Yawn

For once, I am blogging before the game. Of course, it's only on ESPNU. So I guess it's not a big deal one way or t'other. The week has been a busy one. I was somewhat sick at the beginning and have mostly recovered at this point.

Monday I passed on karate, since I was under the influence of Nyquil. Though I might have been able to teach, physical participation would've been substantially more difficult, and driving even worse. So, rather than endanger everyone, I went home.

Tuesday was another night off. [Insert many-hour pause.] I forget precisely what I did—I think it was mostly reading and sleeping. In any case, it was good.

Wednesday I covered karate. Wednesdays are tough days, because the first two classes are usually stacked and the last one (the adult / advanced class) is usually somewhat less robust. And I was definitely not well. The weather had warmed some during the week, with rain and wind (my kind of weather, incidentally), and for whatever reason my allergies were insane. They usually pass after the first frost (recently, many weeks before), but they were nasally brutal on Wednesday.

Thursday was a bit better. I covered again, but there's no adult class. Two classes is a bit more manageable, and the students are more studious. I was able to mix things up a lot better and was able to connect with some of the younger girls more. They're usually the toughest market for me. (I am not proficient with children of any age.) One of them is reading Oliver Twist, and I asked her if he was still an orphan. This was intended to be funny (not because orphans are funny), since I assumed he was an orphan through the entire book, which I confess I have never read. (I do need to get Dickens. I know.) She said something to the effect of, "Yes...oh, wait, no, not anymore." I said something to the effect of "Oh."

Friday was another karate night (noticing a trend here?). Instead of covering all by myself, I had quite a bit of help. I handled all of the green and red belts, which was roughly 20 to 25 people in total. On a Friday. After school. With tired and grumpiness. And it went fairly well, actually. Afterwards was time with J, at our regular meeting place. We had some good conversation, which is normal, though we did not get a chance to play Carcassonne (the game we play is slightly different than the review, but it is equally awesome). Traffic was annoying on Friday, and I almost ran over S in the parking lot. That was bad. I apologized later.

Today is Saturday, and it has been a perfect day. I went to a church breakfast in the morning, which was surprisingly very good, even though it was early in the day. (Saturday is my day to get up later than 6:30. I know many of you are awake then—either from not sleeping or because you work earlier than I do—but it is definitely not my forté.) I arrived home to a text from E saying that we should go pick apples and make pie. It being a grande Newe Englande falle (haha), the leaves are simply fantastic and the weather is unbelievable.

So we decided to go out into the relative sticks for to pick, and never really made it to our intended destination. Getting lost, however, proved to be one of the most beautiful mistakes I've ever made. We ended up driving around for a long time (I think I may have put about 150 miles on the car today) and concluding our picking would be better done at the local grocer. We assayed a final time, however, and found ourselves at a corn maze (a, uh, "maize maze," if you will—or if you won't) with a pumpkin patch. Since she's carving tonight, we got some pumpkins.

She had never been in a ma[i]ze, however (she obviously did not grow up in the Midwest), so we paid the entrance fee and took our turn through the muck. It was thoroughly enjoyable.

We returned, and I peeled and cored apples with her mother's TOTALLY SWEET automatic coring device. (You stick an apple on a few spikes and rotate it through. I am such a dork.) Then we made pie. Or rather, she mixed up ingredients while I cored, and put them into the crust, and turned on the oven (I was coring all the while, see). I put them in the oven.

So I guess she did most of the work.

After the pies were done, we took one to J, whose daughter thinks I am an ogre. (Of course, she was throwing herself at me and then banged her head on my very hard knee. I do not have James' camel knees, nor his piety, but there is very little cushion on my body at all.) We chatted for a little while and departed.

All in all, one of the best days I have ever had, and certainly the best I have had in awhile.


Tomorrow the fam is travelling together to Maryland to visit with E and A. It should be fun (we're bringing some pie, don't worry). Mom will stay to help out around the place for a few days. It complicates transportation, but it should be easy enough for us to get it done.

All in all, it will be a very full weekend, and I will be tired all next week. (I'm already getting Monday's caffeine headache.) And it will totally have been worth it.