The view from spring break

I always feel that I ought to be grateful for spring break and yet I always feel a little bedraggled at the end of it.

I've grumbled (self-consciously) about this before: spring break always means lots of the second-worst part of my job (grading) with a side of the worst part (plagiarism), and too much solitude even when I make reasonable efforts to plan time with friends. No one else in the family ever has a spring break that lines up with mine, so it's mostly just me on my own, trying to catch up on work stuff and home stuff and feeling guilty that I'm not enjoying the week more.

I have been out of the exercise groove for two weeks now. I'm feeling burned out on workouts in my damp and chilly basement; it's still too cold for outdoor runs now that I have this exercise-induced asthma thing going on. And I have been out of the blogging groove, because gloomy thoughts from a gloomy person are nobody's favorite thing to read.

All of these annoyances are pretty trivial, of course, in view of the headlines: a bombed maternity hospital, a grandma defending herself with a jar of pickled tomatoes, failed negotiations, and the Russians' ongoing onslaught. 

So I will attempt to pull my socks up here, since most of the gloom is easy to address. I am making some fun plans for spring and summer, concerts and travel with friends. I will put away the laundry and get clean sheets on the bed, and trust that the daffodils are coming even if they are currently buried in snow.