BACK TO SCHOOL

Yup, it's that time of year here at the Steiner household. Jill's first day is tomorrow, with students coming back on Tuesday. Grant starts next week Wednesday. This week is the last week of the second summer session at the Y, after which I will have three weeks off. I'm looking forward to being at home alone for most of that time...it's not that I don't love my family but it will be nice to have some freedom. I expect to get quite a bit of work done on new songs and hope to start the next phase of "The Year of 35" and starting working on some fiction. And yes, I'll read and catch up on DVD viewing and will probably spend too much time online. I gotta be me.

Mid-August also means the baseball season is heading into the final stretch. I haven't been able to watch the White Sox as much this summer but I've still been keeping close track. They weren't a fun team to catch for a couple innings for most of July but they have been coming around of late. Today they go for a sweep of the Tigers, which would leave them only 5 1/2 games back in the AL Central. I want the division - heck with the wild card! After that comes 4 games with the Royals. And football season is right around the corner too.

I've been in a terrible sleep pattern the past week plus; I get insomnia on occasion (think I may have mentioned this before). This time around I've not only been unable to sleep but I've had dreams full of anxiety and have woken up in the middle of the night on a regular basis. One of the anxiety dreams had me worried after I stole someone's identity and used it to get a credit card (guess Talk Talk left more of an impression than I even thought!). To balance that out, though, I had a dream were I was hanging with The Hold Steady and trying to articulate why I love them so much (guess I'm more excited for their new album, Boys and Girls in America, than I even knew - Oct. 3!).

Last night the cycle was broken and I had a great night's sleep. I feel really good today. Which means finishing my progress reports feels like less of a chore and I'm looking forward to the week ahead. And that makes me feel even better.