I am browsing the Washoe County information on kindergarten (because everyone else here is asleep and the interweb is fantastic for diverting my attention away from sleep).
Anyhow, here is part of the information for the Kinder Fair:
Welcome to Kindergarten!
If you are a new IN-COMING Kindergartner, you and your parents are invited to Washoe County School District's 14th Annual Kinder Fair.
Wow, Washoe County really expects Pic (and other IN-COMING kindergartners) to be able to read really well before she enters kindergarten. I have a lot of work to do this summer.
Oh, also, the name of the school she would be zoned for if we were staying here is spelled wrong. Very nice.
Seriously, go look at the ads. I won't respond to them all, but I would like to make a few remarks.
Mr. Leggs -- Oh, of course, because you're wearing snazzy 'Dacron' pants, you can definitely (or defiantly) walk all over me. 'Doll to doll carpet'? Really?
Beauty in the Morning -- Wow. I must be really lucky that Cardo ever comes home.
PEP -- Oh, that's what I've been missing.
And, my favorite...Lysol -- Oh. my. god. Really? Are wive's bodies really that disgusting that they need to douche with LYSOL lest their husbands refuse to grant them entrance to the bedroom. Or, were they? LYSOL. (I just can't get over that. Lysol making feminine hygiene products.)
Well, you'll have to excuse me because I need to go gently weep until Cardo buys me something pretty.
I can only really put off delving into the wreckage that is our office/library for another couple of days. For now, I'm basically glancing at the mess and I have my work cut out for me (really, it's all nicely cut).
So, my question for you all is, Do you think I really need notes from Algebra II/Trig listing the formulas for such things as parabolas? Notes dated from 1997?
Someone you haven't seen in ten years has contacted you. Spend just a minute updating that person on your life and its changes over the last ten years.
I think I'll actually limit myself to one minute this time. Here goes...
Since graduating high school, I moved up to this biggest of little cities for college. During my BA work, I met and married Cardo. We adopted Snuggles. I got pregnant three seconds after we decided to start trying. Pic was born on a Valentine's Day. I graduated from college. I started college again. I started teaching. Pic started school. We adopted Lucky. I graduated yet again.
Um, yeah, time's up. Good enough, I think. Except to say that, for the first time in a decade, I'm no longer a part of the Pack. It's still strange to me.
When we took Lucky to the doctor, we had hope that he'd be there a couple of days, get better and come back home where he belongs. He spent the last week of his life in a kennel in the doctor's office. We visited him there and Pic colored a picture that they taped up in his little 'room.' He had jaundice, his liver was seriously screwed up, his pee was really thick and dark, he was eating about a quarter of what he should be to survive. He was quiet.
At the doctor's, Luckster had an IV in his front right leg. He wouldn't (couldn't, really) eat any of the solid food they provided. He was alternately keeping his medicine down and throwing it up. He wasn't making the progress they wanted.
A couple of the times I went to see him, he tried to climb up onto my shoulders to get out.
After we finally realized that he couldn't fight this fight, it was over so quickly. We had taken Pic to school and then we went to visit Lucky. We decided to 'put him to sleep' right then. When Dr T adminstered the anesthesia, Lucky finally became vocal again and tried to pull his leg back. Cardo was sitting in the rocking chair in the little room, Lucky on a towel in his lap. My hand was resting on Lucky's poor too-thin body. He stopped breathing in seconds. Dr T left us with him, but I could only stay for a couple of minutes.
Lucky was only with us for a year-and-a-half. I have no idea what his life was like before he was with us. He was found in a field, along with many, many much younger cats. We loved him and I hope that he was happy here, as a part of our family.
Snuggles has been much more attached to us since his brother left. I don't know if he knows what's going on.
I've been emotionally wrung-out. I thought I'd cried all my tears, but writing this is hard. This followed so closely after Cardo's mom (I won't be writing anything more about that here, but thanks for the emotional support). Everything feels in a state of upheaval right now.
When we got home today, I automatically looked for Lucky sleeping on my pillow. He wasn't there.
