*I can’t believe this coming week is my “last” week of summer.  Holy Cross (my new school) has two weeks of orientations between new faculty orientation (which I obviously have to attend), regular back to school faculty stuff, and various student orientations.  So, I’m back to work as of Monday the 14th and the classes begin on August 28th.  Despite MD signing a law that states all schools will now begin after Labor Day, Holy Cross is one of the school’s that filed an exemption so we start before Labor Day. In all fairness, I’m not mad about it, I have three weeks off at Christmas and two weeks off for Easter.  Public schools have a week at Christmas and a 4 day weekend for Easter this year. I’ll take longer breaks over going back after Labor Day.

*It’s also my birthday week!  My birthday is on Tuesday; not sure what I’m doing for it yet, though.  Devon claims to have plans for me, so we’ll see what happens there.

*This whole week though is going to be super busy as I’m trying to wrap stuff up here at home to get ready to head back to work along with a bunch of stuff outside the house I’m doing this week.  I’m going to get my hair colored/chopped off on Friday, which I can’t WAIT to do.  I haven’t had my hair done since…April? maybe? It desperately needs it.  I also have a baby shower to go to, I have to go see my “little sister” off to college (which is killing me) and I have to meet with my new department chair so she can bring me up to speed on some programs/activities that I’ll be facilitating throughout next year.

*On a similar note: I’ve randomly just casually looked at counselor openings since I accepted my new position a few weeks ago, and there has been nothing in the Maryland/DC area.  I mean, there’s been one or two part time positions open in elementary schools, but nothing full time or in secondary schools, so it just makes me feel even luckier and even more grateful for the opportunity I have at Holy Cross.  So while I partially lament my summer coming to an end very soon, I’m very grateful to have something to look forward to and a new place to go.

*I just spent most of the morning cleaning out my closet.  That was a lot of work.  My closet isn’t the biggest (the closet I had when I lived with my mom was a walk-in closet that I miss desperately) but it was ridiculously overcrowded.  It was stuffed to the gills of clothes I hadn’t worn in years or were just hanging on to for no reason; it was bad.  I got rid of three huge trash bags of clothes (they are being donated tomorrow) and my closet has so much breathing room now.  And….room for new clothes…..

At least now my closet is filled with pieces I like/wear and there’s room for some new pieces.  I haven’t overhauled my closet like this in about 3 years, so it was definitely time.

*In the most exciting news……I found my wedding dress!!!!!!!! I hate dresses, I’ve said this before (which is also why you see such a large section of my closet of pants but no dresses), so dress shopping was not something I was excited about.  I went yesterday with my maid of honor and one of my bridesmaids (I skyped with my other bridesmaid who lives in PA and couldn’t make it) and I absolutely love it! I was actually just playing around in it in the store for like 30 minutes, so clearly I like it.  I’m not really showing pictures of it because I really don’t want Devon to find it, but I will show a picture of me, two of my best friends and the top part of the dress.

They also know my disdain for dresses so they were very excited that I found something I loved.  It was an awesome afternoon and I am so happy they were there with me.

I hope everyone has had a great weekend!