Out of the Frying Pan...

As of this morning, I finally got that whole field trip mess settled!  Bus requests are in, check requests submitted, permission slips are handed out, done!

Sadly and unsurprisingly, that has not resulted in less work.  Instead, I am in the throes of getting the Speech Team ready for State this weekend while juggling all the other school/musical stuff.  Beyond practices before and after school, all of the logistics of taking the team to State are plentiful and cumbersome.  Each step requires a multi-group negotiation similar to the field trip steps, as I handle the communications between the students, the administration, the parents, and the managing party (the hotel, the state speech board, the hosting school's PTSA, etc.).  Arranging for food, lodging, and competition rights for a group of students is not a quick task, and I look forward to the days when I can use my planning period to simply, you know, plan.  And maybe grade papers, too.  Oh, wouldn't that be loverly?

I did get to spend a delightful weekend with the parents.  They braved snowstorms in the Rockies for a quick weekend break of shopping, restaurants, and Jack-time.  In the course of our Saturday excursions we visited the new Fancy Tiger location and, to my delight, even threw in a trip to Tattered Cover.

I want to dive into the two new craft projects I have sitting on my countertop (the result of the Fancy Tiger expedition) or the new book on my Kindle (via Tattered Cover).  Instead, I am working my way through a wicked case of writer's block as I try to explain in essay form why I want to study Chaucer this summer.

It's tricky to fight writer's block when I leave rehearsal at 5:00, get gas, run to the grocery store, make dinner, sort laundry, do some banking, clean my sink, and then realize that I have 20 minutes until bedtime and must resist the call of Zelda/crafts/new book and instead choose between 20 minutes on the elliptical and 20 minutes of trying to put Chaucerian thoughts onto a dauntingly blank Word document.

The Chaucer-struggle was fought tonight, although it is far from vanquished.  I must to bed now, but I go with the hope that I shall eke out an enticingly brilliant paragraph or two again tomorrow night.