There and Back Again...An Espi Tale

Well, I've made it there and then I've made it back, hence the title.
My perilous journey began with nearly getting arrested for being a terrorist. You may be thinking, "Oh boy. Here we go again with the Mexicanisms and racial profiling nonsense." No, I brought this profiling upon myself. I made the age-old mistake of leaving my laptop unattended, at a prime bombing area, the front of the airport. Suffice to say, by the time I realized what I had done and returned to the scene of the crime to find a group of officers huddled around my bag, I began to think of whether it might be easier to just buy a new laptop instead of being arrested and tortured at some base in Cuba. Luckily, the officers were fairly understanding and I showed them my Vanderbilt student ID and spoke to them in the slowest possible manner (so the officers from Nashville).
The journey continued without incident until the engine started to smoke upon landing in Dallas/Ft. Worth (don't ask me which one I actually landed in) and people began to panic. Luckily we were landing and got off that godforsaken plane as soon as possible...only to get on the next godforsaken plane where a computer system failure caused a delay as attendants had to take a roll call, head count, and our tickets to make up for the passenger data that was lost. All of our confidence would soon be restored as the captain slyly remarks over the speakers, "Well, folks, in case you're wondering, we do know how to fly this hunk of metal." Boy, thanks captain, my captain. This plane attempted to make up for the detriment to my flying experience by giving me a couple of open seats beside me, a really good onboard movie, Finding Neverland (made me cry afterward, but it kind of hit home a little and I was ready for a good cry), and some music for my radio-listening pleasure.
Finally home, I was blown away by the perfect whether. So happy and blue and sunny and in the upper 70s with a nice breeze. O.M.G. Why am I putting up with the ridiculous winter of Nashville? I got to see a bunch of family and some friends and spend some good time with my mom. It can be hard to see her suffer, luckily she isn't (or at least wasn't at the time) too bad. She took me shopping at the Gap and I picked up some good "teacher" clothes for the spring. We also absconded with my grandma to take a trip to Tahoe. They haven't been to Tahoe in a long time, and even when they went it was always just to gamble in Nevada. The mountains and the snow and the trees and the water were so amazingly serene and beautiful that I felt ashamed that I don't go there more often. I mean, what else does Sacramento have going for it other than being a two hour drive or less to Tahoe or to the ocean.
I was productive in my movie watching (I Heart Huckabees, Donnie Darko, The Village, Eulogy, and Sky Captain...), but less productive in the academic aspects. This was evidenced by the practically all-nighter I pulled the Sunday night I got back to school. I did manage to secure a position as English dept. head at Sac Summerbridge for the summer. And I found out some info involving my student teaching/schooling decision. I'll write more about this later though cuz I've got another big meeting tomorrow about the whole situation. All the gossip to come.
Although the break could've been longer, the semester is nearly over and I'll be back home before you or I know it. Right now, I'm finding it hard to believe that it was snowing today and just last Friday I was enjoying 80+ degrees of wonderfulness. Still, the week has been cool. Hopefully, such a trend will continue. I just checked my email and found out that the research paper I had due on Friday is now due Monday. I call that a Procrastinators Delight.
Here's to a delightful rest of the week!
with Heart