Don't worry, Eric - last week was a fluke.

It's starting to feel like fall. I've never quite been able to put my finger on what it is, exactly. It was feeling cooler this morning, but it's felt cooler before without feeling like fall. I think it's some combination almost imperceptibly subtle changes in the temperature, amount and position of sunlight, color of the trees, the smell of the air - changes so small that you can't consciously identify them except through some sort of primal sense that lets us know it's time to start gathering in the summer harvest in preparation for the winter. Yes, I still dread the winter, but I'm beginning to remember the nice things about fall and I think I'm almost looking forward to it.

I decided this week that I'm not going to worry about work. I needed this because I feel like all I have missed out on some of what has otherwise been a wonderful summer because I've been stressing about work and money the whole time. I'm not going to have a completely unproductive week, but I'm not going to let work get in the way of the productive things I have and want to do like I have the entire summer. And I'm going to spend some time relaxing and enjoying myself as well, because I just mapped out my weekly schedule including classes, seminars, meetings, the temple, institute, volleyball, running - everything I can think of that will take up my time on a regular basis - and my days are going to be full. I'm kind of excited to have some structure in my life again, but also just a little bit of dread about just how much I'm going to have to fit into this structure.

Here is my total productive output for the week thus far:

• One load of laundry (running clothes only), washed and air-dried.
  
• Three math problems written and added to a list of problems that we are going to give the secondary math education methods/practicum students this semester.
  
  
• Nine phone calls to confirm times a pre-volleyball trip to Applebee's to visit Malissa in her last week of work. (I really didn't intend to initiate a mass group activity that would require massive numbers of phone calls. I'm still not quite sure what happened.)
  
  
• One trip to the grocery store for my weekly groceries because, surprisingly, I had not time to shop on Saturday because, even more surprisingly, I was being social all day.
  
  
• One volleyball net set up with the help of Nina and Jeanette before the people who usually set the volleyball net arrive (and I am very proud of my contributions because normally this is the part of volleyball night where I just stand around feeling guiltlessly useless).
  
  
• One (very last minute) trip to Traverse City and back to accompany a new freshman in our ward who just earned her license three weeks ago and didn't want to make the eight hour round trip to trade cars with her family alone.
  
  
• Ten gallons of gas purchased at $2.59 per gallon (that's, like, fifty cents less than I paid a month ago).
  
  
• Two meetings at the School of Education, details of which I will spare you.
  
  
• Twenty-two miles run over the course of three days (Traverse City kind of squelched any possibility of a Tuesday run).
  
  
• One attempt to make the bathroom look clean by wiping down the sink.
  
  
• Fifty (maybe more) mass emails deleted from my University of Michigan account.
  
  
• Three bowls of oatmeal made, eaten, and dishes washed.
  
  
• Three months of hymns planned for sacrament meeting.

And now...

• One blog entry written and posted.