Our Very Own Viscious, Half-Blind, Fire-Breathing Dragon

Just finished the chapter in the seventh Harry Potter book that has Harry, Ron and Hermione breaking down the doors of Gringotts, the wizarding bank, to escape on the back of an angry, half-blind, fire-breathing dragon. They break into the heavily guarded bank to get something back that was stolen by Voldemort. Miraculously, they make it out of the bank with the treasure, only to find themselves flying over London on the back of this dragon, who has been held captive and forced to guard the vaults of Gringotts for the past many decades, and terribly mistreated by the goblins who run the place. Harry and his friends are exhausted, injured, cold, and hungry, and have no idea how they are going to get off the dragon's back without him eating them. They don't know how to make the dragon land, and they have no idea where the dragon is going, or how far he will fly before he lands. All they can do is hold on and wait for a chance, and hope the dragon doesn't decide to head for the open sea before they can get off.

Boy can I ever relate to Harry and his friends! I feel like we are currently caught up on the back of our own crazy, out-of -control dragon, and all we can do is hold on and hope we land safely. A few months ago, I got an offer to teach some pharmacy tech classes two nights a week. It paid pretty well, and at the time, it seemed like a good idea to take it on. It is a short term thing, and a way to bring in some extra cash, which we can always use, especially with all the home improvement projects we are hoping to get done this year. So classes started on January 3, and now I teach Tuesday and Thursday nights from 6-10 pm. In Logan. And I am working two days a week at the pharmacy in Logan. Plus every other Sunday night. So I am spending what feels like most of my waking hours driving back and forth to Logan. In my spare time, I am preparing eight hours worth of lectures every week, and trying to catch up on everything about pharmacy that I learned at one time and have long since forgotten. For hobbies, I try to see my kids and husband occasionally, and if I get really lucky, I get to do a few loads of laundry here and there. The kids hate that I am gone so much. I hate that I am gone so much. I seriously underestimated the amount of time I would need to prepare for these classes. The house has completely fallen apart. The fridge is empty. There is always something we are behind on. We are always exhausted and hungry. And we are barely hanging on.

Classes will be over the end of February. I keep telling myself there is an end in sight. I keep telling myself it will be worth it. I keep telling everybody around here to just hang on.

But Harry jumped off, the first chance he got. He landed in a lake, hit the water hard and had to swim to shore, but he made it, with the treasure intact. I hope I will know when it is time to jump off.