Okay, so I may be the last person to know this, but there's talk of a Ghostbusters III. I just thought I'd share that when I was little, I was in love with Dr Spengler. Yes, Spengler. I have a thing for geeky guys. I guess I always have.
I've decided that I may just go for a PhD in Horribleness if my other options don't pan out.
ANYHOW...I have been saving this for MONTHS (lots o' shouting today). I have so wanted to watch this, but I wanted to wait until my semester had FINALLY ended and now it has. I figured that I'd be watching it over and over, so I needed lots of time, and, well, now I have time.
Can't sleep. I was already anxious about the end of this semester, and then we got a one-in-the-morning phone call.
Cardo's mom died last night. He seems to be okay, but I think it's just going to take some time to sink in. While I'm sure he's not going to want to discuss it, and I don't want to talk about it here or now, I would appreciate any good thoughts you could think his way.
Thanks.
I'm glad Pic got to meet Abuelita in December. We aren't sure how or exactly when we're going to tell Pic that Abuelita has died. I think we're going to wait for Saturday morning, when Pic'll be with us, not at school, all day.
I have to try to get some sleep for an hour-and-a-half before we head to the airport to pick up Nana and Papa.
Yes, that was the best title I could come up with. Today has been less than stellar.
I went to sleep too late (I fell asleep on my books, my glasses on, the light on) and woke up too early. Cardo, Pic and I briefly stopped at House of Bread and then we went to Virginia City to pick up some bookcases we bought from a Craigslister. Actually, we bought yet another one while we were at the person's house. (We now have ten bookcases of various sizes in our home and I'm pretty sure that's still not enough for all of the books to fit without stuffing more in the cracks.)
We stopped at the Summit on the way home because I have decided I'd like a new dress if I will be attending graduation (yeah, yeah, I'll be wearing a (borrowed) gown over it, but only for two hours). I found only one I liked but Cardo said it looked too big (the smallest size they had left was one size too big) and I really wanted something with some color and the dress was black, white and grey. I tried on a $160 dress at one store, but only because I didn't look at the price before the clerk ushered me back to the fitting room. I figured I had to try it on then. It looked dreadful (really, it was full of dread). We tried a few more stores, but no dice. (By the way, the dresses at Old Navy make me look either like I'm pregnant (I'm not, but I'll get to that in a bit) or like I'm trying to disguise myself as a giant, colorful beetle. UGH.)
I started to feel like crap, so we came home. Cardo went to work and I took a nap for an hour-and-a-half. I felt so badly that I thought I was dying. (Okay, so this was my dream, but it took me a bit to realize that I was dreaming that I thought I was dying.) I woke up and realized I had a headache from lack of proper nutrition and hydration and cramps from my period that FINALLY decided to make a freaking appearance. I was wondering how long I'd be able to hold old before I broke out that extra pregnancy test we have in the cupboard. At the same time I'm over-freaking-joyed that my period has come, I'm cursing it for being here. Yeah, I make tons of logical sense. It's what I do.
So, now, I'm taking a break from writing. I have 100 lines left to compose. I should have been finished days ago so I could be in the revision stage, but revision has been happening all throughout and I'm sure that what will result will be something like an ugly patchwork quilt made by someone who doesn't know how to sew. I just came in to save my paper to the computer and also e-mail it to myself so I now have four saved copies. I've been doing this for the last few days. Yes, I'm paranoid.
I'm also washing some laundry. I still have to sweep the Other Bathroom (this is how I think of it in my head...we don't really use it, because why would we use a spacious bathroom when we can all cram into the much smaller one in our room?), wash the dishes and clean the bathtub in our bathroom. I hadn't been planning on sleeping tonight anyhow, but just thinking of all this makes me want to lay my head down on this desk and weep quietly until I fall asleep in a small pool of my cooling tears. (Yes, I know, I need more sleep.)
