39

Today was my parent's 39th anniversary and Stef and Jason made an amazing dinner for us all to celebrate (Alaskan halibut, asparagus, Yukon gold potatoes, salad, shrimp cocktail, etc, etc). Leah's flight, it turns out, did not leave until tomorrow (New Year's Eve), so she got to share in a final, special family dinner before heading back to the Fort!

I am getting anxious about getting back myself. I don't fly out of Denver until the 8th, which still gives me about nine days until the start of school, but I am already getting antsy. I love traveling and I love this town and I love my family but the undercurrents of anxiety about teaching are rearing their whitecapped furies now, whipping back into something much more vigorous and unsettling. I can foresee that it will be hard to enjoy this last week in my favorite, beautiful town. Once Leah heads back and is going full force in her courses, I might spend my waning days here in Denver reviewing materials online regarding my syllabus creation, curriculum planning, etc--sadly I left my texts back in Texas so I will not be able to get too ahead on the reading. I hate how much this is already overshadowing things.

New Year's is going to be pretty low-key. I am just going to head back to Stef and Jason's to hang out with my new nephew Seamus, drink a few Alaskan Winter Ales/New Belgium Snow Days, and call it an early night. I need to try and relax before everything gets really crazy. I will look up some old friends here, go to the bookstore, maybe even do a short drive into the mountains (though this is highly unlikely).

The overarching, looming weight of 2012.