Perhaps It Is Time To Return To Reality

The past 3 weeks have been pretty luxurious, what with waking up when I want sans alarm and doing pretty much whatever I want whenever I want. I was not looking forward to the return of responsibility and school and church and reality in general. But something happened the other day that made me think that maybe I was wrong. I was taking a few Christmas decorations that I had forgotten during the first round of un-decorating over to my storage unit (yes, I have that much crap that seems totally necessary to keep). After safely storing them, I realized I was walking rather quickly down the hallway of variously-sized units and it took me a few steps to explain to myself why, mainly that it was kind of a creepy place to be by oneself. While mulling over how it seemed right out of say, The Twilight Zone or The X-Files or Doctor Who, I said, out loud to myself, "But I wouldn't want to travel with the Doctor wearing this!" Yeah, I think reality has arrived just in time.

RIP Ten

Year In Review

I have been sadly remiss in my posting duties this year and I have been feeling slightly guilty about it since this is the closest thing I have to a journal. So I thought a quick review of the year was in order, which once started illuminated precisely why I didn't get to blogging much.

January

January started with a cancelled flight or two that led straight into a 17 credit term. That is pretty much all I remember.

February

February was the month I got the death flu during midterms. It was also the month that my dad announced his intention to get remarried and I was called to be the Relief Society President. But really, all that happened in the same week in February.

March

In March I survived a second term and celebrated by going to the Woodland Park Zoo and a Sounders game with my brother's family. The celebration was short lived, as I was in a car accident the next morning, which ended with my car totaled and me staying in Seattle for a few more days than planned. Thankfully, I have a wonderful brother and sister-in-law who took great care of me! And shortly thereafter I started another term, only taking 13 credits this time. Finally, I met my future stepmother when she flew up for a weekend.

April

I got a new car in April but had to fly to Utah in order to drive it back. I also got to spend time teaching the book Tuck Everlasting to a fantastic group of 6th graders. And spring came to Bellingham, which meant sunnier days and the planning of adventures.

May

In May I started exploring around Bellingham and visited great places like Larrabee Park and Teddy Bear cove as well as surviving another round of midterms.

June

After another round of finals, I flew to Arizona for my dad's wedding and met my new step-siblings. I also started yet another term, the summer term that had classes everyday for hours and hours. It was completely exhausting and I couldn't wait for it to be over.

July

School ended in July, for a whole month and a half. So I decided it would be a perfect time to plan a move and start packing up my life. I also chopped off all my hair.

August 

I spent most of the month packing and cleaning. It is amazing how much stuff one can collect in such a short amount of time. The reward at the end of all the packing and the moving and the cleaning was my trip to California to spend time with my aunt's family and then nanny her son, the Peanut, while she went to Scotland.

September

I spent fun weeks in California and came home to a house all put to order by my wonderful, wonderful roommate. My bed was up and made and such a nice relief since I had to start another term of school.

October

I turned 31 and got another round of the death flu, although I don't think it was in quite that order. To be honest, October was pretty much a blur surrounding a couple of moments of severe doubt about my ability to survive school and/or teaching. Zeros on two totally different assignments in two totally different classes can do that to a person.

November

The month was more blurriness punctuated by stress. Thanksgiving was a nice, albeit short, break to collect my thoughts. I got to see my dad and stepmom's new, if temporary, house.

December

One more week of finals, the conclusion of a term in which I had to pull more all-nighters than ever in the whole of my college career. After school ended, I was able to catch up on Doctor Who, punctuated by a mini-marathon of the recent specials the day after Christmas.

That was my 2009, a year full of major events and lots of hard work. And, frankly, I'm completely exhausted. So my New Year's Eve plans consist of staying at home in my yoga pants having my very own monster Doctor Who marathon whilst consuming unholy amounts of junk food. Hope you are all spending New Year's Eve the way you want!

"Maybe one of these days you'll find a way to create teachable moments without ruining my life."*

I was in the middle of cleaning my room (and by 'in the middle' I mean moving 3 months worth of stuff from my bedroom floor to my bed) when I decided, in a patented Scully procrastination move,  I needed to write a post.  And that decision led to a 30 minute search for a Glee quote that could sum up my life. Glee has been one of the few bright spots this fall, as most of it is a blur of homework and school work. And, as I found out when I checked my grades, I was actually taking 17 credits not 16 like I thought. So I was working extra hard for a class that was 4 credits because it wasn't, it was 5 credits. Anyway, the class was arduous for two reasons, the first being it was a 5 credit history class, which meant massive amounts of reading, and second, it was full of people required to take the class to get endorsed to teach history in Washington state, but the professor taught it to train people to be historiographers. Not the same thing at all. So all the work seemed to be for naught and requiring skills I did not have nor would I use again. But I survived and am only slightly discomfited by the B+ I ended up with.

In other news, I finished Christmas shopping and now only a trip to the post office stands between me and true holiday celebrating. And of course cleaning my room. That should definitely be done before I want to go to bed.

My Disappearing Act

It was pointed out to me the other day that I haven't posted here for a month and a half. Which is completely not like me. Since I started this blog 4 years ago, I haven't been absent for such long periods of time. The first reason is that between graduate school and being the Relief Society President I don't have a lot of time, period. The second reason being that this term is kicking my trash. Despite taking fewer credits and not having a practicum I can barely keep up. I'm taking two history classes for my actual endorsement and they have 100+ pages of reading a week. On top of that are my Assessment and Social Studies Methods classes which require me to create unit and lesson plans, which is by far the most difficult task I have faced so far in the program, especially the part where I have to do it without a set a curriculum to base them on. And on top of all of that are all the various responsibilities of my calling. And the fact that my classes are quite spread out, meaning I don't have large chunks of time to settle into homework, only an hour here or there during the day. Which means I probably won't be back for another month and a half until finals are over and I am free for three weeks. I hope all your lives are less stressful and more fun! See you in December.

What's Been Going On In My Mind

I have been busy moving and nannying the Peanut so I haven't had much time to blog, but I thought I could jot down some thoughts since the Peanut is taking a nap.

Three things I now consider luxuries:

• Taking a shower or going to the loo without a toddler or canine audience.
• Not having to share my food with anyone. Especially with those who refuse to eat their own.
• Living on my own internal schedule, not someone else's.

Three things I will need to consider before I get married and have children:

• Silencing the Martyrdom gene I inherited from my mother that runs rampant in the women on that side of the family and which tells us that we basically have to throw ourselves on the pyre and that if things aren't going well it is because we just aren't doing enough.
• I might be the meanest mother in town. Possibly the world.
• Tantrums and PMS will undoubtedly coincide, but there has to be a way for them to do so non-violently.

Three things I have learned while nannying a 17 month-old:

• If a child decides to throw a tantrum and is not in a position to injure themselves I will just let them throw it. Unless we are in public.
• I hope I have children who are early verbalizers, because I hate guessing and the inevitable tantrums that come from guessing wrong.
• My future husband and I are going to have a long and involved discussion about responsibilities and rules and expectations so that we each know explicitly what the other is thinking about raising a child before the actual wedding.

Three things I will definitely miss when this gig is done:

• The sweet little kiss the Peanut gives when we are singing before bedtime. Usually right before he falls asleep on my shoulder.
• The hugs he requires after a tantrum, even if I'm the reason for the tantrum.
• His total glee at all he sees in the world. He is excited by every car or truck, every dog, every little lizard we see in the yard, every new thing he sees. It makes me excited.