So, I'll leave y'all with one more image. I am going through my paper from top to bottom (it's on the computer screen -- I'm scrolling from top to bottom...it's not just another worn-out cliche, I promise) and filling in the places that need more explication. I was thinking it's like the paper right now is like a cake with little mounds of frosting splotched all over it and I'm going through the process of smoothing it all out, filling in the gaps, making it look tasty (or something). I can only hope I'm successful, but I have a feeling that if my paper were a cake it might be a contender on Cake Wrecks.
I also used to believe that the rays of sunshine that broke through the clouds, the rays that were so defined, were God. Capital-G, Christian God. And, yes, this implies that I also, at some point also believed in that god. I was very young. This was pre-Vegas-era.
Yesterday's One-Minute Writer prompt: Write about something you believed as a child, that you no longer believe.
Funny, because I was just thinking of what I'm about to share.
When I was really little (about Pic's age and a few years after that, I guess), I believed that all cats were girls and all dogs were boys (I definitely never thought of all cats as 'women' or 'females' and all dogs as 'men' or 'males,' just 'girls' and 'boys'). I thought they had babies together and the girls came out as cats and the boys came out as dogs. (I guess I didn't know all that much about the whole getting-pregnant process or the whole giving-birth process, because those situations could have really sucked depending on the cats and dogs involved.
I don't know when I stopped believing this, but it was probably sometime around when we got our Westie, Nicki (Nikita Zatara McTavish, to be more precise), a female dog. At least, I hope that's the case.
So, Cardo finally called my parents today to tell them I didn't want to go to graduation (yes, I made him do it). And...we're going to graduation.
As the wise Ms A and Ms J said to me on Monday, my parents were going to want to go. Cardo finally told me that he also wants to go, but I had to ask him directly. He didn't want me to go just because he wanted me to go.
So, I'll be bringing a book. I'm told the graduation ceremony will be short. Then...? (That's actually kind of a scary question mark, but I really meant it in the context of the rest of the night, not the rest of my life.)
Graduation is on Friday at 4:50p. I'm not inviting anyone, I'm just telling you when. I can't very well invite anyone else to something I don't want to attend.
I'm not trying to be harsh or unfeeling here. I have a lot of feelings about graduation and about what I just did with the last three-and-a-half years (yeah, I know) of my life. I just don't want to discuss them or even really let them out of their tidy little box right now.
I'm thrilled that my parents are coming to visit. We've been counting down for the last week. (This is how I learned Pic can subtract.) We're making plans for what to do while they're here, where to take them. We don't see them very often so this'll be great.
I'm also grateful and happy that I have a partner who is so supportive of me. I can only hope he feels the same way about me.
I just am, for my own reasons, dreading the actual graduation. So, now I'll just think of it as a two-hour commitment I have to get through and it'll be done. Okay.
I already posted on this before (see v reference herself), but this made me giggle anyway. I suppose sometimes we just need a break from the more harrowing news, right? Yeah...or something.
Okay, so 'mundanity' probably isn't a word, but it's four-thirty in the morning, so I get to use it. Here's what I'd like to accomplish today:
- sleep...ha! - read article for this afternoon (where did I put it?) - write six pages for final paper - exercise (after Thursday last week, that enterprise was kind of a bust)
That's it. I'm not all that ambitious, but I might not even get all of this finished. Ugh and ah well. Only five more days.
...Happy Mother's Day to all of you mother-people out there.
My day has been pretty uneventful. I talked to my own mom for a bit, then to my dad for a bit also. I got a pumpkin muffin from House of Bread. Yes, it was an eventful day.
I am beyond exhausted. I am worn down and cannot wait for next week when I'll be able to (I hope) start resting again. I did take two naps today -- one in the morning, one in the early evening. I couldn't help it. I feel like I've stayed awake all of the hours I possibly can for the last four months and now my body is demanding that I let her get some freaking rest already.
That's about it, except that Pic has recently taken to sometimes calling me 'Mudder.' (That's how she says it.) Papi's still 'Papi,' but I'm now occasionally 'Mudder.' Great. At least it's not Mommy Dearest, right?
