Monday, August 28, 2006

Forth freaking grade!!!


The big girl started school today. Weird in that all her school chums are taller than I am. Also that we (parents) are such a blubbery bunch of silly-heads (You'd think we'd get used to them just marching off to class with nary a backwards glance!) This year ALL the girls in Boo's cohort are in the same class. You'll have no doubt gleaned from reading these things over these last several years that the overall number of gals in Miss Boo's school that were to be distributed year after year mongst the two Boo-age-English-language classes has shrunk (there were only about ten to start and we've lost three to other schools...) so they just said "f*** it!" and put em all together this year. The other English-language class is a "Blended" class of fourth and fifth graders so there are fifth grade girls in that one. Funny. Way to widen the gender gap. Fourth grade boys with fifth grade girls! Ha! Sorry. Nice for my kid because she tends to get snatched up by one or two "alpha" girls and is then a little monopolized for the rest of the year. By adding in the alpha chicks from the other class I figure she has more of a fighting chance to pick who she wants to be pals with (assuming the alphas want to hang together. i'm probably wrong on that one but again, we shall see...) The coolest mom in the world (besides me an CP, natch) has her kid in the other class so i don't get to hang out with her at class get togethers which is sad but whattayagonnado? :-]

K. So, this week is starting off GREAT! Saw the boy yesterday and that was fab. he's a little sad/obsessed/bothered by the not geting to see me as much as he'd like but we all, i think, expected that so really it's just a matter of seeing where he goes from there. Work is good. A recent development has enabled me to start looking for a new Web Developer which I am DELIGHTED about so if anyone knows anyone who's kick-ass in a webdev way let me know. Alrighty then, I'm off to get some something done. Hope everyone has a great week!

Thursday, August 24, 2006

Back to the grind...


Yay, "school" started for me today. I think I'm going to like this new "roll up to the campus at or around 5:30, drop off the sprouts with the world's best kidsitter, check in/chat with the world's best advisor, head on over to the library, read a little. Head on over to the tea shop read some more. Pick up the girls at or around 7:30 and head on home..." thursday evening lifestyle. It's like all the perks of school without the papers/deadlines/running-just-a-little-late bits....

Completely tangential but funny: the world's best kidsitter is a student as well and she's staying in the sophmore/upper classperson's dorm and ALL the bathroom doors in this sprawling residential hall are labled "Men." All of them. Now let's take a moment to rememeber that Mills was established as an alll-girl school and has remained an all-girl school up until last year when they finally buckled and let in some male grad students. Now, I ask you... WTH???

Tuesday, August 22, 2006

"Don't get attached..."


WHAT THE HELL IS WRONG WITH THE MEDICAL COMMUNITY IN ALBUQUERQUE????! "Don't get attached"????? How the HELL is that functional advice to give to a couple who you've just scared the hell out of, who you've done fifty-thousand blood/genetics test on and still not been able to come up with anything "conclusive", who have decided despite all the evidence before them, to deliver to term, who can feel the baby growing and moving and hiccuping -- Seriously, what the HELL is wrong with people??! "Don't get attached." Idiots.

Friday, August 18, 2006

All I can say is "wow!"


Yesterday was AMAZING. It started off a bit sketchy since i had to take the day off from work to get two things accomplished 1)figuring out the financial aid sitch since money i thought the government was going to give me so i could go to school seems to have suspiciously "not been credited to my account" and 2) to take one really big girl and one little big girl to the dentist for check-ups.

So, I get to the school and find out all about this new law passed by Mr. Bush to the tune of "no federal funding for more than 8 semesters of grad school TOTAL!" translated to mean I am facing 16,000.00 in fees that I need to pay by Monday. Being a sensible girl I sat right down and cried. But then I picked myself up and took myself over to the Office of Grad studies where I officially took a semester's leave of absence hoping to buy some time to sort all this nonesense out. But wait, you're asking, when does the amazing part come in??? Well, I headed over to let my beautiful, smart, perfect-in-every-way advisor know about the situation and the following conversation ensued:

Her:So, what does that mean? Does that mean you're going to stop working?
Me:Um. Doesn't it sort of equal that? I mean, I guess I could do some more reading or something... then in the spring--
Her:[turning to her computer, pulling something up, printing it and handing it to me] Here. This is a reading list. I've been thinking about this and I don't think you should use the proposal you turned in last Spring. It's good but it's not you. You should do fictive narrative.
Me: Uh. O.K.
Her: Read these authors and let me know when you have a sense for where you fit in thier conversation. We'll re-write your proposal then start outlining your basis for considering this form legitimate theory...
Me: Uh...
Her: Hmmmmm. Who are we going to get to sit on your committee...? [looking through her rolodex] O.k. while you're doing all of that I'm going to call Susan Krieger, she's written some stuff around this. And let's see... I can probably get Pavitra [Sundar. aka "Marking Time: Gender, Sexuality, Nation, and Temporality in Hindi Film Music"] or Christina [Mendoza. "Crossing Borders: Narrative Identities of Gender, Class and Citizenships among Domestic Workers on the U.S.-Mexican Border"] to sit in. Let me see what I can do. [quick wink and smile in my direction] Don't worry, we'll have you out of here by May!
Me:... I love you. (not really but I did sit there staring in mute adoration until she shooed me out.)

