Since I seem to be in a bit of a funk...

1. The lengthening of the days. Not just the lengthening, but the lightening of the days. It feels wrong to have a warm wind blowing in February in New England (in Colorado, sure! Chinooks are de rigeur, but not here!), but I can't help but be a little excited to see some dogwoods and magnolias thickening up with buds already. I just hope we don't get a Colorado Spring (i.e. all the wet snow that winter didn't bring just as all the flowers and leaves come out, crushing everything).

2. Free trials. I'm trying out Acorn TV for the month because they had immediate access to season 2 of Miss Fisher's Mysteries. I've been enjoying various other shows since I finished off that series (3rd season wasn't nearly as good for UST, alas). Lots of good fodder for painting sessions, except I had the unfortunate luck to have three (different) shows in a row focus on incest. Incest is one of the few things that completely squicks me out (that and blood play). But otherwise, I've been entertaining myself with lots of good quality murder mysteries. Yay.

3. Our internet is now reliable. I don't know what it is about me and phones, but we have a problematic relationship. Maybe they sense my fear and react offensively, like a wild creature... Except the problems occur even when I have no fear; my cell phone often refuses to let me talk to Geoff (seriously, it will cut the connection as soon as he's picked up, if it allows the call to go through in the first place), and our DSL service through our phone company was getting beyond frustrating in its refusal to work for me (and pretty much just me). So we switched to cable internet (deal with the devil, unfortunately) and a VOIP phone service. Both are in perfect working order. The internet is still slowish, though that may have more to do with our processors than the speed, but it's available and reliable. And uploading pictures takes about 5 seconds as opposed to the 3 minutes it used to take. So that's awesome.

4. ( This painting of mine. )

It makes me very happy.

5. Having my little studio set up again. I was going to leave the living room in the configuration it was put into for Christmas until the basement was finished, but I kept tripping over my easel's legs and having to shift my painting things again and again and again, often while I was painting... It was a bother. So I rearranged the sofa ends to remake my little (seriously, it's an area of about 5 sq. ft./ .8 sq meter) painting nook. And boy, did that open up the rest of the living room! I am still anxiously awaiting getting the basement finished so I can move things around to better use the space (and make the book shelves behind the sofa accessible again!), but the room is functional again, which helps a lot.

ETA 6. Geoff gave me a hair cut last night. While it isn't the best haircut I've had, it did get rid of my mullet and make my head tidier overall. I am very pleased. :-)

It's unfortunate that I had to really dig for those five things, because really, there's a lot more good about my life than not, but, well, my health is getting spotty again, which makes it harder to see the good. But I'm still trying, at least.

I was hopeful that having four adults (genuine adults, not kids-just-out-of-their-parents'-homes-adults) would make for a less stressful project.

Ha.

Holy Hades in Herniation!

3 out of 4 of us are reasonably intelligent, reasonably mature adults. The other, the eldest chronologically, is... not.

She is also the self-imposed nominated leader of this thing because she is "a business management student." And I am guessing she didn't listen to a word the professor of those management classes said...

So.

Where to start?

( An LJ cut first, I think. Yes. That is the place to start. )

But now I need to go do my other class' homework. Which I have been successfully avoiding for two weeks now. Because I hate revision. Oh, do I hate revision. Because it's hard! Ah well. Needs must.

Anyway. Thanks for listening (or not) to me rant. I feel a smidge better for getting a bit of that out.

Hope you have a lovely weekend!

When it rains, it pours? Or is that deluge something else...

*sigh*

At least this is for the week, not the day...

( Because really, it's just a to do list. )

So, some of you might know that I'm taking a public speaking class to, theoretically, overcome some of my social fears. (Not going very well. The fear has been ramping up.) We have to not only give six different types of speeches, but also critique each classmate's speech (one nice thing, one thing that could be improved).

This week's speeches have been of the persuasive sort, with most of the same old topics that everyone covers. I generally am pretty generous with my praise and pretty gentle with my critiques where speeches are concerned because, yeah, golden rule and such. They're mostly doing the best they can.

But there was an exception today.