Okay, so there's really nothing to report here. I'm really just waiting to see if any more than the two students who have come will come and pick up their final projects. I finished responding in the first five minutes of this final period (yea! one more thing to mark off of the list).
I think, overall, I was pleased with the whole teaching thing this last semester here at this school. I still have much that I need to work on and I'll continue to do that for the rest of my ever-lovin' life, of course. I haven't picked up student avaluations (of me and the class) yet because I won't be turning grades in for another hour. However, the reflection letters were pretty positive overall. (Of course, those weren't anonymous.)
Oh! Live-blogging is back: one more student just came to pick up her project! Okay, that's it.
Less than an hour and I can go home.
Yea! Another student. One less project I have to carry back home and store for half-a-year.
Okay, I'm over this. I have to get in some reading for my ultimate paper (sounds fancy, no?, like it's the end-all paper for my entire career...ha!).
...it's the beautiful sun, shining high in the sky, smiling on everyone. (Okay, so out of my almost-handful of readers, probably only Coach J is going to know that song. You're welcome.)
While spending all morning and early afternoon festering in my unwashed, pajama-clad state, I finished my history paper. I showered and dressed, broke a staple trying to staple my tree-murdering seminar paper and then dragged Cardo and Pic to campus with me to turn it in. I also returned half of the library books I had checked out from the school library.
Then we ate a wholly unhealthy early dinner and spent some time outside, in the sunshine, the beautiful, glorious, fan-freaking-tastic sunshine. Now? I get to spend the rest of the hours between now and the final tomorrow morning responding to student projects so I can be finished with the penultimate major project on my list for the semester. I was so glad to be out in the sun (slathered in sunscreen, of course) but now I'm a little sad to be back inside and in for yet another long, long night of work. Ah, well. Only eight more days until Nana and Papa get here.
...dragged a comb across my head. Okay, you get the point.
I woke up so incredibly late today. Well, at first, I woke up three minutes before my alarm went off. The next thing I knew, it was seventy-five minutes later. Oops. I got Pic to school and then got myself to school only to freak out. It is Dead Day, right? Right? Okay, then, why are there so freaking many cars parked here? I was hoping to be able to park closer than usual.
I ran errands for an hour on campus and now I'm ready to settle down for five hours of work. In bocca al lupo a mi. (Good luck to the rest of you also who have major deadlines (or new-life lines, I guess you could say) looming.)
Okay, actually I'm first going to read Coach J's post that also seems to deal with waking up (I've only yet glanced at the title).
One of the boys has been hiding under the bed for the past couple of days. I've barely seen him out from under there. He has stopped coming to sleep on my pillow at night (he usually takes the whole thing over and I wake up in the middle of a struggle for my pillow before I remember he's there).
I haven't seen him eat and I'm pretty certain he's the one who peed on one of our blankets yesterday (not a blanket on our bed, for which I am thankful). The cat pan has been emptier (sorry for sharing, but it's true).
He came out earlier to use the pan and his brother started biting him, as usual. His brother usually just gets a mouthful of his back and sits there. There's no blood drawn or anything.
Anyhow, I'm worried about him and we'll be taking him for a doctor's visit on Thursday. Cardo will, no doubt, be entirely less than pleased (can we say, understatement of the decade?) with this, and we'll have to figure how to get him out and back in without being too obvious, but I'm worried and he has to go.
Pic and I have been laying on the floor to reach under the bed and pet him, but he usually comes out to sit with us or lay with us and he's stopped doing this. When he came out earlier, I picked him up and he felt lighter.
We think he was seven when we adopted him, which would make him about eight-and-a-half now. He was found in a field, along with many other cats, so the people at the Humane Society weren't exactly sure about his age.
Please keep some good thoughts for him. He's a good cat and I love having him as part of our family (as I've told him many times). Thanks.
I printed out what I have and I'm trying to make sure it's arranged in a somewhat coherent and meaningful fashion. That's fun. I still need to add some explication of the quotes I have included and I need to add a few more annotations.
