26 May 2009 Tuesday, May 26 2009

I trust everyone had a pleasant holiday weekend.  Ours was very quiet with just a little bar-b-queing, but nice nonetheless.  The Hubby had Friday through Monday off – a nice four-day weekend! – and the Kiddo had Monday off, so it was family time.  Not that the Kiddo spent much of that “family time” at home.  He spent most of his weekend doing what teenagers do best – hanging out with friends.  He got a good head start on his tan by spending Saturday at the neighborhood pool, Sunday at Galveston, and part of Monday back at the neighborhood pool.  I’m starting to see what the summer is going to be like this year.  At least I won’t be hearing him whine about how bored he is! 

I have a headache.  It’s mostly because I stayed up until 5am reading.  Carrie, I could strangle you for ever suggesting Jim Butcher to me!  Gah!  I went to the library last week to do the usual turning in and checking out and was looking specifically for a series of books by Jim Butcher.   I didn’t know what the series was called; I only knew the author.  The only series carried by the library I frequent is the “Aleran Codex” series, which is the books he wrote about the furies.  I hope that’s the one you meant me to get, Carrie!  They had books two through five, but not book one.  I was so desperate for new reading material that I checked them all out anyway. 

Yes, I was contemplating reading a series without reading the first book.  I’m dangerous like that. 

I also checked out a book by Jeff Overstreet called Auralia’s Colors (I think), as well as four books by Anne McCaffrey – the “Freedom” series, I think.  (I don’t have the books in front of me and I’m not willing to get up right now to go look.)  I finished the Overstreet book: Not bad.  I may consider checking out the next book in the series, if the library has it. 

The last time I went to the library, I stocked up on books by Neil Stephenson.  I had read his Anathem, and really liked it, and was totally surprised to find a good fantasy book that had math nerd stuff in it.  I picked it up from a display on a whim, so it’s a funny coincidence that the basis of the universe in the book is math-centric.  He even went so far as to put a couple of mathematical proofs in the appendix, and although the proofs were far from formal, I would hedge a bet that a lot of people still wouldn’t understand them simply because it’s math.  Folks are funny when they’re reading “math stuff,” and have a tendency to just mentally shut down.  It’s like there’s a presupposition that, simply because it’s math, they won’t understand it.  But I can understand thinking that way, because just a few, short years ago, I was the same way. 

I’m seriously digressing here.  My point was that since I liked Anathem so much, I might like other works by Mr. Stephenson.  What I didn’t account for was the fact that it took nearly 1000 pages of reading Anathem before the book got good enough for me to not want to put it down.  Apparently, all of Mr. Stephenson’s books run this way for me because the next book, Cryptonomicon, was the exact same way.  And when I started reading a third novel that was forming the same shape, I decided that I’d had enough of Mr. Stephenson for a while.  I appreciate his writing, but that’s a lot of reading to do before you’re engaged by the story.  So, after striking it out with Neal Stephenson, I was really looking for something new that would be immediately engaging, and my BFF had perfect timing in suggesting Jim Butcher.  But, as I said, I was missing the opening number by not being able to check out that first book.

I decided to read the Overstreet novel first, and it’s a good thing I did because it bought me the time I didn’t know I needed.  A couple of days later, on Friday, the Kiddo and his girlfriend wanted to go see the new Star Trek movie, and I was more than happy to play chauffeur and chaperone.  Goody for me, because there is a Waldenbooks in the mall.  Even gooder (hah!) for me was the purely accidental finding of book one of the Butcher Aleran Codex series.  So, I bought it.  I’ve never read a single word written by Jim Butcher, but I still bought a book he wrote.  (I also expanded my personal collection of “classics” by purchasing Rabbit, Run by John Updike and The Canterbury Tales by Chaucer – neither of which I’ve read before but both of which are constantly referred to in popular culture, but you’d only know it if you’re familiar with the books, which is why I bought them.  And I bought a couple of book thongs.  And if you don’t know what they are, check out this site.)  So, I spent a day finishing the Overstreet, and then picked up the first book of the Butcher series on Saturday.  There wasn’t a lot going on in the house this weekend, but everyone was home, so I had a hard time settling into reading a new book.  But yesterday was apparently book-reading day, because both the hubby and I hibernated in the bedroom most of the afternoon reading our respective books.  (I checked out the Taltos series by Steven Brust for him.)  By the time everyone gone to bed, I was completely lost. 