This girl, I'll call her "Jane," had her entire argument based on "tradition." We Americans have been saying the pledge of allegiance for over two hundred years one hundred years (she had bad math, too! AAACK!), and been using the words "under God" for over 60, so we should continue to do so, no matter the (paltry [my take]) reasoning for inserting the words in the first place, nor how offensive a small minority of people find the phrase.

That was her entire argument.

When I asked, in the question period, what the point of saying the pledge of allegiance was, she kind of hemmed and hawed about supporting our troops and honoring our country.

I was not impressed.

(I also pointed out that Athiests are not the only people who might object to saying the pledge or the "Under God" bit, as the pledge is, in fact, idolizing the flag, which, I believe, is a big no-no in Judeo-Christian belief system, isn't it?)

Now, I know I am in the minority of Americans who find the very concept of a pledge of allegiance (especially to a frickin' flag) offensive, but I can respect a good argument. My argument against saying the pledge is that its purpose is to indoctrinate children into a false patriotism that can then be used to manipulate them into supporting all sorts of evils. It is a tool of totalitarianism, not democracy, because it encourages behavior without thought. And making young kids repeat words (oaths!) that they don't understand the meaning of (as evidenced by this young woman's "argument") is really quite low.

So in my critique I told her that "tradition" is a weak argument as it generally shows a lack of critical thought. I imagine she will not be pleased. Oh well. That's what college is for.

Harrumph.

Anyway. That's my daily rant. I'll probably have something else to rant about by the end of the day, but I just needed to get that out of my system.

I noticed I have hair on my hands now.

What is up with that?

So... Yeah. I'm not really on LJ anymore, am I?

That sucks. It was a good thing for a while, but at some point, it started sucking. So maybe this means I'll be a more frequent participant in the near future. I'm starting to catch up on what's been going on with all of you, but, yeah. It's going to take a while.

Life here is continuing in a fairly normal (for us) way. Well, except for me now being employed. It's a part-time, temporary gig, and hopefully the physical labor involved won't kill me, however, I've already earned enough to buy myself a new and good pair of walking shoes. So yay.

Page is in 4th grade. New school. Same problems. I told him today that if there's another incident with this one kid, everyone is going to start looking at it as if he's bullying him, and there might be something to that accusation. He took that to heart, but it still doesn't help. (Poor kids. Both of them. Page is really annoyed by this kid, but I think that this kid really likes Page. I'm not sure what to do... I've advised Page to stay away from him, but, well... That doesn't solve any problems, now does it?)

Geoff is currently five days overdue to return from a three-day business trip, and he won't be coming back till Friday. Late. I asked him if it was possible to set a limit, but, well... He was okay with the Friday limit, though. He'd told the client-boss that tomorrow was the limit, but that was before the thingamajigger had an allergic reaction to the new driver and came down with (cove) light hives. In a planetarium (and other theaters), cove lights being on during the show is a bad thing. It kinda ruins visibility.

And me... It's been a rough week. I've been fighting some bug, Page has been acting up, my new cell phone wasn't working (which caused problems at work - minor, but there), friends are being... *sigh* aggravating, and I'm not getting enough sleep. Oh, and the stress that that new respiratory bug is in NH, which makes me nervous every time Page coughs (which he's been doing more of this week. Probably because of all the cereal he's been eating...). All that has added up to me being utterly and completely useless. Useless to the point of saying that, sure, cereal is a perfectly acceptable breakfast and dinner. And not going in to class yesterday because it would have been an exercise in futility. Droopy, drooly futility. And watching fluffy princess movies instead of doing research...

On the plus side (something I notice most of you have been doing, btw. yay!), starting today I am covered by health insurance. My phone now works. Geoff is getting at least a little sleep every night. Page has hit the ten-year-old sweetness phase. I might have found my muse again...

So, while I'm not looking forward to two more days without a spouse, I think at some point today I started feeling better, so perhaps I'll be able to start scrabbling up the walls of responsibility in the morning. Hope so. There's lots to do, and no one but me to do it.

Hope all of you are well.

