This TGIF is More TGIF Than Every Other TGIF I've Ever Experienced. The Countdown Begins and I Can't Wait

This has been a long semester. I often tease that the fall is a tremendous break from the summer (which in many ways it is), but with back to back literacy conferences, grant writing, website designing, blogging, book chapters, buying a home (and losing it), extending my world to providing full time guidance to a 19 year-old, and staying on top of graduate courses has been a little too much.

This week, too, the audit of federal grants put me to the edge.

That is why today, FRIDAY, I will be doing the happy dance around 4 o'clock. That is the anticipated time I have for finishing my grading and transitioning to the holiday break (for a week). This means no planning, reading, writing, grading, or stressing (he says to himself knowing he will plan, read, write, grade and stress over Christmas shopping).

More importantly, I'm doing the HAPPY DANCE because it's my mother's 70th birthday and she deserves all the love, joy, wackiness, unpredictability, and humor that the world can bring her.

Happy Birthday, Mom!

For the first time in a VERY long time (like last Christmas) I am seeing light at the end of the tunnel. My worst fear? I will get sick. The best hope? Every day for a week I will wake up overjoyed to have freedom, family, new possibilities, and time to just be what ever shall be.

I will be throwing myself a party when I get home tomorrow and I can hardly wait.

Seriously. This has been a long haul and ride and the 348 day work year is a little too taxing.

Hoo-Rah! In a few short days I get to see my Mommy!