back at work/pants on fire

It's been four weeks since my surgery, and I returned to work today part-time. I'll be teaching two courses, and in two weeks I'll return full-time to my administrative duties as well.

This morning was interesting. I arrived at 7, made a couple handouts, watched to see how long it would take Outlook to update (I lost track), made coffee even though I realized all my coffee is stale, and got ready for the one class I was teaching today. Class went fine, and I'm actually ready for the whole week. As I went to check my mail and walked through the halls, I had so many people giving me hugs and wishing me well and telling me how great I look. I felt so loved, and that was wonderful.

I left home at 7 am and returned at 11. How can four hours have exhausted me so much? I walked slowly, but I definitely was walking more than usual. I was totally vertical, with no reclining. The institutional floors are harder than the floors at home. I came home, heated up a can of soup, and I haven't gotten off the couch since I got home three hours ago. I feel totally wiped out. However, I do not feel like I'm in pain, which I had worried about. I feel a bit swollen and tender inside. I have a night class that meets once a week on Tuesdays. Enrollment was low, so I haven't done any of the course preparations since I figured it would be canceled. Over the weekend, we picked up enough other students that I will be spending the day tomorrow working on the course. It will be nice to have a sense of purpose to the day, anyway.

I'm on the superintendent's advisory council for our school district. We have our monthly meeting tonight. I am going to take a nap and see how I feel later, but since the meeting will be for an hour and a half on wooden library chairs, I will have no qualms about not going if I don't feel much improved after my nap.

My son came home today with a strange look on his face. Today was his last day of finals, so he and his buddies ended up at one of the guys' houses to play some Wii. Apparently, someone in the family had vomited in the Wii room a couple days ago, so they lit candle to help them deal with the remaining smell. Stupid boys--they put the candle on the floor! Matt said that his leg felt warm. When he looked down, his pants were on fire! He has a big burn hole and the bottom of his pant leg, and his socks and ankle have char marks on them. He totally freaked out and was very happy to be home to tell me about it. To celebrate his survival (he's 16 and tends to exaggerate), we ordered subs from Jimmy John's and had a nice lunch today.