Up at 4

I got up a little while ago to help Arlina with something. She went right back to sleep, but I sat there for a while and finally gave up. Before she woke me, I had been dreaming of being back at my old high school, wandering around and looking into classrooms with a beer in my hand.

Yesterday was a good day for both of us. Arlina was very happy to be home, and spent time going through all the stuff she had collected during her hospitalization--cards, teddy bears, plastic spoons, etc. We brought about 8 bags of stuff home. She has become a packrat.

I went out an bought some stuff--new shoes and photo printing paper. I was planning to enter some pictures in the local paper's travel photo contest. I had been looking forward to it all year, and spent some of my sitting time in the hospital picking out likely shots. Unfortunately, I missed the deadline--it was 5 days ago. Next year for sure!

It is kind of strange to realize that I will be off work for the foreseeable future. I still have a few loose ends to tie up, and two classes to teach next week, but after that I will be on a leave of absence. That was part of the reason I didn't try too hard to get back to sleep this morning--I don't really have to. I wonder how long it will be before I miss being at work.

I need to be proactive about not getting into a rut here. It's going to be a tough couple of months, and being bored isn't going to make it any easier. I have thought of a couple of things I can do. One thing is to practice my baking skills. I used to be pretty good at baking, but haven't done much in the past few years. Maybe I'll try to bake something new every day. Anyone have any good bread recipes they want to share? I don't use a bread machine--it's just me and my Kitchen-Aid.

Ha--the thought of kneading bread made me sleepy. I'm going back to bed and finish that dream beer.