Anyhow, I wasn't going to share just now, but I just learned it's Karl Marx's birthday (or, y'know, it would be were he still alive). All I have to say to you right now, Karl, is 'Thanks, buddy, thanks a whole big, fat, bunch. There's no way I can avoid you (because, y'know, everyone who's written about culture after you is in some way responding to you, or so I hear) but I also don't quite understand all of what you're doing. Yeah, I get it, there's the base and there's the superstructure and something about modes of production and your relation to the market is determines your existence and all. I so need to hold a seance, grab a translator and look you up.'
One of my profs just e-mailed to say that we can have an extra day on our papers. I have plans to finish that paper today (I'm very slowly working my way through the paper and the annotated bibliography), so I don't know that the extra time is a good thing. I want to be finished with the paper. I don't really want extra time, although I could always use it to clean up my writing (with industrial-strength white vinegar and water, of course).
Okay, I still plan to finish that paper today, because I really need to get into gear on the other one. I may, may, hold onto the paper for an extra day, though, but I kind of hope not. (I would want to hold onto it, though, because I really don't want him to read mine first...or last. How about right in the middle when he's already worked through eighty pages of writing and has another hundred or so to go?)
I'm calling it a night, which means I have five pages and a lot of revision to complete later today. I can do it. I just want it to be done.
I'm reconsidering moving beyond MA-level, but I think that's just the end-of-semester delirium talking. And the freakin' lack of sleep. I cannot wait for the end of this semester and sleeping like a 'normal' person.
I plan on spending Wednesday on campus, creating and fleshing out the outline for my final paper. I have been mentally composing it for some time now. I just want this all to be finished. My apartment needs a serious deep-clean and a serious purging.
My dearly beloved spouse thinks we're weird for celebrating Cinco de Mayo, but I thought I'd spread the sentiment anyway. It should probably come as no great shock that we here at La Casa B don't celebrate this 'holiday' (we don't celebrate much of anything around these parts).
Anyhow, back to whatever it was you were doing, whether that includes celebrating or not.
So, here I sit at the desk, reading someone else's journal and reveling in the relaxation of it. I'm almost envying a life I don't have, a life I've chosen not to have. Almost, because I do enjoy my life and I don't think it's fair or useful to want a life that I haven't chosen.
Anyhow, instead of working further on my own two papers-in-progress, I'm about to start sifting through the 100+ e-mails I have hogging up my inbox.
I'm still wondering how I'm going to make it through these next two weeks. Please just let me make it through.
(Aren't I not supposed to be writing in the middle of the dark because Despayre is always visiting me at this time? I thought so...oops.)
One of the places I've seriously been considering for PhD work has a less-than-two-percent Hispanic population. Actually, this isn't true. Here's the information from the Chamber of Commerce:
First off, yes, it's a tiny place. Second off (why isn't this a common phrase?), please notice that Hispanic/Latino/a is not even explicitely listed. The Hispanic population is lumped in with all the others who also don't even have a strong enough representation to warrant anything other than 'Other.' Where we currently live, 'Hispanic/Latino' comprises 22% of the population. (The numbers for the first location are from the 2000 census and the numbers from our current hometown are from the 2005-7 estimate.)
So, Cardo has kind of vetoed this little hamlet somewhat lacking in people with much skin pigmentation (check out the other numbers). If it came down to it, I'm sure we'd figure something else out, but I'm not sure that I want to 'figure something else out.' I want to live somewhere where the three of us will be happy.
Insights, thoughts, suggestions?
Does anyone want to help me compile a PhD program list? What should I be looking for? How do I find a place that we might call home for five (or more) years? I'm looking for a Rhet-Comp program where I can study both women's writing and Renaissance/Early Modern rhetoric. I'm also looking for a place where I have something of a shot of getting in.
I'm serious about receiving assistance from anyone who'd like to help me out in compiling a list.
Thanks in advance for any thoughts on anything posted here.
Okay, so not a phrase I use to display mirthful delight, but if I did use it, I would have used it today. Why?, you wonder...
I'm not quite as crazy as I thought I was. Yea, me!
