I Speak With the Tongue of a Thousand White-Hot Lies!

So I dropped off LJ for a while, completely inadvertently. I suppose every three or four years, I run out of things to say. Shocking idea, that.

Things at Casa de Zweeble have been fine. We found out that Scott could (and needed to) take the second summer session of school off, so he's been house-husbanding it since the end of June. I think he's going stir-crazy, because yesterday he was thrilled to take the Zweeble to the playground and totally forgot about dinner. Three more weeks and he starts back up again. After some scheduling snafus, he's got the classes he needs to take. And he made the Dean's List twice, and got an A in his summer course, and apparently everyone is surprised by this save for me and my mother. :)

IN ONE WEEK the Zweeble begins kindergarten.

(hang on, I'm having a breakdown)

Okay. Yes. KINDERGARTEN. How the hell is this possible, he was just born a week ago?!

(One of the many things about parenthood is that all those stupid things you heard from your parents when you were a kid--I remember when you were just a baby, and now look at you!--that made you roll your eyes? You suddenly get them.)

He seems cooler with it now than he was at the end of Pre-K, when he was upset because his friends were all going to different schools. I think the fact that he did, indeed, have playdates with his buddies over the summer helped a lot. The kid likes results, not promises. :)

Anyway, we got a boatload of school supplies and Saturday we're going to the Open House ...

Hey, doggiesushi, do you remember how, when we were in elementary and junior high, there was a certain week where you'd go down to the school and they'd post everyone's teachers or homerooms in the front windows? (I have conflicting recollections of what they did in high school--I think on Day 1 they put the lists of everyone's homerooms in the cafeteria?) And then Open House was an evening thing for parents during the, like, 3rd week of school.

Anyway, nowadays Open House apparently means go find out your classroom, meet the teacher, find out your bus route, sign up for aftercare and discounted lunch ... it's going to be a crazy couple of hours.

We're also signing the boyo up for karate, if we can ever get the dojo to call us back.

In my news, work is good. I like the job. The working nights thing is about like I expected, but not as bad as I worried it might be. I don't mind it, I like the quiet of the evenings, but I miss nights with the guys. I'll miss them more once school starts, I think--right now, Z gets home from camp and I have 20 minutes as I get ready to leave to ask him about his day. That said, the weekends are nice, now that I actually have them and don't have to grade.

I think, when Scott has homework, that this schedule will be a good thing--he and I won't be juggling/negotiating who's with the kid on the weekends; I can just take over.

The people are cool, the work is actually kind of fun (I enjoy interlibrary loan a lot more than one might expect, and in the next week or two I'll start learning the other stuff they want me to cover) ... it's super quiet right now, but we're ramping up for fall semester, which everyone tells me is crazy, so I'm mentally preparing for flu-season-at-the-doctor's-office levels of crazy.

I'm also working on story revisions, trying to figure out how to keep the house clean, and adjusting to actually going in to work five days a week. That's been weird.

I don't miss teaching until I see one of my former students, and then I feel a little sad. But only a little. :)

So that's us at the moment. Hopefully I'll post more regularly for the next five years. :)

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!

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.

Sick again. Woo. Feeling slightly better right now. Tired, though. Husband is being great, making me soup and wrangling the boy. I have a feeling waaay too much video gaming is going to happen this weekend, while I am too weak to protest it.

Today I got my mother's and grandmother's gifts finished--yay!--did a lot of laundry, paid bills, and started a story. It's not much of a start, but it's something.

Glee's Xmas special was entirely schizophrenic ... I have no idea exactly what I think of it. Loved Jane Lynch, as always. Perhaps my favorite thing about her scene with Artie, Kurt, and Blaine was Blaine's reactions--first "wtf?" and then, after being called "young Burt Reynolds," wtf morphing to flattered. Cracked me up.

The PBS Christmas special was awesome, and made me wish doggiesushi was here to watch it with me. They had that goofy celebrity Christmas special tone down. It made me a little nostalgic--John and I were such weird kids, and we'd have known how to do that tone, too.

Actually, I realized the other day--watching Santana hugging Finn made me realize it--what it is that keeps drawing me back to this show. I did theater in high school, and Glee reminds me of it. Being in each other's business, being friends and also competing with each other, sometimes hating each other until one awesome performance together made everything okay again, and the wide variety of outsiders we all were. In addition to the other stuff the show does right, it really understands that dynamic.

No, I am not sitting around figuring out who among my high school friends was Puck. Or Rachel.

Okay, fine, I could, but I'm not going there.

I have started reading Seanean Maguire's October Daye books, and the first one was pretty good. I'm working on The Kingdom of Gods by N. K. Jemsin, which is really good. The first two books in the trilogy were really good, too.

