My main goal yesterday was to finish the first draft of the first book in the publishing project (they are small books — 50 to 100 pages each) and get it sent off to The Empress and That Man for feedback. I did accomplish that, but not until nearly 6:00. This counts the repeated bouncing back of the file for being too large, and my having to divide it up and send it again. At that point, we had dinner and I cleaned up, and when a call came at 7:30 I was taken aback to see that I had forgotten to join Partygirl for our walk.

On Wednesday, I entirely forgot my book club meeting. That’s only once a month, too, so I won’t have another opportunity till September.

So I guess I am not entirely back on track.

Partygirl is a teacher, a roving teacher who subs for every grade at a local private school, and she had kindergartners yesterday. They cry. She’s pretty good at keeping them from crying as much as they do in some classrooms, but still, it is an added layer of Back to School stress. She understands the difficulty of the annual transition.

So I raced over to her house and we strolled around her neighborhood and then back to her house, where her husband plied us with watermelon. We sat up late talking and when I came home I sat up even later with my kids.

It was nice, but distinctly summer.

Today I will be up at the store, and then we have a long weekend for Labor Day. A farewell to summer. The whole family will be home. Housework, unavoidably, and cooking, but also I hope to have some sewing and knitting and lolling about. Maybe my husband will get my car fixed.