After going to bed Too Late last night
After waking up at 5:24 and getting up at 5:43 and reading the story of the parting of the Red Sea
After showering and dressing and feeding the kitties, after setting the table for breakfast and tidying the kitchen and writing notes on napkins
After fleeing the house at 7:07 for the meeting that started at 7:25
After teaching and teaching and reassuring them (the test won’t be so hard, won’t be so hard, you know all this, you know all this already) and then fleeing my building for the other one to see Everett (Oh, Everett) give his Biography Day presentation on George Washington (for which he wore, among other things, my old pair of boots and Bill’s vest and William’s gray baseball pants)
After teaching again (drama class) and (Oh My Heavens when will the plays I ordered arrive?) and laughing
After lunch with a Particular Student
After teaching and teaching and teaching some more (Remember this? Remember: a strong thesis is all it takes. Well mostly all. Do have a strong thesis, would you? Do.)
After a free period (the last of the day) during which I enjoyed (so much) three (3) Oreo cookies in the enclosed silence of the faculty workroom and then ran (helter skelter) around trying (so hard) to Get Things Done
After meeting after school with one-two-three students (one after another so important)
After preparing (hurry hurry) so many (ever so many) photo copies for tomorrow’s meeting at 7 (in the morning!) a.m.
After hurrying over to after-school to get the children
After being late to get one of them
After driving home (all together and listening to Death Cab for Cutie) (and sometimes all I need is to see their faces– their faces– the faces of my children at the end of the day) and ah! Bill is home
After making the salad and enjoying the Smothered Pork Chops and (mostly) mashed potatoes (thank you, Bill)
After three loads of laundry and chatting with Linda and also with Rachel and ushering the children through their baths
After rolling Emma’s hair in curlers and working on her poem and checking her math homework and listening to her reading reading reading
After beginning (Just Beginning) the packing
After This
It occurs to me– it just occurs to me– that I Am Tired.
And today is Ash Wednesday. And I Hardly Noticed.
But this morning (remember?) I read the story of the Israelites and the Red Sea and the Egyptians who came thundering on their chariots down to the sea: “Not one of them (the Egyptians) survived.”
And what else is there, I wonder, after this?
“But the Israelites went through the sea on dry ground, with a wall of water on their right and on their left. That day the LORD saved Israel from the hands of the Egyptians, and Israel saw the Egyptians lying dead on the shore. And when the Israelites saw the great power the LORD displayed against the Egyptians, the people feared the LORD and put their trust in him and in Moses his servant.” Exodus 14:29-31
“The LORD is my strength and my song; He has become my salvation.” Exodus 15:2
