"There's 104 days of summer vacation..."

The first full day of summer vacation...

I don't know about most of you, but I'm a creature of habit. I like a routine. I need a plan. So when school ends and summer vacation begins, no matter how eagerly I have anticipated it, I usually end up feeling a little lost for the first week or so.

It's a phenomenon that never ceases to amaze me.

One of the things I've challenged myself to do this summer is to try to write a little every day. On the surface it seems like no big deal, but as I sit here, clicking away at the keyboard, there's a furry, little face looking up at me and making a pitiful, whining noise in her throat. I'm "babysitting" my daughter's Yorkie, and evidently she is having separation anxieties of her own. Every time I sit down, she wants me to put her in her lap and reassure her that her Mommy will indeed come back and life as she knows it will return to normal. Meanwhile my hound is lying on my foot, occasionally looking up at me with a "Will you do something about that?" look on her face. Her routine has been upset as well.

I'm really not sure where this new habit will take me. I'm hoping it will put some polish on my writing skills, maybe encourage me to be more purposeful in my creative writing. It's largely self-indulgent, but hey, that's one of the perks of being a teacher, right? Summers off?

(I'm chuckling to myself as I write that  phrase because to my right is a giant pile of material that has to miraculously transform itself into lesson plans for a new class and another pile of the coffee table that needs revision while I enjoy my summer off.)

So, like Phineas and Ferb, I'm going to begin today looking for ways to spend my summer vacation. While it unlikely that my results will be as exciting as theirs, I'm hoping to eventually do more than wander from room to room, wondering what I should do next.