tomorrow is my first day of school. every year at this time, i find myself wishing that i was going back to school with everyone else, and now i am. unless i quit my job, it will likely take me three years to be finished. that seemed like a long time until tonight, when i realized that, when i'm finished, daniel will be the same age i was when we met. that makes the time seem shorter, but it also makes me feel old. as for school, though, i'm getting really excited just starting to read and do my homework. (yes, i have homework already, thanks to an overacheiving professor who emailed his syllabus to us on monday.) i'm starting with two classes - therories and techniques of counseling, and human development across the lifespan. my thursdays will be long - work all day and then class from 4:30 until 9:15pm. i'm just hoping that my classmates are interesting, and really care about our classes. speaking of interesting people, daniel and i have met our new best friends in old towne east. actually, they're our only friends so far in old towne east, unless you count our next-door neighbor, dale. we met ron and cara at the neighborhood ice cream social, and seem to have a lot in common - charming, talkative, sometimes obnoxiously funny guy with a sweet, smart, beautiful girl. they own a new little neighborhood bar, and ron designs and prints t-shirts. (which just happens to be one of daniel's newest interests.) we love them! but don't fear, old friends - we have enough love to go around. i'm closing three cases at work this week. my supervisor loves me. she loves me so much that she might be giving me four more new cases. apparently, my teammate johannah and i may both end up being at 24 cases. i do believe that boosts my monthly high caseload bonus from $200 to $300. it also means that johannah and i very well may have the highest caseloads at the agency. it's interesting how it works in my field - the better caseworker you are, the more cases you get because "you can handle it," resulting in the best, most experienced workers getting burned out. (i've heard that you have to be a little crazy to do this job.) in other news, palmer went back to the hospital last night. if you're a pray-er, please do so for him, amy, micah, and our community. everyone is so tired. sweet dreams, dear ones.