I took about an hour out to watch the new season opener of Jon and Kate Plus 8 on TLC, then read for an hour.  Then, I called an old friend who is in town this week ( having dinner tomorrow night!  woot!) and talked to her until 2am, then went back to the book again.  I finished right before 5am, and was snoring not long after.  And now, I have a headache.

Of course, staying up late means getting up late – especially if you have no job – and when I got up at 11, there was no one home besides me and the animals.  The Kiddo was at school and everyone else was at work.  When Dad got home, he bade me good morning and started mowing the lawn.  I’m not sure what it says about the schedule I’m keeping lately when seeing me at 2pm elicits a good morning from my father.

Anyway, we have a band concert to attend tonight.  It’s the last one of the school year.  I can’t seem to get it through my child’s head that he doesn’t need to spend every minute before we need to leave at his GF’s house.  That’s where you spent your entire weekend, you nit wit.  How about spending some time in your own home for a change?  Gah.  Teenagers.

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17 May 2009 Sunday, May 17 2009

I’ve had an interesting past couple of weeks.  With me being an out of work college student for the past 5 years, and only recently having taken temporary part-time work, and even more recently having said temporary work end, we are understandably short on cash these days.  However, the Hubby and I have tried to go out either just the two of us, or with the kiddo, about once a month.  Most of the time it was just a quick dinner.  Sometimes, it was dinner and a movie.  With this in mind, the past couple of weeks have been extravaganzas of going out for us.  A couple of weeks ago, the Hubby got off work early, so he and I met for lunch at a local Chinese place.  We love the food there, and the presentation of the food is very cool to us, but we just don’t go very often.  A lunch date, mid-week, with my husband is nearly unheard of, and it was nice to be able to sit and talk for a couple of hours without worrying about being anywhere.  Then, the Saturday before Mother’s Day, my parents took us all out to our favorite Italian seafood restaurant in a neighboring city.  SO good, and so nice to get out.  After dinner, the Hubby and I (the Kiddo was with the MIL for the weekend) decided to catch a late movie.  We saw the new Star Trek, which was a really well-done movie in my opinion, and a good time was had by all.  Just one week later, yesterday, the Hubby, the Kiddo and I met with a newlywed couple-friend of ours for dinner and a movie at The Movie Tavern, wherein we watched X-Men Origins: Wolverine.  Again, we enjoyed the movie, had no complaints about the story line (which is astounding for the fourth movie of a series), and only one complaint about special effects.  Three meals out and two movies in the span of 2-1/2 weeks is so unusual for us that I’m a little stunned today.  My birthday is coming up at the end of the month, and I’m telling you, not a single person need get me anything.  I have had quite the gift these past couple of weeks, being able to spend time with over good meals with people I love, and being able to watch kick-ass movies with them, to boot.

It’ll probably be October before we go out again, but for now that’s okay.

I was in Wal-Mart the other day and saw a sign advertising the new The Sims 3 coming out on June 2nd.  *sigh*  If I have a video game obsession, it would be The Sims in any of their evolutions.  I guess I’m a control freak at heart.  Unfortunately, my Frankenstein of a computer won’t run it.  Even if we upgrade everything on it to the max it can handle, it barely meets minimum requirements for the new game.  And if I know anything about The Sims, I know that they are video intensive and memory intensive games, and if you only have the minimum, you’re going to be stuck playing a clippy game.  Not fun.  So, I’ve decided that I need a new computer.  The one I’ve been using for the past four years, we’ve had for closer to seven.  It was built, piece by piece, by the Hubby, and has been in a constant state of being upgraded ever since.  Nowadays, with the price that assembled desktops are selling for (and the low, low prices on RAM lately), it’s not worth it for us to build our own.  We can by a pre-assembled unit and just upgrade what it lacks (usually video and RAM).  My monitor is about a year old and is a flat panel, my keyboard is perfect for me and is completely in good shape, even my mouse and speakers are fine.  I just need the tower unit.  And, it looks like we’ll be able to get what I need for about $500-$600.  And that’s with upgrades.  Fortunately, for me, I can justify spending money on a new computer when we are in a money-tight situation, because my current machine is having quite a few problems, and I’ll be starting a new career come August.  I’ll need a reliable computer that can do what I need it to do and run the programs I’ll need to run and, oh yes, run The Sims 3, as well. 

