Blech!

These mushrooms were growing outside my classroom some weeks ago and when I saw them, I thought they looked so "fairy talish" that I had to snap a photo of them. A friend later told me that if I'd taken bite out of one, I'd have lived my own fairy tale for a couple hours. As if.

I'm mired in such a nasty cold right now, I have zero energy. I forced myself to go to the gym the other day and spent more time in the sauna than on the weights, which was probably best. Skipped yesterday and will try and get in today, even though I feel like my head is underwater. I annouced to my students that they should keep anti-bacterialized and there was a near stampede to the germ-killing-gel dispenser on the wall. I only wish I could just go home and sleep, but Shayne has entered a booth in the Home and Garden show (locally); we need to set it up tonight and staff it tomorrow. So, I have to pretend to know all about the plants that he's selling and smile and gladhand everyone, which is fine because I assume I'll know some folks.

The office assistant here at school told me she just finished my book last night, then looked at me in a wistful, sympathetic way. She said she loved the book, thought was timely and important and only when I explained to her that I was "okay", that I have come through all those stories just fine, did she exhale. It's hard to explain to people. When I write about the angst in those chapters, the emotions and reactions are real, but they are through the eyes of my childhood self (or what I remember I was feeling at that time). I have the safety of looking back through adult eyes now, and the fact that I know I could lay out flat the men who hurt me in my youth (both if I met them today and if I were to magically transport my adult self to 1980--wouldn't that be great?) helps immensely. Feels safe.