“Be patient, for the world is broad and wide.”

–William Shakespeare, Romeo and Juliet, Act Three, Scene Three

New experiences this week:

Hiring a lawyer;

Yeah, that's about it.  Unfortunately all those other experiences I've had this week have been oh! so familiar.

When I thought that things were going so well I might have spoken too soon.  At midnight, sitting at the emergency room of the hospital with poor suffering Eliot I thought that things were going too many hours without any sleep.

Eliot became the host of a nasty ear infection just about as all the medical providers in the area were turning off their home television sets, yawning, and thinking, "Time to hit the sack.  It's been a long day and tomorrow is going to start much too early."

When medications I had at home did nothing to relieve Eliot's pain, I surveyed possible courses of action.  It was really hard to analyze the few options because Eliot was making a lot of noise the entire time, but since I am not heartless and since I wasn't going to be able to sleep through his wails and grumbles, I decided that I might as well spend some time talking to the fine folk who burn the midnight oil at the emergency room.  I packed a book, grabbed the patient, and drove slowly down dark deserted roads to that beacon of relief where I've been so many times before.

Emergency room visits always seem to take too long, whether because the sick or injured is so in need of relief or because the place is jammed with sick and injured people or because it just takes the time it takes.  Eliot and I couldn't really complain about waiting times this visit and he had some kind of goo administered to the painful ear which yes, was infected with a massive company of evil bacteria within about a half an hour.  After another fifteen minutes or so we were sent back out into the middle of the night with a prescription order for antibiotics and advice to consider having Eliot take antibiotics every day to help his spleen-less bod navigate through flu season and life in general.

The 24 hour drive in pharmacy was open and on the way home, a fine state of affairs.    The pharmacy guy was gruff and uncharming, but considering the hour we could understand.  He told us filling the scrip would take about fifteen minutes and told me to park the car, telling me he'd wave us back up to the window when the medicine was ready.

So I parked the car and we waited.  And waited.  Listened to Eliot's loud, loud music, grew chilly and miserable and we waited some more.  After forty-five minutes I told Eliot I was going to go into the store and did so as Eliot continued to rock out to his music in the car. 

I went to the pharmacy counter and informed the guy that I was the woman who'd been waiting in the lot, but that I'd decided to come into the store.  This was not the gruff/uncharming guy, but his boss, apparently.  As both of them apologized it was also apparent that the prescription had been filled for about forty minutes, but that they'd forgotten that I'd been told to wait in the lot.  Sheepishly, the guy retrieved the package from the bin and rang up the purchase.  Why didn't I have a hissy fit at them?  I don't know.  I guess I was tired.  Instead of ranting at them and stomping my foot, I said "It's okay", I paid for the meds, and I went back out to drive sick Eliot home.  It was 1:30 a.m. when we got home, later when he fell asleep, later still when I fell asleep, and much too early when the alarm went off and I woke up.  I let the boy sleep through a few classes' start time, figuring that if he was sick no one could begrudge him some sleep.

Poor kid.  It had been a very long day.

On this first day of the new school year, I went back to work after two and a half months of doing what I wanted and only what I wanted to do.  Performing a job and meeting another person's expectations made for a dramatic change.

I felt rather fabulous being at work today.  I enjoyed connecting with people I've worked with before and meeting someone new I will be working with this year.  Several of us had a long and very chatty lunch after work.  Less good is learning that getting coverage so that I can go to the art class I've registered for on Wednesdays may be impossible, so I may have to withdraw from the class and that would be a shame, but perhaps someone new will turn up who'll like a very limited amount of employment. 

The thing I learned about spending summer as if I owned it and no one else had a say over how I spent it is that doing this helps me to work better now.  Maybe it's just first day elation, but it doesn't feel like that.   It felt like I could give other people room to be themselves and that I could be an ally, not only authority.

When I got home I came across the following quotation by a woman I admire very much.  I believe she expressed the value of using freedom and free time.

We've plum run out of summer.  It's time for back to school for kids and back to work for me. 

I'm absolutely satisfied with the summer I've just had.  I have no regrets that I let the time slip through my temporal fingers and that I didn't enjoy the long days, the late nights, the vacation from rational timetables in life.   The Guys had the summer experience they wanted too.  I can't say that I'm delighted that summer is over, but I do feel a little ripple of readiness for taking on new challenges--meeting new people, learning what will help them to blossom and thrive, and taking on a new commitment in the school.  It's a little commitment and undertaking it was completely my idea and I haven't talked myself out of it over the summer so I'm intrigued and curious about it.

Eliot is less thrilled by school starting.   It's his last year of high school;  how did all of those kids I got off to school every morning grow up?  Very well, actually.  If they are doing so well, I believe I can, too.

Back to School Sales used to inspire eagerness to start a new year of learning and time with friends.

This year?  Not so much.

I begin work in less than two weeks.  If it weren't for the adventure of working with new students and students who have grown into kids who seem new after these months I haven't seen them, I wouldn't be looking forward to it at all.

It's been a long time since I started a new blog, and it's time to try one again.  We'll see how it goes.  This place may suit me better than that one, maybe not.

In the interests of exploiting any effort I make, here's the first post on that other blog:

If you’re education is as hit and miss as mine has been, you probably have had some bum advice laid on you.

For example, I’ve had Lao-tzu’s wise counsel expressed to me as:
“A journey of a thousand miles begins with a single step.”

and I thought it was a fine first post for a new blog. Old copy editing practices remain part of my habit, so I checked to make sure that I had the quote and the quoted correct and what did I find?

I found I’d been lied to, misled, and led on for that matter! According to The Quotations Page, this is what I should have been told:

Although this is the popular form of this quotation, a more correct translation from the original Chinese would be “The journey of a thousand miles begins beneath one’s feet.” Rather than emphasizing the first step, Lau Tzu regarded action as something that arises naturally from stillness.

As if to soothe my inflamed realization that I probably go around misquoting lots of wise people from the past, Quotation Page helpfully croons: “Another potential phrasing would be “Even the longest journey must begin where you stand.” [note by Michael Moncur, September 01, 2004] “

I guess Lao-tzu still expresses my attitude about living. Wherever you are, your adventure is there. What you do and how you live and your approach to all of it depends on the choices you make with it.

My land, (Name of New Place) is beautiful and it is also challenging. I go about in it mindfully, looking for good experiences and fun, but as happens on most trips, also finding challenges and long stretches of tedium.

Like Lao-tzu, that’s how I roll