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Happy new year!
This is my 700th and final entry on this blog. I’m moving to lindsayecrandall.blogspot.com. It’s been good here, but I am hoping to do some repurposing in my new space. And I have new year’s resolutions!
Thanks for stopping by and don’t forget to check the baby blog for updates too!
Well, here it is: Adam and I are having a baby! I’m due April 21. Wanna know more? Visit our baby blog.
[The peanut at 9w3d — 09/19/08]
Well, it’s officially October– my favorite month in my favorite season. This morning was cool and sunny. I’m wearing long sleeves and a new pair of shoes. Not too shabby for a Wednesday.
Here’s a few tidbits from this week:
-I’m not teaching, per se. Instead, I’m having midsemester conferences with my students, the first round of which was last night. It went better than I expected, but my students are great so I shouldn’t be surprised. It’s nice to have a week off of lesson planning, though this just added to my laziness this past weekend.
-The past couple of weeks, I’ve been really lazy and tired in general, but I think it’s passing. Last night, I wasn’t totally exhausted when I usually have been going to bed at 9:30 (lame, I know). I also woke up way before my alarm clock and still haven’t fallen asleep at my keyboard.
-Adam accidentally took my cell phone yesterday, so I have his. We’ll be trading back tonight.
-I have been watching too much TV and not reading enough. I’ve been in the middle of the same book for almost a month. I’m thinking about fasting TV next week.
-I signed up for a sewing class and it starts Monday. I have to find a basic pattern (less than five pieces) and buy some fabric. I’m quite excited. (Any suggestions?)
-I think I’ll make this recipe for pumpkin oatmeal cookies. Seems like a good way to usher in fall.
-Speaking of ushering in fall, Adam made chili last weekend. That makes it official. Fall is here. Hurrah!
I’ve decided I’m going to read Eats, Shoots & Leaves out loud to my class this semester. It’s a slim volume on punctuation, and it’s laugh-out-loud funny. My plan is to read it for 5-10 minutes at the beginning of class most nights, to give everyone a chance to settle down–and for fun, of course. I had a professor in college who read us Kurt Vonnegut’s Cat’s Cradle in a semester, taking up large chunks of class to do so. I loved it (though I remember often having a hard time following at 8 a.m.), so as an homage to Dr. Stewart, I present Eats, Shoots & Leaves.
Tonight, however, I won’t be reading anything aloud except for homework and a prompt for the diagnostic essay. I’ll pass out the syllabus and most likely spend the rest of the time doing crossword puzzles while the students write. Then I’ll have to madly read all the essays before Thursday in addition to preparing for class. Let the madness begin.
I have been trying my darndest to enjoy my last week of non-teaching freedom, but I admit I’m exhausted. This weekend was one of much sleeplessness, and for no particular reason. Friday night, I barely slept a wink and laid on the couch with the dog and cat for most of the day Saturday. I did muster the energy to run four miles and work fairly extensively on my syllabus. But I was mostly in and out of consciousness, catching glimpses of the Olympics or watching The Sopranos when awake.
Yesterday, Adam read for school and I did the morning crossword puzzle before we headed off to church. The church was having a ministry fair with tables set up with information about the ministries offered. I signed up to help feed the homeless once a month and to get more information about their refugee-outreach ministry. One thing I like about the Episcopalian church is the focus on social justice and on working and praying for the community. Other churches I’ve been to have felt so insular–focused almost exclusively on bible studies and youth group–that it’s refreshing to have a place to reach outside of the church.
After church, we spent some time at the bookstore, reading and sipping tea. I picked Kathleen Norris’s Amazing Grace off the shelf and read the preface, but decided to get it from the library to save a few bucks. Instead, I got a copy of Poets & Writers and told Adam that I may as well just subscribe since I seem to get a copy in my hands every other month anyway (it’s published semi-monthly). When we got home, I did laundry, napped, finished my syllabus, and read for class while Adam watched the Olympics. We stayed up too late and I’m paying for it now.
Tomorrow is my first day of teaching for the semester. I’m looking forward to it, though I am a bit nervous. I just keep reminding myself to trust in God and to have hope, especially since I’m so tired. It’s become something of a soundtrack playing in my head, and I keep on rewinding and replaying it. He really is good, even when things are tough.
Okay, I know why this day is going by so slowly. It’s because I’m busy checking facebook, perusing blogs, checking my Google Reader, uploading pictures to Flickr, taking this quiz and that one, getting mad at the first quiz because it should have been easier, getting mad at the second quiz because it gave me a crappy score even though I try hard to be eco-conscious, drinking bad work coffee, and reading old entries on this blog because I don’t have much to work to do. Also, I went to lunch early because I forgot my breakfast at home and had only a few animal crackers to nibble on this morning, so the second half of the day has been longer than usual.
Thankfully, it’s almost 4, and I’m leaving at 4:30.
There are days like today, when my workday is slow, that I am motivated to work on my writing, I’m busy revising poems and researching where to send what I’ve written. Last Friday is a great example, and I got so much accomplished and had five poems to send off. But for some reason, today I’m lacking motivation and the muse hasn’t struck. I write something and quickly delete it. Nothing sticks. You win some and lose some, I suppose.
I’m looking forward to going home, relaxing, and having the house to myself tonight. This is the last week before I start teaching again, and I feel compelled to enjoy my last little bit of freedom, the last little bit of doing nothing.
Thankfully, the animals are getting along better. For a while, Penny was constantly licking and playfully biting the cat, who would respond by biting Penny’s face and making angry kitty noises. It was driving us a little nuts. But they’ve settled down — mostly. Even though she may not stay with us, I named the cat Scout, though I mostly call her Goober. As of yesterday, Adam started calling her Scooter, which makes me think of the muppet. I reminded him that it’s Scout, not Scooter (we went through a similar incident when I thought the kitten was a boy and I named him Jake — Adam called her Jack). He’s still calling her Scooter. Grrr.
Here’s the final product. More pictures from around our house here.
Rachel did this meme yesterday, and browsing someecards.com was fun so I decided to do my own. The goal is to pick five cards from that describe yourself in “amazingly unflattering ways.” Here it is:
Garfield minus Garfield gives a whole new take on the familiar comic. Jon is a total wacko without his kitty [and may be with him, too].
HT: Cosmopoetica
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.]
Musings 
