First day of school

Well, it's officially my first day of work. On my Blogger home page, I have an illustration of the current terror alert level color coded to match Seseme Street characters. Today's level is "Elmo/Ernie/Bert." And that pretty much matches my anxiety level. Not because of the thwarted plot; the left wing kook in me finds it all so hard to believe-- planes? again? and volitile explosives that could have been detected by any number of the chemical nose-thingies they have in airports? C'mon folks, are they really that unimaginative and foolish? Maybe...

Anyway, my anxiety level is Elmo/Ernie/Bert because I'd rather have my fingernails pulled from the quick than walk into a room full of people I don't know and be the new kid on the block. My stomach is in knots and I'm terrified. Plagued by all the "what ifs."

Plus, I'm not a morning person. I've never seen 745am in Louisville before (it's nice). Give me a few more hours of sleep (although I slept surprisingly well last night) and a few more iced lattes, and I might be more congenial.

Into the lions den... new city, new state, new school, new kids, new colleagues, heck I don't even have my tried and true subject matter to cling to... American Lit? Yikes. (By the way, I'm half way through the new book called The Mayflower-- excellent read).

As Lynn Samuels always says, "I'll be back tomorrow... as long as we're all still alive."