You are currently browsing the monthly archive for May, 2008.
The last few days have been a bit harried. Thursday night we got our cable and internet hooked up, then I watched Lost all night [and loved every minute!]. Yesterday was a long work day, though I was able to get some grading done. I scooted to the gym to meet Adam for a workout. Then I went home and tried to watch The Savages with Laura Linney and Phillip Seymour Hoffman [both of whom I adore], but couldn’t keep my eyes open and quickly dozed off.
Today was busy, busy. We got up and went shopping for a dining room table. We went to what felt like a hundred stores and ended up buying bug spray, batteries, a pair of scrubs pants for me, and two pairs of shorts for Adam. With no prospect of a table in sight, our last stop was the Salvation Army, where we found a rockin’ used table and separate set of chairs [that matched]! The table needs some refinishing, which is no big deal. The big deal is that we finally have a table after living for four months without one. We can eat at it, work at it, and maybe even sew at it. : ) Here’s a pic:
Later, we stopped at the hardware store for sandpaper, went home for lunch, and I spent the majority of the afternoon reading for my lesson on Wednesday and grading more papers. For dinner, I made grilled eggplant, tomato, and mozzarella sandwiches and a cucumber and tomato salad. It was quite tasty.
Now Adam’s gone to work. I’m going to give The Savages another go and read a bit more of The Cloister Walk, perhaps in a hot bath. Hmm. Sounds good.
The week is dwindling down to nothing, which is good. I made it through week one of Comp I, though it was a rough go last night. Now I have drafts to read and lessons to plan, though I’ve been using some slow time at work to put my thoughts together. And Google Docs is a godsend, especially because we’re getting internet installed at our house today [yay!].
I put down Savage Beauty for a while and got Kathleen Norris’s The Cloister Walk from the library. I’ve been reading it very slowly, sometimes mulling over passages time and again, and enjoying it immensely. The book seems to be fitting with quite a few I’ve already read this year–namely Eat This Book and Girl Meets God. I’ve never been one for liturgy–mostly confusing it with legalism, I think–but I’m learning there’s a very real place for it in my walk with God. I’m very seriously contemplating purchasing a copy of the Book of Common Prayer. Also, particularly because Norris is a poet, I feel drawn into the language she uses and the care she puts into her words. I need to get my hands on some of her poetry–and soon!
My dad also sent me a big box of books from New York, just a handful of the books that he’s housed for me, and they arrived on my doorstep Tuesday afternoon. Tucked within was a box of jewelry I thought I’d lost, including a diamond necklace my dad bought me for my 21st birthday. Unfortunately the chain is tangled, and I may have to get a new one before I can wear it. But I’m glad to know that it’s not lost.
And, of course, the news of the day: tonight is the season finale of Lost, baby! I’ll be watching alone since Adam has to work this evening, which I fussed at him about because I’ll want to talk to him about what happens but won’t be able to until he watches it.
This article on World’s website offers some “constructive” criticism, aka. apologies, on how parents have modeled [or not modeled] the Christian walk for their kids.
I just returned from a very short lunch. I sat there, madly scribbling away notes for tomorrow’s class, still trying to figure out exactly how the 4 hours and 45 minutes will play out. I barely tasted my food, but since I have to leave work early on Wednesdays in order to make it to my class, I had to cut my lunchtime down. I thought about coming in a half-hour early, but I woke up at 4:30 this morning and couldn’t get back to sleep. I couldn’t muster the thought of having to stay at work longer than necessary today. I’m exhausted and didn’t get much sleep the night before either.
I do think I have things in order for class tomorrow. My concern is mostly from feeling like there won’t be enough time to do everything I wanted (I know this is weird since we have almost five hours). It’s a composition class, so they must write, and it’s hard to gauge how long that might take with a new class. Between now and then, I’ll probably go over my notes and outline a million times and try not to question myself or worry myself into a tizzy, as I often do.
Besides preparing for class, I had a decent long weekend. I felt awful all day Saturday and did little else than type my syllabus and go to the grocery store. I did watch an odd movie called Wristcutters: A Love Story, about the fictional afterlife of people who committed suicide, and I actually enjoyed it. Sunday was spent going to church, working, cleaning, and going to a friend’s house for a cookout. I had a lot of fun and met a lot of new people. Unfortunately, Adam was working and wasn’t able to go. Yesterday, we saw Indiana Jones (it was a typical “Indy” film–lots of action, cheesy lines) and I had my first Whataburger (not everything I’d hoped for). The rest of the day I napped, read, ran, and found myself reluctantly watching So You Think You Can Dance, too exhausted to turn it off.
