Catching Up
I'm trying to catch up, at least. The one problem with the break between Winter and Spring classes is that the break is very short. As in it ends this Sunday night, and I'm just finally sitting down to answer e-mail and to update the blog. For mostly good reasons, though. So I'm going to run down a few items and hopefully my readers will not get whiplash:
1. School: First, I must do a bit of bragging. Having suffered the slings and arrows of outrageous single-minded lesbians (They don't seem want to be known as individuals but just as lesbians and librarians--Lesbrarians?) and manic schoolteachers, I earned STRAIGHT A's. My one professor even gave me a 20 for participation when the highest was supposed to be 10. I think I impressed her with my ability to use the expression "flame war" convincingly. As in I was constantly defusing and/or deflecting flame wars attempted by the Lesbrarians. (Luckily none of my classmates seemed to notice that the automatically calculated class average was 10.7--I'm kicking myself for not having taken a screenshot of that.) Next up I have two classes. Only two, one education and one information science. I will be twiddling my thumbs not knowing what to do without that third class. (Riiiight.) The bad news (for real) is that the education class will be taught by one of the ed instructors I just had--the one I didn't like b/c she was a bit brusque and dense, and tended to make comments on my posts that were humiliating. I guess it's just "the devil I know." In the meantime, I'm going to have to start working on where I will be having my field experience (at real schools!) in the fall. Fun.
2. Home: Moving had its crazy moments, but overall went well. It was my first time using movers, and luckily my co-worker gave me a great recommendation. Three guys and a truck showed up and did a good job. I was exhausted and banged up, not to mention freaked out from getting rear-ended the day before, but once I accepted that these guys knew what they were doing--and that the one guy was absolutely bonkers but harmless (meowing in the stairwell the entire time after I told him the cat was locked in the bathroom)--I felt better. It took less time than expected so that was a plus as well. Started at 8:30 a.m. and ended before 11, and that included a stop at my parents' for some things. Originally a china cabinet and a couple of boxes, but then my parents decided that I had to take everything I'd stored there. Never mind the fact that (a) my siblings, one of whom has been married for over a year and now owns a house, still have things stored there, and (b) I didn't have a clue where all these things were going to go. (Why, yes, I am the middle child. Good guess!) Still dealing with it all, but so far I've been fortunate that the only casualty is a jar of sugar scrub that got punctured and made some things oily but scented with lovely jasmine vanilla. The cat is also adjusting, but she's enjoying all the new places to climb--including the top of the kitchen cabinets, as she showed me during dinner tonight--and when she hears or sees something she doesn't like, she crawls under the bedspread and hides. Good plan, O Lump in the Bed. But in the end, this place is safer, quieter, not smelly, and, once I get things put away, guest-friendly.
3. Car: Still not fixed. The rental guy left me a message asking me what I wanted to do with the reservation the insurance company had made (the guy who hit me has the same insurer I do), so I had to call the insurance company to see if they'd done anything with the estimate I'd faxed them. They cheerfully informed me they wanted an adjustor to come out to see the car because they "weren't sure about some of the items on the estimate." Thanks for letting me know. So I had to make an appointment for that (can't come out until next Monday, of course!) and let the rental guy know I haven't taken my car in yet. This is such a freaking drag--I'm pretty sure I've almost been hit again a couple of times owing to the missing lights. Nice rental guy, though.
