then why am i their mascot?

Yesterday was my first day with no school, no visitors, no David--just me at home with just the cats. I woke up late, lounged around, finished my small to do list, watched some movies on Netflix's Watch Instantly... not much. When David came home, we talked about how the cats were probably enjoying having one of us home all the time, which somehow brought us to the idea that we needed a cat nanny. I tried to remember the conversation to share it, but I can't even figure out how it came up. I do remember doing an impersonation of how us having cat nanny would be like... but it was that kind of "you had to be there" funny...

It's been weird being on summer vacation again. I have to remember what I learned last summer: how to do little during the day and not become restless. It's difficult because summer nights always makes me want to go out with friends, but the few friends I have here in Virginia are not in Williamsburg--not exactly easy to call them up and say, "hey, let's do something!".
Last night, I got sucked into watching a Jon and Kate Plus 8 mini marathon. I didn't like that show at first, but both Megan and Natalie mentioned it recently, and nothing else was on (it was... uhh... after midnight. Hey! I'm on vacation!), so I gave it another chance. OMG. So addicting.
Today, I've read out on the porch while the cats napped, watched the fluffy clouds go by, gone grocery shopping, ate a salad and drank coffee (bloom has really good coffee! Something I learned while Katy, Mike and AJ were here), made oatmeal toffee bars (LOTS OF THEM!), listening to two episodes of This American Life (I'm so behind with the podcasts!) and StoryCorps and now I'm waiting for David to come home so we can go sign our lease in front of a notary, do our laundry, and finish The Tudors.

I realized that I did forget to mention one thing that Megan and I did while she was here: made TONS of references to one of our favorite YouTube-er, mittymoo. Between the "Come see the treeeee!", "my son is gay. my son is gay?", "he's here! he's gay! get used to it!", and "where you takin meeee? no, don't tell me! i want to be surprised!..... where are you takin meeee?", my parents probably thought we'd both gone batty.
I think I still love this one the most:

praise jesus and launch the missles early!

I am incredibly excited.
First off, the past two nights have actually been fun! There was laughter! New people I've heard about and finally met! Exciting plans for the future! Pool, beer & wine, spoons, poker, nannies, lightbulbs, Star Wars naked jokes, the list goes on...
Okay, let me start making sense. Thursday night was supper club, the last one of the summer, but it was much larger than the summer ones. I finally met Leanne and Diana, who David told me I would like (and he was right!), I got to sit in a very comfortable papasan chair and play Loaded Questions with a huge group of people. There were lots of inside jokes created and brought up again.
Last night was the meet and greet they had for the first years. We went last year and it was awkward, but useful. This year was much better seeing as we actually knew people. I enjoyed staying in the corner, playing (really badly) pool with Megan and chatting. David invited people over for poker afterwards, which I didn't automatically groan at since I would actually have other people to talk with! Hurray! Actually, the ladies decided to go see The Nanny Diaries instead, since we were right around the corner from the movie theater. I read the book last summer and it wasn't horrible and neither was the movie. We almost took up a whole row, which was awesome. When we got back to the apartment, the guys were playing poker and chess in the dining/living room, so the ladies ended up in our computer room, playing Spoons (which I haven't played since 10th? 11th? grade? So it was tooootally fun!).
Basically, it was a great way to end the summer. Two nights of fun, meeting new, awesome people, making Facebook friends, making plans and ending up with a Ladies Night with some gorgeous, intelligent, hilarious women every 3rd Friday of the month.

I'm also excited because Monday starts all the school hullabaloo again. As much as I love sleeping in, not having to rush to finish my to do list and be incredibly tired at times, I also miss being a teacher. I miss my ladies at work, I miss my students, I miss exposing them to new & exciting literature-and-writing-related things. And the classroom! Oh, to have a classroom of my own! I can only imagine how that will change things. I will be able to find things and be better organized! And be able to set up things early instead of having to do it in 5 minutes! Oh, and the laughter. The belly-aching, teary-eyed laughter that comes with the school year. It's one of the best parts and it's what keeps us all sane. Hopefully, this year will be better (or at least on the same level as last year) and not really horrible.

Oh, and I'm going back to dance class. :)