Rants
On Wednesday, we received a letter from the U.S. government stating that our economic stimulus money would be deposited in our checking account no later than May 23. That is today. It is 4:46 pm Central Time, and the money ain’t there. I had little faith it would actually show up, but I’m still a little ticked.
It’s raining, and I planned to go running. With Amy’s visit, I didn’t have time to get out to exercise. Last night, I went to spinning class. Tonight, I was going to run. Boo!
Raves
I got my first paycheck at my new job. Yahoo!
We signed up for local-access cable [20 channels] and internet for our home for $40 a month. No more going to the coffee shop to get on the net. And no more fidgeting with bunny ears. Whoopie!
It’s a three day weekend! Even though I’ll be spending all day tomorrow working on my syllabus and course outline, I don’t have to work on Monday. Cool beans!
Tomorrow, I’ll also be walking to the farmer’s market down the street for the first time this year. I’m looking forward to doing it every Saturday this summer. Huzzah!
[Note: This post may contain a bit of overly excited delusion. Forgive me. It's been a long week, and I get excited about simple things.]
I guess it has something to do with the ever-increasing gas prices, but I’ve had scooters on the brain for quite some time. I used to have to drive 50 miles round trip to work, making driving a scooter impractical and dangerous. But now I drive a mere three miles. In the city, no less. Adam joked that if I got my current job, since it’s so close to home, he’d buy me a scooter. I don’t know if I’ll ever get it, but I found myself perusing the Honda website today to drool over and price scooters. The one I like can be found here–for less than $2,000! [I'd post a picture, but WordPress is not playing nice today.]
In case you’re dying to know, here’s a list of this season’s shows that have been canceled. No big surprises here.
Today has been a surprisingly odd day. I found out that a friend from graduate school is not only getting her Ph.D. but she also has her own sewing and knitting business, a former professor got a book published [and I'll have to get my hands on it soon enough], and people that I used to know are markedly in one of two camps–making babies or making multiple careers. In the meantime, I feel surprisingly inadequate and sit here fantasizing about what I should be [or could be] doing. I mean, I don’t want to be so ordinary, do I?
I’m not sure. I have a list of things I want to accomplish, some of which gets done but most of which gets tossed in a corner, only dusted off in moments like these. I feel like I’ve probably got enough on my plate between having a full-time job and teaching. But I’d also like to take up sewing and cooking, decorate my house, paint furniture, paint wall hangings, send out more of my poems for publication. The lengthier the list, the more overwhelmed I feel, unsure of how to organize all of this in my head. How can I accomplish these things? Can I accomplish these things?
But then there are moments where I’m OK with having a simpler life and that not consumed by so many tasks. There will be time for all these endeavors. I shouldn’t get caught up comparing myself to others–it’s not healthy, and I’ll never measure up. Though when I see what other people my age are doing, what passions they’re pursuing and how they’re able to balance it all, I’m inspired. I don’t want to have an ordinary life–I want an extraordinary one.
Two words: waning motivation
When I arrive at work in the morning, I turn on my computer, get myself settled, then check a few things online before delving into my work. That is, if I have work to do. See, the job I have now is determined by other people doing their work and handing it over to me. If they haven’t completed their articles, I don’t have anything to do.
There is an upside and a downside to this: Upside–less stress, time to surf the net, getting paid just to be around; Downside–boredom, losing steam as the day wears on, feeling useless, being limited in what types of activities are OK to do during downtime [I can't sit here and read a novel or grade papers or watch videos on youtube--that's frowned upon].
Most people tell me to enjoy the time when I’m less busy, that things will pick up and I’ll be pining for down-time soon enough. But this is the third day in a row I’ve had almost nothing to do, and it’s getting pretty old. Especially since I’d rather be preparing for my class that starts next week or trying to finish the 500-page biography I’m only about a quarter of the way through.
I don’t enjoy being so idle.
Well, it’s official. I’ll be teaching again! This time it’s Composition I at the community college during the summer session that starts next week. I haven’t taught Comp I, only Comp II–so it can’t be too different. I should be getting my textbook tonight and will start outlining my syllabus asap. How exciting!
