Decompression

Here's a picture of a silhouette of trees. Because, why not? Honestly, I wasn't even going to post a picture on this one. Nothing I've seen lately has seemed worthy of a photograph. No moment worthy of being frozen in time, immortalized in digital format. Everything has been kind of...blah.

Thank goodness iPhones have such poor color matching; the dull blue and faint haze of smoke in the distance turned into a really orange to lavender transition here. So it goes.

Anyways, I went for a walk, as I so often do, mostly to decompress tonight after two full days of school back in session. Not that it was that trying, really, but it's certainly a change from the past year and a half. And it was a nice cool evening, the first in a long time where temperatures dipped below 80 at sunset. Thank goodness again. 

It hasn't been difficult to tell that the world is not quite back to normal. An don't because everyone everywhere on campus is wearing masks, and everywhere you turn there's another hand sanitizer dispenser staring you down. The traffic has been noticeable lighter than it was. Before Covid. Parking has been much easier on campus than it was. Before Covid. Less eateries are open on campus than there were. Before Covid.  Seems like a pattern, doesn't it? This marker will be a benchmark for the state of society for awhile. 

So, yeah, the first two days of school were mild by comparison to what I've been accustomed to as being "the norm" in previous years. We're there, onsite, as we have been for years. But it's not quite the same. And maybe it's just me, but the students seem to have gotten even younger. Or else I'm just getting older. Surely that's the real cause, but I prefer to waver in my sensibilities and cling to a smidge of denial.

The mind is younger than the body.

But just three more days before the first week will be in the books. And three more weeks till the start of fall. And maybe in three months there construction will conclude on my new townhome, and I can be moved in before the holiday season begins. Maybe maybe maybe.

For now, I'm relaxed, at home, in bed, and about to call it a night. And day three will greet us soon enough. 

So It Begins

Well, here we are at a juncture in time that we knew would come. That we knew must come. Sometime. Eventually. We've been waiting for this for over 15 months. It's the eve of the start of the fall semester, and we are finally returning to something resembling normal. Well, more or less.

Tomorrow students will flock to campus to begin their baccalaureate adventures at Sac State. It won't be quite like it was before, as there's still a smattering of classes being held online. And students and staff and faculty will be required to wear masks indoors. And who knows if all the campus features will be open and available. Yet.

Last week was a dry run for us, more or less, as marching band camp returned for the first time since 2019. Students returned! Dozens of people graced my office in search of lockers and keys and so on. Round Table and Jamba Juice and Starbucks were open in the Student Union. Students began moving back into the dorms. Progress!

We'll see how long things last. The world still isn't quite right, and people still spook easily at the slightest hint of a cough. A lot of people think it will shut down again, as soon as people start contracting Covid again. And they probably will, just like they contract the flu and the common cold and on and on. Every year. That's our normal.

But for now, some amount of positivity permeates the clouds of doubt (though those could be clouds of smoke from the fires in the Sierra). We're planning on offering live concerts with live audiences this fall, and tickets have gone on sale. Ensembles will be rehearsing with a more or less normal in-house capacity. And I have returned to full time onsite, for two weeks now already. Boy, is it tough getting back to normal! We all got soft this past year with reduced workloads and working from home. 

But come tomorrow morning, we'll see if things looks and feel like normal. I've been watching a slow but steady stream of emails arrive at my inbox all weekend, students needing lockers and keys and volunteer paperwork and parking permits and on and on. So I expect it will be a busy day tomorrow...just like the start of a semester used to be. Before Covid.

Here goes year 23!