It’s Sunday, the one day of the week where I feel like me. Every other day I am either in the process of becoming exhausted or in recovery. Thursday was probably the most intense day of the week, so let’s take it as an example of what can happen. I got up early for school as I had a prom committee meeting at 7:45. Yes, I am on the prom committee. One is assigned a certain amount of "volunteer" work at my school that is simply expected.

I had missed a few prom meetings because I had been in other, more important Individualized Education Profile meetings for students with learning impairments, so I didn’t have a prom sub committee assignment. I was informed that in addition to general crowd control on the night of prom I will be expected to bring my tools and build stuff the day before the event. During the day following, I will be expected to clean and to dismantle whatever I built on the day previous. What I am going to be building has yet to be revealed. Prom is in six weeks.

I then taught a full day fraught with the usual highs and lows of teaching – planning – executing – evaluating - and I left school around three fifteen. I got to UMSL at four thirty and went to the classroom in which my grammar instruction class meets. I spent the next hour doing my homework, then I took a quiz over the homework and we reviewed for Tuesday’s test. After class, I raced to Lemongrass where Jes and her father were meeting me for dinner. Jes had pre-ordered the Vietnamese style curry chicken for me and it hit the table about a minute before I walked in the door.

I teach in a rural school district, so in addition to the meeting, class and work, I had also driven a little more than three hours during which I had been listening to Jane Smiley’s novel Moo. I finished the book during Friday’s drive and will start either Notes from the Underground or The Bell Jar on Monday; though, either of these books might cast a pall over the drive.

After dinner, we all went to Powell Symphony Hall to hear Michael Medved speak as part of the Mayville University Speaker Series. I was filled with more than a little trepidation at the prospect of the lecture, having discovered that morning that Michael is a now a conservative talk show host who got his start guest hosting for Rush Limbaugh. I scared Jes with my fears, so that we were both pleasantly surprised at his many centrist positions. Home, bed, get up and do it again. If your question is, “Where do you find the energy?” the answer simply is, “I don’t”.