The cleaning schedule is still going well.  I didn’t do any of them on Friday, which means my floors did not get cleaned, and you can tell.  The good news is that part of the chores that earns the Kiddo his weekly allowance is to vacuum.  So, when he gets home this afternoon (currently at a pool party), guess what he gets to do?  The sweeping and mopping still won’t be done, but at least the carpets will be clean.

I just remembered that I have an errand to run tomorrow.  I have to treck up (down?) to UHCL to pick up an honor society packet.  I was invited to join Phi Kappa Phi and accepted, but chose not to participate in the ceremony.  It’s been about three weeks, and I keep forgetting to go up (down? over?) to the school to pick up my packet.  I have put it on my to-do list for tomorrow, so that’ll be another chore done!  Yay!  I know there is a certificate that I’ll be receiving, and I think there is a pin, as well.  I have both of these for Phi Theta Kappa, so it’ll be nice to complete the collection with this one from UHCL. 

Speaking of certificates, I seem to have an overabundance of them that need framing.  I have my Bachelor’s, of course, and it’s going to need a big frame.  But the framing I wanted to have done includes a box for my tassel.  I’ve priced these frames, and it looks like I’m going to be dropping a couple hundred dollars on it.  Yikes!  In addition to my Bachelor’s, I also have four Associate degrees I would like framed, as well as both honor society certificates, AND the Presidential Honors Award in Technical Writing that I received at Lee College.  What I think I’d like to try to do is to have all four Associate degrees framed within the same frame.  The actual certificates are about half the size of the Bachelor’s, so the frame for them would be larger than the one for the BA, but would contain all four.  I’ve seen something similar done for children’s school pictures, so that parents can display all of them together.  The mat simply has cut-outs for each picture.  Well, my idea for the Associate degress is similar.  Each one would have matting around it, but would be in one frame.  I’d like to do the same for the honor society certificates, and then frame the technical writing award separately.  I suspect that my framing expenses are about to skyrocket.  Now I just need to find someone who does custom framing…

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13 May 2009 Wednesday, May 13 2009

Things get going and I forget to update.   What’s new, right?  I can’t believe I haven’t updated even once this month, though.

Well.  Things are going really well.  My students at Lee College took their final Monday, so my job there is finito.  I haven’t taken my name off the sub list yet because…well, because I feel like it would be weird for me to have gotten a job with another district, telling them that I was currently employed as a sub for this district, just to up and quit that job before the new one even starts.  Of course, it’s probably weirder for me to stay on the sub list, but to avoid the calls that come in from it day after day.  Last week, I could have worked every day between two schools that kept calling me.  This week, nada.  I was telling myself that I might just decide to take another job or two before the school year is over, but really, I’m lying to myself.  I don’t want to work right now, and I don’t have to work right now, so I’m not gonna work right now.

Not working leads to its own set of problems, though.  I am a structure- and schedule-oriented person.  Without said structure, I tend to get mildly depressed, which leads to anger issues with the people who live with me.  (Did you know, Carrie, that our problems stemmed from my depression?  I didn’t!)  I just become very intolerant of individuals’ idiosyncracies.  Mine, of course, are perfectly acceptable.  Yours, however, are not.  Such is the ridiculous non-logic of my screwed up brain!  So, considering this, I gave myself a job.  I’ve tried this before, but I was too draconian about it.  I would try to schedule eight hours of work, and would micro-schedule every minute.  Seriously, I would draw up a schedule that was broken into 15-minute intervals!  It’s like, I know that a schedule will help me stay mentally healthy, so if a schedule is what I need, I’m going to overdose on it because that will make me even more healthy!  Yeah, not so much.  Before the end of the first day, I was making deals with myself and procrastinating on every little thing I had to do.  And believe me, when I started mentally making a new schedule for the summer, I definitely started off leaning in the micro-managed direction.  (Whoever thought you could micro-manage yourself?!?)  Before I even committed a single word to paper, thus making it gospel, I had to force myself to be more realistic.  My goal was to give my day a small sense of structure without taking away the feeling that I am on vacation.  I also needed to take the household needs into consideration, as well as my sleep schedule. 