4. Work: It's rough. It's the only full week I've worked this month, and on top of that I got slammed with things to take care of. My awesome co-worker who quit has been gone for almost two weeks, and I'm shouldering some of her work as well as the unexpected, unwanted burden of cleaning up after my junior slacker. I even said, "What the hell?" to my boss after telling him about the latest half-assed thing she sent out. She knew not to make this particular mistake, and when she discovered she did, she tried taking a shortcut to correct it--and I caught it when I had to do additional work and my pages didn't match up to the previous ones. I'm so furious with her--for making the mistake in the first place, but even more for trying to pass off some patchwork for quality work, and then making me take extra time to make my work match up with that mess. Do you know what we do? We draft legal documents for people to sign. I wouldn't have signed that, and I'm embarrassed that something that awful went out in our company's name. What sucks is, she'll get a slap on the wrist (if anything) and the next time she talks about what a great team player she is and how hard she works, no one will dare to disagree. *sigh*
5. Patience: Still elusive. And needed when the person you'd like to see more of mentions something on Sunday about getting together this weekend, yet has not called since and it's Thursday night. I guess dating relationships cycle a bit in the beginning in terms of contact, but having gone through this since November (when he used to call a lot more often), with a quiet spell during Christmas and a surprise reconnection in January, and two really good dates in February, I'm starting to fear this is never going to get off the ground. At which point I start blaming myself for not having done more, for not having been available. But the truth is, I'm starting to be more available. I know this past term was demanding, but I'm going down to two classes for the next term, and I'm living in a place that requires a lot less upkeep and won't stress me out as much. So do I just give things some time and see what happens? In truth I do need some time, anyway, to get this place organized and visitor-friendly. I guess it's just hard when I know what I want--I can see what I'm going toward--but I don't want to wait for it. It's true for just about everything in my life. . . work, school. . . and definitely love.
So, I'm hanging in there. Got my bonus last week (deserved every penny, even the ones the taxes took out) and after work today I treated myself to a manicure--I'm not liking the color but I'm stuck with it until I can get to my home reserves of polish. I'm dying to get around to blogging some of the stories I've wanted to tell, like the whole deal with Stingsluv, Sidekick to The Skirted Wonder (my high school reunion is coming up), and some of the good people I've been fortunate to know. Right now the one that's most on my mind is Dr. M the Chiropractor. For the first time in months I'm sitting, sleeping, and doing yoga without feeling as if my legs were going to snap off from my spine. She is so worth the trip to NJ.
1. School: First, I must do a bit of bragging. Having suffered the slings and arrows of outrageous single-minded lesbians (They don't seem want to be known as individuals but just as lesbians and librarians--Lesbrarians?) and manic schoolteachers, I earned STRAIGHT A's. My one professor even gave me a 20 for participation when the highest was supposed to be 10. I think I impressed her with my ability to use the expression "flame war" convincingly. As in I was constantly defusing and/or deflecting flame wars attempted by the Lesbrarians. (Luckily none of my classmates seemed to notice that the automatically calculated class average was 10.7--I'm kicking myself for not having taken a screenshot of that.) Next up I have two classes. Only two, one education and one information science. I will be twiddling my thumbs not knowing what to do without that third class. (Riiiight.) The bad news (for real) is that the education class will be taught by one of the ed instructors I just had--the one I didn't like b/c she was a bit brusque and dense, and tended to make comments on my posts that were humiliating. I guess it's just "the devil I know." In the meantime, I'm going to have to start working on where I will be having my field experience (at real schools!) in the fall. Fun.
2. Home: Moving had its crazy moments, but overall went well. It was my first time using movers, and luckily my co-worker gave me a great recommendation. Three guys and a truck showed up and did a good job. I was exhausted and banged up, not to mention freaked out from getting rear-ended the day before, but once I accepted that these guys knew what they were doing--and that the one guy was absolutely bonkers but harmless (meowing in the stairwell the entire time after I told him the cat was locked in the bathroom)--I felt better. It took less time than expected so that was a plus as well. Started at 8:30 a.m. and ended before 11, and that included a stop at my parents' for some things. Originally a china cabinet and a couple of boxes, but then my parents decided that I had to take everything I'd stored there. Never mind the fact that (a) my siblings, one of whom has been married for over a year and now owns a house, still have things stored there, and (b) I didn't have a clue where all these things were going to go. (Why, yes, I am the middle child. Good guess!) Still dealing with it all, but so far I've been fortunate that the only casualty is a jar of sugar scrub that got punctured and made some things oily but scented with lovely jasmine vanilla. The cat is also adjusting, but she's enjoying all the new places to climb--including the top of the kitchen cabinets, as she showed me during dinner tonight--and when she hears or sees something she doesn't like, she crawls under the bedspread and hides. Good plan, O Lump in the Bed. But in the end, this place is safer, quieter, not smelly, and, once I get things put away, guest-friendly.
