Welcome back to Letters From The Editors. (If you’d like a nice laugh, read our blog from last week before starting this one.) We’d like to begin this blog by painting a scene. For extra effect, you can close your eyes to imagine it, after reading the coming paragraph, of course.

It’s 4:15 p.m., and there’s a yearbook worknight taking place in the journalism room. We’re not on the yearbook staff, but we’re still at school, working through plethora of issues that had come up during the day and assigning special project profiles. By 4:30 p.m., we’re making regular trips to the yearbook snack table, madly stress eating (Oreos, Twizzlers and Doritos are a deadly combo), then marching back to our computers and quickly returning to work. By the time 4:45 p.m. rolls around, our brains are losing capacity, so (naturally), J-Curt starts listening to music from a random Internet band while scarfing down pretzel rods, and Jena starts spinning upside down in her desk chair listening to “Six Hours of Calming Meditation Music” via YouTube on her computer, both in desperate attempts to alleviate stress.

So this is the part where you laugh at us. Last week, we blogged about how we thought we had everything together. Though this week was one day shorter than last (thanks MLK), it more than made up for last in terms of stress.

With the early dismissal due to snow on Tuesday, all after-school activities were cancelled — including a few sporting events. So, we had to find some alternate events for staff members to cover, which is always stressful. Also, we had an instance or two this week where staff members tried to cover events that were scheduled, but apparently didn’t exist. Though this always makes for a fun story, it’s not fun to have to find another swim meet to cover, especially after driving 30 minutes out to Olathe.

Speaking of early dismissal and snow, all the snow from this week really threw us off. To be quite honest, we were really hoping to get a snow day on Wednesday or Thursday. It would have been nice to sleep in and relax, even if it meant we’d have to reschedule even more sports coverage.

Part of why our sports rescheduling has been so stressful boils down to the fact that there just hasn’t been much to report on lately. Since the semester’s really just starting, classes aren’t doing a whole lot, and organizations haven’t had many events yet. So, we’ve been taking every sporting event or coverage suggestion as a gift from God (though we may still be a few gifts short).

The worst part of all our stress, though, is it doesn’t end when we close the door to C-101 or log out of Mill Valley News and our JagWire gmail accounts. Jena has been trying to keep up in school, while also planning Relay For Life and attempting to get her 9 hours of sleep a night. J-Curt, on the other hand, has been dealing with AP homework assignments, scholarship applications and a surprise cold (along with the fact that he couldn’t buy cold medicine at WalMart on his way to school yesterday because he’s only 17).

Remember when we wrote about blog therapy after spending two terribly unproductive hours in the J-room on a Friday afternoon in October? Well, this is another one of those times when we just need to feel the therapeutic powers of blogging. Thanks for reading our stress rant, and here’s to ending January on a better note next week.

Check it out: Our staff has been posting some awesome columns and reviews this week, so you should check them out. (They’re even streamlined under the same tab now, for your convenience.) Under the Opinion Columns tab, senior Sarah Myers gave an entertaining take on being gluten-free (and rolled crust pizza). Under our new Reviews tab, sophomore Tricia Drumm wrote about Panic! At The Disco’s newest album, “Death of a Bachelor,” and senior Nick Booth made the case for Adam McKay’s “The Big Short” as the best movie of the year. They’re all awesome pieces of writing that you should read when you get a free minute.

Lessons of the week:

J-Curt: I love my friends, but this week really made me realize that for two reasons. First, I had a semi-awkward social experience this week (that’s all I’ll say about it), and although things didn’t go over how I wanted them to, it was nice to have supportive friends to talk with about it. Second, after finding no cold medicine in my house yesterday morning, I texted a GroupMe I’m in to ask if anyone could get me some. Thankfully, senior Savannah Praiswater saved the day with some Alka-Seltzer gel caps, and I’m forever grateful. So, shoutout to my squad for being awesome to me this week.

Jena: I wasn’t expecting this week to go as poorly as it did, especially after last week, which was a breeze. We did all of the same planning and preparation, but somehow this week still took a much different route. So, I learned that even when you think you’re doing everything right, bad days (and weeks) still happen. I think snacking on pretzels, spinning in your chair and listening to music are pretty great ways to cope. After all, life isn’t about what happens to you, but how you react to it. Find what works and run with it.

That’s all … for now.

Seniors Justin “J-Curt” Curto and Jena Smith are the editors-in-chief of Mill Valley News online. They appreciate captioned photos, categorized and tagged stories, staff members who don’t text about web assignments at 11 p.m., teachers and students who talk about things they read on Mill Valley News and all things multimedia.