I love my phone lockscreen. Also, I know the girls don’t have school on Saturday, but I had no better picture to illustrate this post.

(Sunday Paper, Year iV, Issue 37)

This past Friday afternoon felt a little different.

For the past few years, I would have to take one of my daughters straight from school to a piano lesson.

But this September brought a pretty major change to the routine.

September, often more than January, always feels like things are starting over again.

TV shows, back when I watched TV.

Football season, both the college and pro varieties

And, of course, the school year and outside-of-school activities.

This year there was a significant change to the school day and - this this may come as a shock to those of you who know me well - I’ve been adjusting to it quite well.

Some of you know this already, either because I nervously told you all about the impending change all summer long…or because you’re experiencing it yourselves.

The elementary school my children attend had their start and end times changed this year.

So now, instead of getting out of school at 3:05, their day ends at 3:30. (It starts about 10 minutes later than it did last year.)

Hence, piano, which had been at 3:30 on Friday, had to move.

While there’s some adjustment, certainly, it has surprisingly worked out very well for me. (And I realize I have the luxury of working mostly from home and working flexibly, so I know I may be in the minority about this.)

I find that the extra time in the morning, small though it may be, usually allows me to get one thing done before taking the girls to school. In the past that one thing - whether it be reading the paper or starting a work project - might have been interrupted by taking the girls to school and I’d lose some momentum, (I should add that Kathy takes our middle schooler - whose school schedule has not changed - in the morning.)

And at the end of the day - it makes a pretty significant difference to the work I can get done when I don’t have to wind down until 3pm, whereas last year once 2 o’clock hit I’d start to transition out of work mode.

The middle schooler has been staying later at school for drama work, so that helps too…and, dare I say it, I think I’m becoming a much more disciplined at-home worker.

So there have been day and time changes - like piano - but the start to the fall has felt less hectic to me than in past years.

Of course, not all of the activities have gotten underway yet.

On Monday the dance calendar kicks off.

Maybe we should talk in another week.

Writing

*Still no word on that piece I talked about last week - I think I’m done with the back and forth with the editor. I’ll let you know, obviously, when that comes out. Otherwise it’s just been steady work.

Comedy

*Weekends at The Comedy Studio are generally a blast. I performed there Friday night and had one of my best sets in a really long time. It was fun. Next week I’ll be on both Saturday shows there (and Sunday to boot!) to wrap up this stretch of shows there. They’ve all been really good for me.

And then on Saturday night was the September installment of Comedy Night at Exhibit ‘A’. It was a fun lineup but I was riding such a high from Friday night that it would have been impossible for me not to have a good time on Saturday.

What I’ve Been Enjoying

*Going to this well again - since I had my show Friday night (and other Massachusetts obligations) I couldn’t make it down for Matt’s big show Friday night at the Big aLICe Barrel Room in Brooklyn, where they released the beer he helped brew, named ‘Thousand Dollar Dinners’, like his album. So it also served as a de facto album release party. But I enjoyed the heck out of seeing all the pictures and videos posted by friends who were there.

Check out his website for upcoming shows - he’ll be back in Boston on October 3rd at Club Passim. Local folks, I can not recommend seeing him enough. And if you’re in Long Island City, stop by Big aLICe and grab yourself a Thousand Dollar Dinner - the beer, not the dinner. I’m looking forward to having one soon.

Thoughts on Dog Ownership

*Tate turned six months old this week. My daughter took a picture of her that showed her little self shortly after we got her and then her this week - she’s wearing the same harness and you can tell she’s more than filled it out. So…the next day we got her a new, better-fitting harness.

She is such a good dog.

Notes

*A quick running update - On Wednesday, I went for a run. (It was the second of my two 35-minute ‘shorter’ runs for the week. I didn’t run in my usual neighborhood - and I ran past a flagpole next to which was someone who looked like they were wearing a military uniform. It was September 11th, so I wondered if there was going to be some small ceremony at the flagpole. I don’t know if the person was wearing a uniform for sure, though, and I certainly don’t know if there was a ceremony, because when I turned my head to look and stopped watching where I was running my foot hit the curb and I went down hard. I stumble a lot when I run. It’s amazing that this I the first time I actually fell down. I had a little bump on my arm - like a cartoon bump - and I just pressed it down and it disappeared. It was kind of gross but kind of cool. Other than that I’m really no worse for wear. I just can’t stop thinking, though, of the cars that were at the light nearby. The people in those cars must have thought about me falling the rest of that day and the next day and probably laughed and laughed.

*On Saturday morning, for my long run, I just had Kathy drive 8 miles from the house and drop me off and I ran home. It was pretty effective, since I had to get home and I had no other choice but to run/walk. Turns out - 8 miles….pretty far.

*If you were following me on Twitter, you would have already known about the fact that I fell down or that I ran 8 miles. Also you probably would have enjoyed other things I tweeted. So you can do that here.

*If you Liked my page on Facebook…you wouldn’t have missed anything. I should do more with that page. But maybe an influx of new Likes will motivate me.