On the friendslist, that is. Nowhere near caught up on things that need doing in the here and now... Ach well. If I didn't comment on your entries, I apologize, but I have read back a couple of weeks now. You all got very active here while I was gone and didn't let me know! ;-)

Life here is... life. I think I'm doing the post-stress burn-out thing. I never realize how stressed I am at the time of the stress (school), and I'm great for about three days after the stress ends, but then... boom. Or should I say "crash"? Anyway, I'm okay, but so tired because the subliminal pain is disrupting my sleep. I'm still not sure what to (realistically) do about it at this point. I did take a benadryl last night (I had been itchy all day), which resulted in me waking almost rested, which was nice.

God, I'm bored just typing this out. You've probably already skipped on to the next post. I don't blame you.

Spring here is in full swing, and it's more or less lovely. A lot of rain and cloud-cover, though. My daffodils were glorious. Absolutely worth every penny and bead of sweat. And now my bleeding heart is putting on quite a show, which is also lovely. Next up are the irises, and it's looking like they're going to be kicking it up to fantabulous this year. It makes this garden mum proud, it does.

And it looks like every plant I planted survived. Well, non-bulb plants. I have no idea how many of the 300+ bulbs I planted last fall survived, though a good deal of them obviously did based on the spring show. But even my late-hard-frost-bitten clematis is alive and growing! I hope to get its trellis made before it needs it too desperately.

Page is also doing pretty well. Since he started the controller asthma meds, he's had a LOT more energy. It's been wonderful to see him running and playing and being happy! He's still got issues, but, by gum, there's progress. (Which is something I need to remember, especially as I focus on the stuff that still needs improvement.)

Geoff is... tired. He's been pushing himself lately, and probably will be pushing himself even more in the month to come as the biannual Conference of Doom approaches. Fortunately, he's not going to be on-site. In fact, it's almost guaranteed he won't be on-site, as the site is in China this year, and he doesn't have an entry visa. YAY! (Three weeks is too little time to get even an expedited visa, yes?) However, he's taking a full month off later this summer, so he should be feeling better by the time school starts up again.

Let's see... what else? Geoff and I spent Mother's Day staking the arbor into it's final resting place. I have a bit of repair work to do on the side of the arbor thanks to wind-damage (i.e. it being felled twice by a sharp breeze) but that will happen. Soonish. Maybe. I also made a garden bed out of pallet crate slats. I don't particularly recommend it unless you really have NO money to throw around. Those boards are... cheap. My goal is to have my back garden in good enough shape to have friends over to celebrate my birthday. That's only 3 weeks away, so it might not happen, but we'll see.

I suppose next week I really need to buckle down and start studying for a CLEP. Haven't decided which it's going to be, though - business law or microeconomics? And at some point I need to work on my resume. If I'm going to be applying to temp agencies in the fall, I suspect I need to start compiling and editing now. Because, yeah. :-P

And that's about it except for a to do list that's even more boring than what I've already written. Fun stuff. :-)

( Read more... )

I hope you all have a wonderful weekend, and for the Americans, may it be a lovely Memorial Day.

I think Spring has arrived! It's still early spring, as the cars and grass are still frosted over in the mornings, but, well, crocuses! Blooming, even! And signs of life from other plants! And surprises! Like, I gave my neighbor my orange poppy, because the color didn't go with the surrounding plants. I was away when she dug it out, and it seems she left bits of root, because I have three tiny little poppies sprouting up around where the original one was! Their color still won't go with the surrounding plants (and there's now a purple sedum there that'll crowd them horribly), but I figure I'll have prepared room to transplant them into as soon as they die back this summer.

Of course spring also means the onset of allergies. I've started Page on his inhaler and the controller medicine that he was given at his physical. I'm hoping his wheezing and cough is asthma, actually, as a friend recently had a bad case of pneumonia, and since we were all exposed to her germs pre-diagnosis... (After breakfast he coughed a deep-sounding cough and said it hurt, pointing to the middle of his left rib cage. *meeps*) Well, I'll know by tomorrow, I suspect. I was bad and sent him to school even with the wibbles.

Meanwhile, I've been single-parenting since Sunday, and it seems I will be doing so through Saturday. We both miss Geoff. And poor Geoff is going to be utterly wrecked when he comes home. I wish I could make doctor's appointments for illness in advance, because I'm pretty sure he'll be needing one by Monday.

