stotangirl

One of the things I really appreciate in my life is when I feel like people care, for me and for others. I don't like the huge, uncaring world that, as I get older, I see more and more. If you try and take care of me or mine in a useful way, because you appreciate what I do and recognize that I, too, am trying ... well, that means a lot.

Today was a day of reversals. First I heard one thing, then another, swoop and rush and catch your breath. It was also a day of feeling like nobody cared to, oh, holy cats, people do care, actually.

It ended with a bit of the larger world not caring, but since most of today was about that small space of kindness within a larger framework of, well, not ... I am going to try and breathe and stay optimistic that I'll take care of it tomorrow.

Z. wanted to see my mood icons. I will actually post again soon, really. I swear.

Well, hi! I have stuff to write about! (Ack, it's April, what can I say?)

Baking!

So tonight I made caramel. I tried last night and wound up burning it, so today I tried again, and my husband has been devouring it. I AM MIGHTY!

It's supposed to be used to make frosting, so that will likely be my next step. Then I may try the chocolate cupcakes it's meant to be paired with--I feel confident after the crazy science experiment that was the caramel, and may be willing to attempt to make something chocolate from scratch, though I have not always had the best results in the past.

Books!

I've been trying and failing to read lately, but The Way We Fall by Megan Crewe has managed to settle my crazy, end-of-semester brain down. It reminds me of Life As We Knew It, but (so far) without being so depressing you want to kill yourself after reading it. This is not to say Life As We Knew It was bad--just harrowing.

Glee!

I actually liked the disco episode a lot more than I thought I would. It was cute, set stuff up, and for the very first time I actually got to hear the lyrics to "You Should Be Dancing." Um. Wow.

As for last night's episode, let me direct you to a .gif set of what is my favorite scene from Glee, ever: here.* (spoilery, maybe.)



Everything Else

This time next week, we'll be at Disney! I have made plans, maps, and am excited.


*yes, I have a Tumblr now. And if you want to follow me, feel free, but mostly it's cat .gifs and pictures, because the Zweeble loves the cute kittens, and this gives me a nice place to put them as I find them.

Today I took the boy to the beach after school, which was a fun surprise for him. It hit me suddenly last week that there are only two more weeks left of the semester, and once we get back from Disney, I'm working afternoons through to evenings four days a week, and until late afternoon on Fridays. There just aren't going to be days like this anymore, really, so I decided to take advantage.

There were lots of tiny fish surrounding our feet, and the water was cold; we dug holes and squirted each other with water guns, and then had lunch at the beach shack place. It was nice.

I'm super psyched because next week is kindergarten orientation! And I get to go! Awesome timing! Scott and I, after hearing more about the school, decided to take Z off the waiting list for the other school--I find it irritating that he was automatically put on the thing in the first place, though I can see how it would be easier for the school assignment office--because he's getting used to the idea of this particular school, and we'll have orientation soon, and I don't want to switch things up on him in this year where so many things are changing around him.

Anyway, I am looking forward to seeing the school with Z, and meeting the teachers, and asking some of the questions we didn't know to ask back when we started these tours.

Saturday was the boyo's birthday party--I invited something like a dozen kids, expecting half of them to not come, and we wound up with nearly all of them, plus some extra sibs. This is why you have parties at the playground, gang. Miss T and Miss L, my almost nieces, were there, which was great--Z loves playing with L, and T is really good with him. We had a pinata that Scott had to beat the hell out of to break--all the kids got two whacks each--and a giant Spongebob cake that I ended up cutting, feeling trapped in a weird dream where the cake never ended and I was slowly being devoured by frosting.

I really dig some of Z's friends from VPK, and I'm sad he won't be with them next year. :(

We then had an after-party with David and Jason and the girls, and I tried to figure out where the damn gifts were going to go. In the end, I bought a new bookshelf (for $16!) and between that and my mad skillz, I got it all organized.

Other than all of this, I have been grading, reading and trying to do revisions. Also yoga and walking, because I haven't had a chance to do my bike maintenance. Eventually, though, the bike will be maintained and I will be riding again.

I've been a little too obsessed with Glee lately, which I blame on a distinct lack of other TV. I need to figure out when Sherlock starts on PBS. Speaking of Glee, though, I'll say that last week's episode was ... fine. It didn't thrill me, but I didn't hate it. My conviction, thanks to Guiding Light, that Matt Bomer is always a serial killer, made it more entertaining on the whole. And my favorite line: "Oh, Blaine, you have to, you're both so handsome and good." Also, Blaine jumping on the piano. Poor Blaine. :) I'm also worried about Quinn and Artie, because one or the other of them is wrong, and it's going to suck for whoever it is.

And that, my friends, is my boring life. I suppose it could be worse.

Both boys have either head colds or some serious allergies going on. Considering that I have to use the wiper fluid on the windshield of my car--that lives in the garage--in order to drive anywhere*, it really could just be allergies.

I have my own little irritation: so, I have, in the past, had the whole TMJ thing. There was a point in Louisiana where I could only open my mouth about half an inch. It's stress. For the past three or so weeks, I've been having on and off jaw pain on the left side, so I've been doing jaw exercises and taking ibuprofin and so on.

Now, in addition to all this, something is up with my ears. Ear wax? Infection? Allergies? TMJ? No idea. But the left one felt really plugged and the right one hurt this afternoon like a long and oedipal curse that I, and Samuel L. Jackson, love. Plus, both were crackly and vacuumy.

So I called the doctor and made an appointment for tomorrow at 9am.

