I love a good laugh, but sometimes the laugh strikes too close to home. Growing up I religiously read the comics. It was the first section of the paper I read, after the sports section. In adulthood, my sense of humor has become more mature (at least I think so) and I read political cartoons to get a chuckle. I follow several cartoonists including the Chicago Tribune’s cartoonist – my hometown newspaper – Scott Stantis. In addition to be an outstanding cartoonist, he draws a comic strip called “Prickly City” and I read it when I visit his blog. I came across the strip below over a month ago. I laughed and laughed, then cried, because that is exactly how I feel when the alarm clock rings on Monday morning.

I will not going able to stop the alarm clock from ringing this Monday morning, unless I forget to set it tonight when I climb into bed. It has been a hectic weekend and since I wrote last week – it has been just plain busy. With fifteen school days remaining for my students and sixteen school days for me – I have one extra because this coming Friday is a teacher in-service or meeting day for teachers and the students are off – time is compressed and deadlines come quickly.

I did take time to smell the roses this weekend and had an outing planned Sunday. A friend from school asked me earlier in the week if I wanted to join him and a couple of other guys to go watch the Cubs at Wrigley Sunday afternoon. Before I said yes, I checked with Beth and got the okay. Weekends are always busy with kids in sports or other activities or just with household stuff to do. Unfortunately, the weather did not cooperate and when we arrived at Wrigley Field, the marquee proclaimed “Game Postponed see cubs.com for more information.” I was stunned – we were stunned. Cruds….all four of us were speechless, so we made the best of the situation – we had lunch together and enjoyed a conversation. It was a good time.

Monday morning when the alarm rang – I felt like Winslow (the main character in Prickly City), I had a good dream going and the covers were nice and warm. The sun was creeping into the room and I began to think of all I need to do – crud. So, I am up, I am moving, today is gonna be a great day – I am sure of it. Making the Days Count, one day at a time.