Back To School

Well, not really. Just a 30-hour class over the next 2 weeks.

Something about getting a regular 7 hours of sleep most days does something strange to your brain. Bizarre ideas start surfacing: like how to come up with inventive ways to cut into that sleep!

One of those ways presented itself in the local paper recently. The local domestic violence shelter announced it was time for the spring session of the volunteer training class it offers only twice a year. I had thought about taking this about 3 or 4 years ago and never followed through on it. I guess finally this was the year I was ready, so I filled out all the paperwork. Including a criminal history check and central registry check. So far so good--nothing evil from my sordid past has surfaced.

Last night was the first class out of 6 sessions. There were at least two dozen people filling the room, and the director told us she had sadly needed to turn interested people away because TOO MANY wanted to attend. I guess I'm glad I turned in my paperwork two weeks ago.

I don't know exactly where all this will lead, or where exactly I will fit in, and I (like most of us newbies in the room)am a little nervous about answering the crisis line and going to on-calls, but hey--you never know. I can say with reasonable certainty this is probably going to be a LOT more exciting than volunteering at the Food Bank was. I picked up good vibes when I walked in the room. Lots of women who looked around my age.

I felt more gratitude for just showing up for a 3 hour class session than I have for doing 3 months of my regular paying job. That alone was worth rolling out of bed earlier than normal.

For today, I need to get my butt to bed, because tomorrow it will be having to get up 2 hours early again to make it to the 6pm class. Then it's all day (9-5) on Saturday. And me not able to get any nights off work. Then repeat the whole thing next week.