Summer Lovin'

In the spirit of summer, I have updated the look over here at Chez GEW. It's not customized or fancy (it only has to be "good enough" after all), but it is cheerful and suggests the summer season that is blowing in. Granted, here on the Central Coast of California, spring is still blowing hard and cold off of the ocean, but soon the winds will settle, summer will arrive, and . . . foggy marine layers will settle over my town. But still . . .

Finals are over, and I am firmly limiting service work this summer. I am still grading exams and essays this week, but really, who cares about that? I still have time to tidy the house, purge a closet, have lunch with a friend, and then get back to the essays. This year, it's especially nice that I have been chipping away at the PhD thesis in early mornings throughout the semester. In the past, at this time of year, I have often felt panic about thesis neglect because summer, for me, means family time, for the most part, rather than extra time for the thesis. But since I have been chipping away in earning mornings, and since I will continue to do so during the summer, that panic is greatly reduced.

Plus, yesterday I finally bought a sugar dish. I have been looking for the perfect sugar dish for a few years now, mostly in thrift stores. The one I found isn't perfect, but it is good enough, and it was only $2.95, and I felt happy when I used it this morning as I prepared my tea.

This week's thesis goal: finish reading a chapter from a secondary source book.

Once a Year Whether I Need it or Not

At home this morning, things got busy, and before I knew it, I didn't have time to take a shower before class. In addition to my daily morning showers, I often take quick evening showers before bed since they seem to facilitate sounder sleep.* Last night, however, I was up until 1:30 a.m. working, so I skipped it. But I'm often a two-shower-a-day kind of person.

But no shower last night. No shower this morning. I'm still at work, and it's 5:30  p.m.

I feel so grimy. And, perhaps since I'm teaching Twelfth Night this week, I just keep thinking about how grimy those Elizabethan Londoners must have been under all of those layers of clothing as they crammed in next to each other at the Globe.

I'm sorry, I know it's natural, and we're all human, but eeewwww.



*There is some data that seems to support my perceptions. Apparently, we sleep better when our body temp is falling (as it is after a warm shower) rather than rising (which mine does when I slide into my bed with freezing feet, and curl up in a fetal position as I wait for the heavy blankets to work their magic).

What You Will

About 45 minutes after we put the kids to bed, we heard a funny noise from their room. Turns out, the Girl was still awake, and the noise we heard was a sheet of paper being ripped out of a spiral notebook. She was awake, with a booklight, writing a play.

She will be unbearably tired tomorrow, but I must admit that I am excited by how engaged she was in her writing process. I went in to kiss her goodnight (again), and she told me that she wants to videotape the play and that she thinks I would be perfect for the parts of Mom 1 and Mom 2.

One of the weekly activity centers in her class has been "reader's theater," and I can tell that she has internalized (at least to some extent) the dramatic format.

I just finished prepping Twelfth Night for tomorrow, so her playwrighting (not a word?) makes me feel warm and fuzzy.

College Crisis Resolved

For the most part . . .

We still have some work to do before we are entirely in the clear, but our progress has been praised, we will not be shut down, and I got a personal shout-out from the college President in his campus-wide e-mail announcement about the issue.

I am both proud that I helped save the college and slightly mortified than I am now in league with "the man." I am so establishment.

But, I still have a job, and so do the rest of my colleagues. And the students still have a place to go to school.

So there's that.

Not on my A Game

I'm a pretty good teacher. I am not spellbinding or mindblowing, but I'm pretty good.

But so far this semester, I feel like I'm sucking in the classroom. I don't know what's going on. I feel disconnected. I'm prepping a lot and excited about the work, but things in class seem to be falling flat.

I want to turn it around, but since I'm not sure what's wrong, it's hard to figure out what to do.

Gratitude

For the past few years, I have regularly taught five days a week with meetings filling up the afternoons and in-between times. All of my prep work and grading have been done late into the evenings and on weekends. The ongoing college crisis has added significant stress to the daily routine. Every day is jam packed with working and parenting. Life is wonderful, but certain things just don't fit well into the schedule, and the days, at times, seem rather frenetic.

But this semester, I don't teach on Fridays. Granted, most Fridays I will be on campus at meetings, but not always. And not today.

Today, after the kids went to school, I went for a run. Then I spent a couple of hours working on the dissertation. Then I worked on boxing up some Zappos returns that I've neglected for months, and I finally took them to the post office. Then I finally got a flu shot. Then I returned some boots to Sears that were too small for my daughter. Then I read for a while at a coffee shop. Now, I'm heading home for movie night with the family.

Exercise, quietude, productivity, relaxation, family time--it all seems so civilized and *balanced*.

I am so grateful for this day.

Thrift Store Haul

I just returned from a trip to a local thrift store, and I just have to share the details of my haul. I got 23 items, including the following:

1. Four shirts for Hubby, including one Eddie Bauer
2. A few tops and sweaters for me, including one Banana Republic cardigan
3. A couple of skirts for me including an Izaak Mizrahi for Target (sp?) and an Old Navy
4. A bunch of jeans and slacks, including but not limited to the following:

• two pairs of Gloria Vanderbilt pants (I know, so 80s, but still nice)
• one pair of Old Navy jeans
• two pairs of Carribean Joe slacks
• one pair of slacks from Anne Taylor Loft

The total price? 

$20.00 even, including tax.

Once when I bought from this shop, I found $25 in one of the pockets. *fingers crossed*