I'm trying out Spotify, but I'm not sure what I'm doing with it. Or what I'm supposed to do with it. But I have more hope for this than I do for Turntable.fm. I also adopted the Facebook Timeline thingie, and it actually looks cool.

Hopefully tomorrow I can get some decent writing done. We shall see. I have to pack for the parents' house, too.

Okay, all the grading is done, save for some makeup work I got last night that can be done during office hours tomorrow.

I have tried on my Wedding Ninja dress with my new undergarments, and it looks good! Still a little loose in the bust, but the loose bit lays quite nicely, so no worries there. I think I'm going to iron it tonight--I'm packing it in a suitcase because it's cotton and will fold, so I'll definitely have to re-press it in Michigan (John has promised me the use of his Awesome Iron of Ironing Awesomeness), but I want to 1) have creases to follow if possible, and 2) I want to make sure I can iron the pleats in properly. Because if I can't, I'm going to have to wash it again really quick.

Later today we're getting the boyo a flu shot, then making a trip to Party City because Daddy wants a Guy Fawkes mask. Apparently we're being V for Vendetta this Halloween, with added Heat Blast from Ben 10. (Maybe I'll just wear my Ninja dress and a witch hat.)

I'm showing obvious signs of fatigue and stress, and so it'll be early for bed for me tonight.

Oh, and do any of you know a decent women's vitamin that doesn't make you nauseous when you take it?

I have the windows open! Seriously, we hit October 1 and the weather got cooler. I put Z in a long-sleeved shirt this morning (still had shorts on, though)!

It's going to be something like 87 this afternoon, but whatever.

I got the boy down for an early nap today (thank you, ursulav, for Dragonbreath, which my child loves enough to make it an effective bribe--"I'll read all the way to the end of Dragonbreath, but you have to come lie down."), but we're all wiped out. The boyo is crashed out, Scott is on his last legs, and I am ... well, really, I function better on barely any sleep than either of the boys do. Which is not to say well, just better than they.

He's doing fine, by the way. Belly's been okay since earlier this morning. Keeping an eye. After the salmonella incident, the doctor wanted to run a few tests, so we await that verdict. I'm not too worried. (Really, I'm more worried that by not being worried, I'm dooming us to another 3am stomach ache. I am ever so rational.)

The Facebook hiatus is actually kind of nice. I don't miss it very much unless I want to procrastinate, but it was never all that good for procrastinating, anyway. I'm spending a bit less time on the internet, too, but then, I'm dealing with a semi-sick Zweeble ... I'd likely not be on, anyway.

Read Anna Dressed in Blood, which I'll probably write about more when my brain works. Also read 7th Sigma, which was not at all what I was expecting, and I mean that in a good way. I would have liked the book in my head, but I wasn't disappointed with the book I got. If you want a sort of episodic science fiction western, then this is the book for you.

This morning, as I was calling the doctor and sitting on hold, Z was watching TV and doing what I call aggressive snuggling. First he held my hand, then he squirmed so he was right next to me, then he slid into my lap, then slid half-off it, then arranged himself so he was leaning against me like I was a couch cushion; he also maneuvered my arm over his shoulder and across his chest so he could play with my fingers in comfort. I found this highly amusing.

Okay. I am going to dry my hair and hit the sack. The bed is calling my name. Keep your fingers crossed that we all sleep tonight.

Okay, got up this morning and ...

--told Z a Lego robot story while still half-asleep

--got the boy breakfast

--got me breakfast

--cleaned the kitchen

--folded the laundry

--went to the park

--rescued small toys

--went to Lowe's

--discussed with child the un-likelihood of the big blow-up spider balloon being real/coming to life/rampaging through store

--lived a scene out of a sitcom in self-checkout with husband and curious 4-year-old

--went to Publix

--came home

--rescued balloon from ceiling, repeatedly

--got lunch


I still need to ...

--put away laundry

--get the boy down for a nap

--grade

--weedeat

--make pizza dough

--make cupcakes (from scratch!)

--straighten house

--RSVP to the Wedding of the Decade

--get dinner

--shower

I am somehow thinking that ...

a) Delegating will happen, but also

b) Not all of that second list will get done.

(So, jkason, if you come over and my house is messy and the weeds are waist-high, it's actually a compliment because it means I think of you as family, and I don't do crazy cleaning/weedeating for family.)

This is a seriously crappy draft I've got going. So clearly it's time to start typing up what I've got and finding the shape of it.

I think this could be a good story. Right now it's ... not. Urgh.

In other news, I am trying to sort of let go the worry and enjoy the last three weeks before the fall semester and my heavier course load. We're going to have money problems for the next two years, and there's not a whole lot I can do about it. And the fall is going to be super busy, and I can't do anything about that, either. So I am going to ignore as much of it as I can for the next three weeks, and try not to jump ahead of myself. I don't want to lose the time by worrying about something that'll be here soon enough.

Now, if I could just get this story figured out ...