June 1: Back to Hawaii until Christmas

Yes, insanity. I'm never going to catch up to a time zone until like...July. When I was in Hawaii last winter and came back to Virginia, it took me a good two weeks to feel normal again. I had some serious jet lag, but I'm hoping now that I've experienced that 16 hour (sometimes a little more or less) flight, it won't hit me as hard. I've been doing all kinds of preparation for his homecoming. Have to get his phone service reinstated, electricity and internet turned on in our place, different things ordered, car keys and paperwork shipped, and so on.

This is essentially my last week teaching in my first placement. I have to finish this week, and then I have one last week. However, my final week at MMS will be SOL review and testing Monday through Wednesday and movie days on Thursday and Friday as a break for the brain-fried kids. So that will be an easy, effortless week. Then, I'm off to my next placement, which I'm quite honestly dreading. It's 12th grade, which I've done before. They are nightmares of students, especially in the Spring when they're burned out and the work they do has no purpose because they've already passed final exams and SOL's and everything else they need to do to graduate. And I can't exactly tell them that what they're doing at the end of their senior year is important--because nine times out of ten, it isn't. Especially this school--an urban one with one of the highest drop-out rates in the state. They're higher education rate is next to none, which means research papers are pointless, which about all seniors could do. The only thing that would be useful to them is career preparation: resumes, interviewing, career reflections, formal versus informal speech, writing, and dress, and so forth. So I'm thinking in the five weeks I am there, I'm going to do a unit on just that: "Real World Readiness." We'll see how it goes!

My graduation gown, hood, and medals are hanging up on my closet door, just waiting for May 12th to roll around. David and I were talking this morning, and we decided we aren't going to know what to do with ourselves when there's no more deployment and no more schooling. But then we realized the answer was pretty simple: HAVE FUN!