And my school continues. Only a month left of classes, actually! This semester has been such a breeze so far! It's been far more restful than last semester was! Excel is fun, and Sage is... well, it is. At this point, it's routine. Easy as long as I pay close attention to all the details, especially dates and GL account numbers.

The thing that is stressing me out about school the most is the extracurricular stuff, actually. Like, I feel guilty about dropping out of PTK, but, well, also glad, because there's drama going on in there that I really don't want to deal with. And there's an art fair that I'm participating in on Saturday, but I'm woefully unprepared for. That's what I'll be doing tomorrow... *meeps*

But I should go and get moving. A friend is coming over to help me cook today, so I need to at least make sure the kitchen is presentable and the bathroom is clean. Oh, and do the shopping... :-)

Happy Spring, ya'll. Happy, happy Spring!

Okay, I exaggerate. But, still. This was supposed to be my week of sleeping in and goofing off and all that jazz. And yet so far:

Monday: got up early to get kidlet off to school; had to walk him there (and DAMN it was cold!!!) because he missed the bus. Went out food shopping, then coffee with friends, came home to find message on machine saying I had to come pick up child because he'd hit another child. Yay. Sitting in school's front office as an adult is about as much fun as it is as a child.

Tuesday: Actually got child off in time to get the bus, but had to pick him up at half past noon because of a 1:00 doctor's appointment. Appt. led to bloodwork (they took a few tablespoons, the poor boy. I think it was ten vials?), which led to unhappy boy getting comfort food from irresponsible mom. I did at least get a (ninja) nap in the afternoon, but, well...

Today: Early release day. Kidlet will be home just past one. Then we'll be going over to manic house so kidlet can play and I can get my scholarship application responses (the real ones) reviewed.

Tomorrow: Get kidlet up yet again. At some point husband will show up, or that's the plan, anyway. At some point I will have to drag kidlet and maybe husband to see Frozen. Literal dragging will probably happen in the case of kidlet.

Friday: who knows. Probably get kidlet up again, though husband might be healthy enough to do so. We'll see.

Saturday: housework and homework.

Sunday: cooking and homework and school development meeting.

Monday: Class.


So, yeah. Not happy about how this week has been going and the projected course for the rest of it. Ah well. I just wish I could have got a bit more alone time this week. Again, ah well. I'll kick the boys out on the weekend, as usual.

In good news, however, Page DID get in to the new charter school! Yay! While I am thrilled about this on several levels, what got me dancing this morning was the fact that this new school will start at 9, so the alarm clock here will be set for an hour later, which will make a world of difference to me! Yayayayayayay!

Today is the first day of my spring break. It is going to be a busy spring break, but it will be a break. A getting rather desperately needed break.

I just hope that Page has school tomorrow, because, well, tomorrow is my only day off for the next week. (Please no ice storm! Please!!!)

Speaking of snow days, have I mentioned that this winter, despite the glut of snow days, there wasn't one that wasn't really needed? They were all completely legit snow days that I wholeheartedly approved of. I think. There may have been one that should have been a 90-minute delay instead of a snow day, but that's it.

It's been a long, cold, hard winter. And we've had it easy compared to the midwest!

Despite the longness, coldness and hardness of the winter, I find I can not blame it on my pissiness of late. The blame for that has since been laid on the foot of the unusual (for me) suspect of Aunt Flo. Usually her impending arrival depresses the hell out of me rather than making me want to use blunt, heavy objects on people. *shrugs* Ah well. All's well now, though, which is good. Well, except for the pain, but that's short-lived.

Speaking of pain, I finally got my broken tooth filled! As it was starting to get rather sensitive to cold and other sensations, I was happy to have that appointment! I expect the area will be sore and sensitive for a few weeks, but after that, my jaw should be able to relax a bit, which should help everything quite a bit. It was ouchie to the wallet, though. :-( But it was worth it, I think. (Still going to ask the rheumy about her take on my getting dentures.)

But I should probably go to bed. I would like to be up by 8am tomorrow to take pictures of the icy branches. Or snowy branches. Or snow-covered icy branches. Although, now that I think about it, there won't be any direct sunshine, so what the hell! Might as well sleep in!


Love to all, and hugs to those that want them.