3. Car: Still not fixed. The rental guy left me a message asking me what I wanted to do with the reservation the insurance company had made (the guy who hit me has the same insurer I do), so I had to call the insurance company to see if they'd done anything with the estimate I'd faxed them. They cheerfully informed me they wanted an adjustor to come out to see the car because they "weren't sure about some of the items on the estimate." Thanks for letting me know. So I had to make an appointment for that (can't come out until next Monday, of course!) and let the rental guy know I haven't taken my car in yet. This is such a freaking drag--I'm pretty sure I've almost been hit again a couple of times owing to the missing lights. Nice rental guy, though.
4. Work: It's rough. It's the only full week I've worked this month, and on top of that I got slammed with things to take care of. My awesome co-worker who quit has been gone for almost two weeks, and I'm shouldering some of her work as well as the unexpected, unwanted burden of cleaning up after my junior slacker. I even said, "What the hell?" to my boss after telling him about the latest half-assed thing she sent out. She knew not to make this particular mistake, and when she discovered she did, she tried taking a shortcut to correct it--and I caught it when I had to do additional work and my pages didn't match up to the previous ones. I'm so furious with her--for making the mistake in the first place, but even more for trying to pass off some patchwork for quality work, and then making me take extra time to make my work match up with that mess. Do you know what we do? We draft legal documents for people to sign. I wouldn't have signed that, and I'm embarrassed that something that awful went out in our company's name. What sucks is, she'll get a slap on the wrist (if anything) and the next time she talks about what a great team player she is and how hard she works, no one will dare to disagree. *sigh*
5. Patience: Still elusive. And needed when the person you'd like to see more of mentions something on Sunday about getting together this weekend, yet has not called since and it's Thursday night. I guess dating relationships cycle a bit in the beginning in terms of contact, but having gone through this since November (when he used to call a lot more often), with a quiet spell during Christmas and a surprise reconnection in January, and two really good dates in February, I'm starting to fear this is never going to get off the ground. At which point I start blaming myself for not having done more, for not having been available. But the truth is, I'm starting to be more available. I know this past term was demanding, but I'm going down to two classes for the next term, and I'm living in a place that requires a lot less upkeep and won't stress me out as much. So do I just give things some time and see what happens? In truth I do need some time, anyway, to get this place organized and visitor-friendly. I guess it's just hard when I know what I want--I can see what I'm going toward--but I don't want to wait for it. It's true for just about everything in my life. . . work, school. . . and definitely love.
So, I'm hanging in there. Got my bonus last week (deserved every penny, even the ones the taxes took out) and after work today I treated myself to a manicure--I'm not liking the color but I'm stuck with it until I can get to my home reserves of polish. I'm dying to get around to blogging some of the stories I've wanted to tell, like the whole deal with Stingsluv, Sidekick to The Skirted Wonder (my high school reunion is coming up), and some of the good people I've been fortunate to know. Right now the one that's most on my mind is Dr. M the Chiropractor. For the first time in months I'm sitting, sleeping, and doing yoga without feeling as if my legs were going to snap off from my spine. She is so worth the trip to NJ.
Comments
Makes me think of this.
Glad you're hanging in there; make more trips to NJ!
Yeah, I'll be going to NJ many more times this year--to the chiropractor (and actually the area she's in is being built up nicely and I'd like to spend the day on the main street there), up north to see some relatives, and down the shore. It's just the trips north and south tend to be kind of long so I'd rather plan time off from work and school for those.