And as of right now, everything feels fine.

Yeah. Paying out of pocket to hear nothing is wrong will be a highlight of my year, let me assure you. (Then again, the jaw pain has been a thing for a few weeks, so I can at least get some decent medical advice on that, if nothing else.)

I have stuff I want to write about, like the wonder that is doing revisions on the Nook, or my new sandals, or my awesome TARDIS cookie jar that Jason and David gave me, but I am tired and need to make the couch up for sleeping tonight (if I'm not sick, I am for damn sure not going to get sick).

I shall let you all know how the appointment turns out, as I am sure you are waiting with bated breath to hear.

(Oh, wait ... is that an achiness in my left ear? Perchance it is! What a world we live in where I'm pleased to have an ear/jaw-ache because it means I'm not wasting money. Tomorrow I will discover I have leprosy, for certain.)

*because of the fine layer of pollen!

Today, we got the official notice as to which elementary school Z. was assigned. It was one of our three preferred schools, but the one we ranked third.

( Have I described school choice? )

Now, I know how I can be about stuff like this, so we went into this process with the plan to find three or four schools we liked pretty much equally, so that as long as we got one of them, we wouldn't be upset or worried. We ranked them, more or less, on distance from the house because every school seemed to have the same basic programs and such.

Still, though, we were both a little weird when we found Z. was assigned to our third choice school. Despite the fact that we liked it. Despite the fact that, in our notes, we wrote how awesome the art and music rooms were, how we liked the classrooms, and so on.

This idiotic ranking scheme threw us off. We forgot that #1 was not #1, it was just one out of three.

Thankfully, my friend K., who has lived here forever and whose mother knows everyone in town, has been very vocal in her love for this school, so when I texted her she sent me all sorts of excited replies. And slowly, perspective began to reassert itself. (Though we're both still annoyed that, even with the stupid location weight in our favor, Z wasn't assigned to the school that is, literally, two minutes down the road. He was, in fact, assigned to the farthest school from us, out of those three.)

Apparently there is a waiting list for each school. Z is 6th on the list for our first ranked school. Scott and I talked about it, and if they call us about a vacancy in the next month or so, we'd probably take it--two minutes from the house would trump all--but if it's later on and he's all prepared to go to this school, has been to orientation, or is (not kidding) two weeks into the school year, we're going to say no thanks.

And of course we get the letter on the day we buy and set up the big boy bed. Because I need to be beaten over the head with the fact that my kid id growing up.

Today I have:

--Cleaned my car, including washing the floor mats and vacuuming everything.

--Tried out the new stroller with a walk around the block. (This thing is nice! And I think it's going to be well worth the money at Disney.)

--Played with the boy.

Still to do:

--Get new sunglasses for Z (preferably some he'll actually wear), as we have lost or outgrown all the others.

--Get soda. I NEED CAFFEINE AND SUGAR.

--Balance the checkbook. Our tax return is back, so I also need to figure out how we're dividing that up; part of it is earmarked for some very specific expenses, and the rest of it is going into our savings (or, as I call it, our "get through the rest of Scott's IT degree fund").

This whole "back to school" deal is just kind of crazy ... and probably deserves its own entry about all the things I've learned from it, financially and otherwise.

--Clean the house. This semester, Thursdays have become my day to clean the house, but by Sunday it's all topsy-turvy again.

--Revisions. Well, actually, just reading to see if the revisions I made match. But still. :)

Hey, guys, you know in Hamlet where ? I know, totally shocking, right?!

ETA: Pretty cool.

Alrighty, let's see what's been going on in the Little Pink House ...

1. Looks like I will be starting a new job in May, at the school library. I'm a little sad--I like teaching--but also excited (libraries are some of my favorite places, and the school has a beautiful one).

2. Last night, Scott was going into our room to practice a speech for class and told me if I wanted to, I could come in and listen, but I didn't have to. So I grabbed my glass of water and headed in. Well, apparently he didn't want me in there and was just being polite, and so I was instructed not to laugh at the opening of the speech.

Well, okay.

Speech opens: "You all know me, somewhat, now--" Scott breaks off, points directly at me, and thunders, "NOT ONE WORD!"

Um, okay. I give him the old, dude, chiil, get on with it shrug, and take a mouthful of water.

"Do I strike you as crazy? Conspiracy nut?"

Reader, I literally spit my water across the comforter. However, I would not have done so had I not been primed to by my paranoid husband! Remember kids, paranoia can be a self-fulfilling prophecy!

3. Z. is on Spring Break this week--Scott and I were on break last week--which means squeezing the writing in during the ever-shorter naptimes. On the plus side, I don't have papers coming in until Friday, and my other grading has been really light. Today I'm off, and want to see if he wants to do anything besides buy a friend a birthday gift. He looks pretty entrenched in his pillow fort, though.

4. I've been re-reading the Hunger Games books. Not planning to see the movies. (Actually, the only movie I'm planning to see is The Avengers.) I keep looking at my three-book unread stack and getting that need. more. books. feeling, but I have something like five books on the Nook. Clearly I'm not fully in tune with this new technology. Get off my lawn!

5. I have to get started planning Z's 5th birthday party. He wants to have it at the park, with his friends, and have a pinata. This is do-able, I'm sure, but I am not feeling the planning.

6. Right before I start the new job, we have a Disney trip! Three days, and both my parents are going, which I'm psyched about. That planning I'm feeling.

I am thinking about Tumblr.

Because I need another thing to read on the internet.