The local library has a great many magazine subscriptions. This is not, of course, unusual. I have been told, however, that it is somewhat unusual to be able to check out back issues of the magazines. I love this option because I still haven't quite settled on a new magazine to love and hold (behold?) forever and ever.
Anyhow, about a million weeks ago, I checked out a back issue of Time. I read through it and then returned it...or so I thought. However, when I checked my library account, the issue was still listed as being checked out. I looked everywhere I could in our apartment but couldn't find it. I rechecked the magazine in hopes that I'd find it before it was due, but no luck. When it was really, really late, I talked to one of the librarians who was nice enough to recheck it again for me so my late fees would stop piling up.
My child probably believes I'm really insane now, because I recently spend several hours tearing apart oh-so-much crap in our apartment trying to find said missing magazine. Still, no luck. I was pretty sure that I had returned it, but it stubbornly stayed on my 'checked out' list on my library account. Recently, I flipped through some of the back issues at the library in hopes of finding it there, returned but not checked in. Again, no luck. Today, Pic and I went to the library again and I flipped through the back issues in one of the boxes under the shelf. About five issues in...I FOUND IT! That totally deserves all caps because I had been somewhat freaking out about this. I hate the thought of losing the library's materials and I'm overjoyed to know that I didn't.
I brought the magazine up to the front and the librarian working the desk erased all of my late fees and apologized to me for the mix up.
So, yea! The magazine is not lost. It's just a skinny little Time that got slipped in with the rest of them, trying to hide out and make me lose my mind. I was able to put the book I had had on hold back on hold and now by the time I get it, I'll actually have time to read it. (It came to the library during the phase of the missing-Time and I wasn't about to check out more materials when I was already misplacing (or, so I thought) the library's other materials.
So, I'm off to write about four or five more pages of what is feeling very much like a research report to me. I have to get this finished by Tuesday, at the very latest, so that I can delve into my final paper on Wednesday so I don't sound like a complete rambling BS-er when we have our final meeting Wednesday evening. Then, it's a full day of responding to student projects, holding a final, finishing up that final paper and meeting for one more class one more time. (That probably would have made more sense in a bulled list or on a nice little calendar page or something, but there you have it.)
Then...? I have oh-so-many plans, but I'm trying not to get ahead of myself here.
'Marian the Librarian' [This so doesn't represent the library staff at my local library -- a staff I love -- but I love to sing this song, and I thought I'd share.]
----------------
* May's NaBloPoMo theme is sweet and, really, I have nothing, so I'm stretching here.
Booksale Bonanza Nevada's largest communitywide event for book lovers is scheduled for April 24-May 3. Location 5205 Mill Street.
There will be thousands of items for sale, including children's and adult books in all categories from bestsellers to leatherbound classics. Also for sale are videotapes, DVDs, computer software, cassettes, CDs, vintage records, magazines and maps.
At this sale, the Friends continue their bargain pricing, with most hardbacks costing $1 and pocketbooks at 50¢. There is a special section with vintage and collectible books and "nearly new" bestsellers.
The booksale will be held over two weekends. Sale hours are:
Friday, April 24 3 - 7 p.m. Member Preview (must have 2009 Friends membership card or join at the door) Saturday, April 25 9 a.m. - 5 p.m. Sunday, April 26 10 a.m. - 4 p.m. Mon.-Fri., April 27-May 1 10 a.m. - 6 p.m. Saturday, May 2 9 a.m. - 5 p.m. ½ PRICE DAY Sunday, May 3 10 a.m. - 4 p.m. BARGAIN DAY On Bargain Day, you can purchase a bag of books for $6 -- OUR bag, your book selection! Collectible and specially priced books are also discounted.
Watch for more details on these wonderful booksales!
I have a serious case of senioritis right now. I'm not sure how I'm going to make it through the next gargantuan amount of pages worth of writing/revising.
In the meantime, I thought I'd share the following video, brought to my attention through a student presentation. I have so much to say about this issue in general, but New Historicism awaits, and so my rambling commentary will also have to wait.
Posts
