A school day, that is.

It starts at 5:45, but then I wait ten minutes.
So I guess it really starts at 5:55.
Anyway, whenever it starts, the alarm on the cell phone beeps (I have resorted to the cell phone, as I no longer hear the alarm on the dresser). And beeps again.
My body tries to convince my eyes (and ears) that it is way too early to be getting up.
My brain intervenes, reminding everything above mentioned of what I will feel like if I don’t get out of bed now. So I get up. Sometimes it is really cold in the room, even with two other people breathing hot air. Other mornings it is rather warm and pleasant. Pretty soon it will be HOT, and I will wish I were asleep again … but that won’t be for at least four more months.
After achieving the gargantuan feat of getting out of bed, somehow the coffee maker gets going, and the smell is enough to get my eyes open.
Back to the bedroom for the Bible I should have brought with me.
Back to the kitchen to read it (reading in bed at 6 am is futile, this I know).
After the first few verses coffee is ready.
I get something to eat, and continue to read.
Another cup of coffee.
Watch the sun rise.
Get dressed.
Another cup of coffee.
Read some more.
Pretty soon it is time to wake Mom up.
Oh, dear, it is now 7:30, I need to leave in half an hour, and I am so very not ready! Hair goes … uh, in a pony tail (maybe next time I’ll do something cute with it), and make-up is … on the light side today.
Lunch, gym clothes, math book, Spanish homework … do I have everything? Oh yeah, cell phone!
There is something I am forgetting …
Mom drives me to the bus stop, and we have 17 minutes to ourselves. It is wonderful.
I make the bus with a minute to spare (literally). Put a dollar in the machine and hear a whirring sound as the bus swallows 100 hard-earned cents. I am now allowed to ride.
Put in the ear plugs and pull out the reading assignment for speech … oh. That is what I forgot.
People get on, people get off.
Some are loud, some are quiet. Most are from the poorer strata of American society, and, as this bus goes downtown, many are headed to the police station or the court house. And not because they were summoned for jury duty, either.
50 minutes after I boarded the bus I get off it.
I walk 2 blocks to the college.
Walking past some of those house is one of the high points of my day, they are so old, well kept, and inviting. The kind of house that makes you want to sit on its front porch and watch the world go by … The kind of house I could live in all my life and be very content.

the rest of the day will follow shortly …

These are days you’ll remember.
Never before and never since, I promise, will the whole world be warm as this.
And as you feel it, you’ll know its true that you are blessed and lucky.
…
These are days you’ll remember.
When May is rushing over you with desire to be part of the miracles you see in every hour.
You’ll know its true that you are blessed and lucky.
…
These are the days you might fill with laughter until you break.
These days you might feel a shaft of light make its way across your face.
…

“These Are Days”
-10,000 Maniacs