Bueller. . . Bueller. . .

So. School's back in. Though I sincerely wish it was still summer, I guess that couldn't go on forever (and if you read the post about my summer, I don't think it could get any more awesome, either).

The first day of school always includes the new clothes, the new supplies, and the famous (or infamous) "first day of school smell." At my school it smells like old school and floor wax. Not particularly pleasant, but it's always the same every year. I hate the first day of school, to be honest. Even though no work is involved, it's the most boring day of the year. I don't know about anyone else, but listening to teachers talk about syllabi or their classroom rules (that are the same in every classroom) is not exciting. I also do not enjoy filling out countless papers about myself: my name, all of my contact information, what I like doing, my schedule. . . But, like I said, it's the only day we don't really have to do anything (unless you have my chemistry teacher, and then you have to do a confusing lab), and it's also likely the first time seeing those school friends that you're only friends with because you happen to be in the same class.

It amazes me that, even after an entire summer, I still find myself doing things exactly the same way. My friend, Isabelle, and I are creatures of habit like you wouldn't believe, and we fell into the same routine that we had last year (albeit in different places): at the end of the day, I met Isabelle at her locker, we went to the bathroom in the bathroom next to the gym (even though that's stupid because it's on the other side of the school from us now), and went outside to wait for the buses. . . in exactly the same spot as last year. Our buses even came at the same time. It's honestly like we never even left, which is somewhat distressing.

I don't know if this happens in anybody else's house, but the first day of school always includes the lovely first day of school pictures, with the nice first day of school outfit and the backpack and lunchbox and everything. They're always very half-hearted pictures (on our parts), but are always insisted upon every single year. Ridiculous and sarcastic poses are quite common. A cat at the bottom of the shot is also often seen in our pictures. It's extraordinarily entertaining to look at first day of school pictures as the years progress, because it's always interesting to see how fashion has changed (for the better, I might add) since I started kindergarten. Do you remember pleather? I wanted nothing more than a pair of pleather pants. It got some, and they got all cracked and little bits of the shiny part started falling off after I wore them a few times. I'm just going to say that I'm glad pleather didn't last long.

Anway, so school is back in. I've made it through the first week. Well, actually, the first four days, because we started on Tuesday. We'll see how the rest of the year goes.

To be continued. . .

Dancin' A Little Smidgeon Update:

Bert has been coming and going for this past week. We haven't seen Bernice since last week, and we're not sure if she just went home or if she has a nest somewhere. Bert is much stronger and looks quite healthy, but he still can't stand on his injured leg. He's able to stand on his one leg with no problem now, so he'll probably just do that forever now. Poor Bert. But he still flies perfectly fine, so he's doing all right. And that's the latest in Dancin' A Little Smidgeon.

~ Snooty Crumb