Here’s what I finally decided.  I am the chief cook and bottle washer of the house.  I accept that, and it makes sense since I am the one home the most, for now.  If the hubby is at work for 14-16 hours a day, I have a responsibility to make his life a little more pleasant when he can be at home.  Does he expect this from me?  Absolutely not.  He doesn’t even expect me to cook him dinner.  As long as I’m happy and healthy, he’s happy.  But I can’t live with myself if I don’t make an effort to contribute to his working efforts.  When I work, or when I’m in school, I don’t think this way, because I am helping him by going to work or school every day.  I treat school like a job, just one that takes ever so much more time at home than typical jobs do.  So, my “schedule” this summer should focus on the things that normally get neglected when we’re both out of the house at our respective “jobs” every day.  In other words, housework. 

The hubby and I made a decision to start treating this house as “practice” for when we are in our own house (one year to go!!!).  Well, when we move, I’ll still be a teacher, and I’ll still have my summers (mostly) off.  So, this summer needs to be practice for that future.  I made a mental list of all the major household cleaning that should be done on a regular basis.  Most of these jobs get done sporadically, as we have time and energy, and leave me feeling like the house is never really “cleaned up.”  So, for each day of the week, I made a short list of cleaning tasks I will do.  The tasks start at the top and work their way down (from ceilings to floors).  There’s one day given over to grocery shopping and time given to laundry.  I don’t “work” on Saturday or Sunday, and have chosen to leave those open for family activities since this is when both the Kiddo and the Hubby are more likely to be home.  This is my first week of “work,” and I really didn’t get started until Tuesday, but so far I’m not minding it at all.  There are no time constraints.  I don’t have to rush to do any of the jobs.  I can do one, then sit and rest before I tackle another.  I don’t have to get up at the crack of dawn, nor do I need to make sure I’m in bed early.  Most of the jobs I have to do (except vacuuming) can be done even if the rest of the household has gone to bed.  And the house is getting cleaned and maintained on a regular basis.  Here’s the schedule:

• Monday: Put away & declutter tables & counters; dust
• Tuesday: Declutter; clean & sanitize bath & kitchen counters; wash/dry laundry
• Wednesday: Clean toilet & tub; clean & sanitize bath & kitchen sinks; clean stove; put away laundry
• Thursday: Grocery shopping
• Friday: Vacuum, sweep & mop floors

Right now, the house is in terrible shape.  It doesn’t look like a hoarder’s house yet, but it could definitely use a thorough cleaning.  I don’t expect to end this week with a spotless house.  The kitchen counters and living room tables, for example, are so cluttered and crowded that I could spend the whole week doing nothing but clearing those off.  BUT, some things did get put away this week, and next week even more will get put away.  After three or four weeks, we’ll be able to see a real difference.  I figure that after a month of working this schedule, most of the jobs will be quick since I’ll just be maintaining the deep cleaning I’m needing to do now and that takes so much more time.

I don’t know what I’m going to do when I start work again, though.  Maybe by the end of the summer, the house will be in such a state that all I’m doing each week is maintenance cleaning, and I’ll find that I have time to continue these jobs in the afternoons when I get home.  Of course, since I’ll be back to working full-time, I won’t be the only one doing them.  I’ll divide them between me, the Kiddo, and (occasionally) the Hubby (he gets a little bit of a break since he’s usually leaves for work at 4am and often doesn’t get home until after 8pm).

It’s sad to realize that this is the extent I have to go to for the house to stay as clean as I like.  Most people do this automatically!  I have to make myself a schedule to get it done! 

Okay, I have a grocery list waiting to be made, so I’m off again!

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