{note: to any official Mills types who may inadvertantly have stumbled upon this blog, all names and situations have been changed. I am IN NO WAY SUGGESTING that my beautiful professor would ever violate a school/pupil contract by assisting a person scholastically who was not legitimately registered for the appropriate semester!}

Heart.

THEN pick up the girls and take them to the dentist where... they behaved BEAUTIFULLY! And this was Spark's first time! I mean sure there was the clingy and the "no. I no wan to!" but once she saw what a trooper her big sis wa and once she got to sit on my lap (and once we all understood that she was simply not down with being an "alligator" but had NO problem opening up like a "dinosaur" well... let's just say it was alllll good. Plus, no cavities! And "good spacing (whatever that means.) Although Boo's midline is apparently .5 milimeters off on the top -- there's a shift to the left. I am soooooo not worried. :-]

sigh. so basically a great day all round. Today was swell too. Boo was with me at work so that was fun. The week-end promises to be lovely. School shopping, Santa Cruz, my new boyfriend... just full of yummy goodness!

Tuesday, August 15, 2006

all day meetings should be illegal. Alright...{takes deep breath} going back down....

Friday, August 11, 2006

And she's only eight...


Me: [noticing my kid is sitting on the couch looking sad] What's up?

Boo: Do you ever have the feeling like you just want to take a day off and not go do what you're supposed to do [for her: daycamp] you know, just go to the beach or something?

Me: {sigh}Yeah. [long pained silence as we both reflect on how impossible that would be to do today...] K. Let's get going...

Tuesday, August 08, 2006

Mommy's little helper!


My three-year-old is so helpful. she helps me carry in the groceries. She brings her plate into the kitchen when she's through eating. She helped me load the laundry into the washer on Sunday.... So very useful!

Speaking of Sunday, how nice was it to get together with the world's cutest families for a little pizza-fest night before last. Very that's what! the hangout with grown-up friends without feeling guilty for ignoring little ones time was long overdue and much appreciated. Plus I got to see my boy an extra time this week (in a non-me-demanding-that-he-strip-immediately setting which he has been wanting so it's good that we got THAT out of the way!) I'm not mad at him anymore BTW. He was appropriately open to discussing and i was uncharacteristically open to not just writing him off so we talked and kissed and made up. (We made up more last night which was also REALLY nice but again, more in a put-your-hands-here-and-kiss-me-hard kind of way which I like alot but which doesn't exactly mesh with his ideas about what girlfriends and boyfriends DO. Apparently we're supposed to go out or something. Hmmmm. I'll have to look into that....

Thursday, August 03, 2006

Today got off to a poopy start and although most of it has resolved itself, i'm still in a bad mood.

1) My boy came over last night and while the visit was mostly sweet, there's this thing he does about me being pretty (e.g. Me -- "Man, today was hard. I'm trying to get my boss to approve this thing we're doing and she's just not taking me seriously." Him -- "Ah, don't worry about it. Just flash her that pretty smile of yours and I'm sure she'll give you whatever you want!") which is becomming extremely annoying mostly because it feels dismissive (even though I know he doesn't intend it to be) the consequence of that being that I spent way too much time writing him a note letting him know why I think that sort of response is annoying/sexist and he has not yet replied so it's making me a little crazy.
2) I locked my keys in the car
3) I spilled coffee on my shirt
4) I'm freshly back from vacation so every single human being in my entire work-world wants to "check-in" and honestly i'm a little sick of talking to some of them.

{sigh} but, whatever. it's all good. I just got to talk to my BBQ and am now in a MUCH better frame of mind. :-] A little lunchie lunch with someone I do actually feel like talking to, then maybe (just maybe) I'll be able to face my afternoon chats with some sense of equamnity. (Plus, I JUST found out my co-worker sent me a coconut from Florida where she's on vacation so that's got me pretty delighted as well...)

Tuesday, August 01, 2006

eek! Almost forgot! Whose big girl is starting potty training this week???? Yay! Spark! Care Bear chonies, here we come!
I'm tired. I just watched Transamerica which is a f'in great movie and now i'm all up and wired....mmmmm. I'm seeing my boy tomorrow night which is nice -- although the last time he came over for a little one on one, I fell asleep on him. (Although, i think I had just cause and he wasn't complaining.... I just don't want him to start thinking i'm a bad host...!) Work today turned out to be interesting. My boss got the fear of god put into her somehow regarding IT and now she's being all receptive to our plans. it doesn't exactly feel like a set-up but it is a little odd. Ah well. we shall see what happens there. in other news i am all freaked out about school starting again this month. on the one hand I have no idea what happened to the summer and on the other I have no idea what the hell i'm going to do to either raise my credits to full time or cut them down to the point where I'm not having to pay full tuition. I think i need to check in with my beautiful advisor at some point soon and get some stuff figured out - I should probably check in with financial aid too... In a perfect world i'd get a loan from the gov. take a day class at Berkeley to supplement my course load and go to school one day a week. That would be assuming I knew what the hell i was doing with my disertation proposal which is a stretch at this point so maybe I need to start crafting a feasible plan "B"..... God. i'm tired. I'm gonna go try to sleep. Kisses to my peeps. i know i'm ignoring you all; I just need to get out from under all the stuff that piled up while I was gone and I'm afraid if i start talking to people I actually like, I'll be less inclined to focus on the dumb stuff! ;-]