i got a check

from my car insurance for $123. I don't know why.

Anyway, I haven't felt as much like myself lately. Probably because of the new teaching job. It's been taking a lot of time and attention. Mostly attention. Not all that much time actually.

Running has been going really well. I'm not running as much as last year but I'm doing a lot more fast stuff and today I did some strides in a grass field that felt really good. And on the run back I was floating. It was really nice.

I'm still doing art. I'm not as committed to it as I was a year ago. I would purposefully sit down every day, sometimes twice a day and crank out a drawing. Now I'll go a few days and not do much of anything. Or I'll work on a big piece every once in a while. But I'm not making a defined thing every day. Normally I'd come out of summer camp and start doing that again. Maybe I'll get back into that. Time just kinda gets away from me.

I don't really have to worry about money for this year. That's good. Back in the Spring I thought I was just going to lose money this year, a little bit every month. Now with the teaching job I'll come out ahead. That's good. I have enough saved that I could just not work for a year if I wanted. I don't think I'd like that though. I really enjoy afterschool. Today we sat around and watched some of the videos I took from last year. It was a ton of fun. Like watching home movies. I remember watching and enjoying them last year but they were extra special now that it's a new year.

some childhood memories I thought about today:

that time the street got painted with stars. what a cool time that was. the entire street was covered in stars. and it stayed like that for a while. I was really young when it happened so it didn't register as all that strange or unique at the time. Now I'm like, "wow, I've never heard or seen anything like that since."

this other time in 5th grade we were talking about idioms and metaphors and figurative language and trying to think of examples and the kid across from me, Garrett, told the teacher that his grandmother would say to his mom, "you look all fagged out", meaning really tired. And the teacher was upset and told him that was inappropriate. I was thinking about it during my run and it got me how that kid clearly did not have the best home situation and he inadvertently shared a really personal moment with everyone. Like he gave this glimpse into his mom having a hard time and he wasn't trying to make a joke and seemed like he really wanted to contribute to the conversation based on something he'd heard, and he just got totally smacked down for it. like completely rejected. Kinda bums me out to think about.