5:15 a.m. Full darkness still. At the bottom of the street a train rumbles through, the squeal of wheel and rail muffled behind the shut windows of the house. When I let the cat out, I could feel autumn chill rising up from the rain-soaked grass. It's a morning when a cup of coffee is a comfort to the hands.

Two nights in a row I've slept badly, so I'm bleary this morning, but also feeling good because we had an excellent start in Monson yesterday. Our new cohort of young artists is chattery, excited, starry-eyed. The whole group and staff spent the morning with Gretchen playing various performance games, then broke into our writing/art factions for the last hour of the day. Even with such a brief time alone, I managed to get them to write two new drafts, share, talk, and even start teasing each other. It was really lovely.

So one session down, a school year to go. Now I need to learn to relax into my new unrelaxing schedule. Today I've got to grocery-shop, clean the upstairs rooms, start a new big editing project, prep for my weekend Rilke class, etc., etc. I feel like I've opened a closet door and everything has fallen out on my head. 

But I'm not complaining. It will be good to start earning regular money again, good to be in the classroom again, good to be out of my house and into the world.