26 September 2007

No news is no news

Not much happenin' around casa del goose. We work, eat, sleep, get up, repeat. Classes are going fine, although we have yet to take a test or write a paper in any of the literature classes, and it drives me a wee bit crazy not to have something to measure progress. Even if it is only regurgitating facts, it gives me some small sense of accomplishment.
Got to take myself shopping for an hour without kids, then go have a Birthday beer with my mother-in-law. She rocks. And she loads the birthday cards!
The big news locally is that our community now houses Evil*Empire Stupid Center. Acres and acres of stuff I don't need, but will probably buy anyway. It was kind of nice to wander about sans rugrats and look at things besides toys or groceries.
I've been wandering the internet filling out scholarship applications and writing contrived, insincere essays in hopes of garnering some free money to pay for that last semester of class coming up. I've been thisclose to finished for sooo long, and I just want to be DONE. Then I'll start subbing for $95/day to pay off the verschlugende loans! Yep, the glamorous world of education...what was I thinking again?

13 September 2007

Random randomness revisited...

One from the "C" file:
Me: "I like you!"
Thing 4: "I like burping!"
***

My friend Kathy reminded me thet Michel (where are you, Chica?) tagged me a few weeks back with this thingy that I put off until later, which is now. Without further ado...

10 Random Things About Me.

(No guarantees, may include repeats, my memory sucks.)


1. I have double-jointed thumbs.

2. My siblings are 18 and 16 years older than me.

3. We occasionally drag our family out to work as movie extras (and we live nowhere near Hollywood.)

4. I believe my retirement plans include an RV.

5. I have an awesome job working for people I really like (it just doesn't pay much...)

6. I really enjoy being back at college...

7. ...except for the days when I feel really outdated, old, and out of place (usually a day when someone mistakes me for faculty)

8. I will probably pay off my mortgage before my student loans.

9. I love to read for pleasure, and I hardly ever do.

10. I can't decide if I would love to be a SAHM, or if it would drive me insane.


With that, I'm off to class.
10.

06 September 2007

Overheard...

...on campus today:

"Why is it always so hot in this city? It's just gay!"

Before we go all wierd with the nudge nudge, wink wink, they were cleary discussing the weather. But with a profoundly underdeveloped vocabulary. Since when does heat=gay? Since when does anything other than tra-la-la, either happy or lifestyle-wise, equate to "gay?" I'd prefer a "This sucks!" ala Butthead over "It's just gay!" any time. You're in college, people. Learn to use your words.

Now I will climb down from the lofty height of my soapbox and ramble on to something else.

I had a severe new pencil moment in class today. All freshly sharpened and ready to go, and me with nothing to write. We weren't in note-taking ode. I had to doodle just to work off the edge of the creative drive. Dang.

Studying poetry always makes me feel inadequate. Attempts I've made at poetry always feel to me like they come out contrived, like I've tried to force what may have been a perfectly good idea into an uncomfortable girdle of language. I fancy myself an essayist, although you'd never tell it from the drivel posted here. I do kind of get a kick out of haiku. The very brevity of it makes you choose your words very carefully. You can make it silly or serious, depending on your mood.
Haiku is a lark
I could get addicted quick
Don't get me started

05 September 2007

Back to School

I could do a mini-post on how many times I had to retype "school" to get it spelled right, but I'll leave that to the imagination.
Last week, I went back to school. Again. Argh. It took me WAYYYY too long to find the mommy/student balance, so I had some incomplete classes that rolled into retakes because I did not get the work done. Only me to blame, lesson learned, makes me a better student, yada yada, but it still sucks. The bright side is that I get to take two of these classes with a great old prof who reminds me of a cross between Santa Claus and an undepressed Hemmingway. He absolutely loves his subject matter, and he's highly entertaining.

We spent two of our long weekend days with G'ma. G'pa was gone fishing, so she had far too much peace and quiet on her hands, and we had just the cure for her. We had two extra kids in tow, children of iPastors's BFF.


The bulk of us went to Lifelight. The kids enjoyed the waterpark while dad and I cruised the bands. I especially enjoyed Derek Webb, who I "found" this winter through myspace, as he gave away a bunch of free downloads of his music. Quite cool and folksy. Liked that a lot.









iPastor seemed to be enjoying him as well.











Everyone came out to see Barlow Girl. Even Alex had heard of them in Germany, so a good time was had by all. It was a hot The girls returned to the waterpark and iPastor and I relaxed and listened to (and iPastor critiqued) a couple more speakers and bands.
It was a typical summer day, but a great breeze kept it from being as stiflingly nasty as earlier in the month.




Some people still worked too hard, though.

01 September 2007

Man plans, God laughs...

It seems our whole summer has been about cancelled trips and postponed plans. Visits to see new and old friends were called off, camping trips deferred due to illness, and class reunions called off by last minute work emergencies. Our plans for this weekend's trip to grandma's house and the nearby Lifelight festival changed nearly hourly this week, hampered by work schedules and generally cranky kids. It's all good, however. Car #1 left in time to see Jars of Clay last night, and Car #2 headed straight for Grandma's house when Thing 1 finally was set free of McDonald's. Things 2 and 4 are planning a day with G'ma, and the rest of us are fueling up to avoid the overpriced festival vendors, then we are off for a day of music, sun, and waterpark! What am I doing still sitting here?