the downhill slide

Someone has started the countdown, and now I'm doomed to remember it, or blessed: 39 more get-ups. Thirty-nine more drives over, and thirty-nine more drives back. Thirty-nine more twenty-minute lunches. Thirty-nine more days to plan. One holiday, there at the tail-end. One more set of grades--no, two. Twenty more curriculum units that will somehow be composed. Fourteen more freshman to prepare for. One more round of state tests. All of April and most of May-- five snow days to make up. Easter and The Birthday and (oh please let there be) Spring. Prom and Commencement. And then, hallelujah, done.