November

I have three drafts of started posts in my blog queue (it's so fun when I can use that word) but I've been too lazy/busy/noncommittal to finish them up and post. At least one of them is kind of a crabby rant, and now I'm in a better mood so it seems useless to button it up.

Wow, where to start? My Nonna passed away on October 28th. I was able to spend some time with her before she left us, although she was not responsive. I was honored to eulogize her at the funeral, and I plan to post it here soon, but it's a little too intense still. Her funeral mass was on Nov. 2nd, but she was buried just yesterday (her remains were flown to Italy - her wishes were to be buried beside her husband). My mom called today to tell me the funeral mass in Italy was beautiful. It has been a long couple weeks for my dad, and I'm heartbroken that he had to go through the pain of his mother's funeral twice.

I just finished up some hot cocoa and I have that awful 'milk nausea'. I'm not lactose intolerant...for some reason though, hot cocoa, though I LOVE IT, leaves me with a nasty over-full tummy feeling. I always want to vomit after cocoa. But I don't. And I still drink it...this really doesn't bode well for any sort of long term 'lifestyle' changes, does it? Wow - that food is bad for me AND makes me nauseous? Bring me more!!

Rambling. So, I was rather busy for a few days surrounding her passing. Then, when I returned to work, I had 81 e-mails and 18 voice mails. And I had been doing some work here and there from home! I'm still behind on projects, but at least I'm treading water with day-to-day business.

The following week, one of my advisees died unexpectedly. Very shocking and sad. She was a wonderful student. There's a memorial for her at 5 tomorrow, and I'd like to go...we'll see how the day goes and if Sam seems willing after I pick him up from preschool.

The next shocker was that good friends of ours are divorcing. I won't go into details. They seemed perfectly happy. They have a 3 year old daughter who is friends with Sam. Anyway, they had apparently had some problems but were working on them and progressing - or so the husband thought. The wife was apparently seeing someone recently, and he found out in an unfortunate way, and it just imploded from there. I have lots and lots to say about all of it, or rather, about such situations, but, that's another post.

The house is a little crazy, especially this week. Our projects are underway, and I am trying VERY hard to stay calm during the inevitable craziness that is construction. So far, I'm doing ok, because I know it will all come together and be great...it's just the timing that worries me. To summarize, large furniture won't clear the spiral stairs, so we haven't been able to set up our bedroom in the great-room upstairs. To solve this, we opted to have the window on one end of the great-room closed up, and replaced with a lovely door and small balcony. We will then have an egress from the second floor, as well as an easier way of getting large pieces up there.

Secondly, the window we take out will actually go into use as well: One of the bedrooms downstairs, which is our temporary master bedroom, and slated to be Sam's room, has a small and high casement window - it will be replaced with the larger window we are taking out from upstairs. Ta-da! This will brighten the room and also provide a good fire safety feature (true second egress), which makes me feel better about moving Sam into that room.

Thirdly, the plumbing in the main bath shower is done weird - so we are having that tweaked.

Fourthly, we are purchasing a storage shed from the architecture class at the college where we work. This is great, but kind of pricey (although a much better value than buying a kit from Home Depot or something like that). Because we are contributing to an educational endeavor, I am hoping that it will be tax deductible (I have to confirm this with the College Foundation). It's 8x12, with full floor, workbench, windows, bi-fold barn doors, architechtural shingles, siding, etc. So anyway, Tim has been working hard to prep and level the area where it will sit. He's moved a lot of dirt. Poor guy.

Finally, Tim has taken down 2 dead trees on the property so far. While this is a big money-saver, it scares the heck out of me. Bless his brave heart. It also makes a mess.

So, all this is great but, this is what happens in the meantime, and how my new and wonderful home goes from high-end to virtually trashtastic in just a few short days:

*Plywood in the second floor window hole. Street view. Classy.

*Carpet upstairs is pulled up and rolled back in the work area. The plumber is coming to move a heat register that would be in the way of the new door. Fun. Cause you know, it can't ever be EASY.

*Trim and molding is missing all around window in our bedroom. When Tim needs to sleep during the day, he usually props pillows in the windows for darkness. Because there's nothing to hold the pillows now, he's tacked old towels there. Oh joy.

*Same wall is marked up for cuts to fit the new window.

*Our nightstands are in the living room.

*Front porch is littered with contractor stuff. And a door. And a window.

*Tree bark and bits of branches are everywhere from aforementioned downed trees.

*A section of our fabulous fencing is down due to falling of one tree. It's not broken, but he has to do more cutting before he can put it back together. In the meantime, however, it looks broken and trashy.

*Sheetrock in my entryway is cut so plumber can access and re-work plumbing to the bathroom.

All this magic is scheduled to be finished in time for Thanksgiving, when I have 4 family house-guests arriving. We shall see. We shall see.

Cheers

Give three cheers for all of the good things that have transpired in my life over the past week, starting with the most important first.

1. My new position at work was approved to be full time! If you didn't know, I had been half time for well over a year (our decision). We knew that eventually, once the financial reality of it hit us, I'd have to go back to full time, but figured whatever extra time I could have at home with Sam was worth the short term strains. This past November, my position was essentially cut due to the state's budget crisis, but thankfully, in the same breath, I was asked to take another half time position that was expected to be fully funded within six months - and it has in just 2 months!

I feel fortunate because it's still an 11 month out of the year position, I actually LIKE it a lot and am a real official Academic Advisor, which I had been working toward. I like the department chair (my new boss), and considering the current economic climate, I'm darn lucky to have what I have.

Besides all that, this enables Tim to finally quit his silly part time job, which had become a complete nuisance to us all. While I will deeply miss spending all that time with Sam, we'll have more time together as a family, and we'll be making more money. I'd call that a good shift.

2. I found 2 pairs of fabulous, butt-tastic (to me this means butt-minimizing) jeans in one brief shopping trip! Can you imagine?? I can finally retire the shredded, stained pairs I'd been sporting.

3. Our new coffeemaker - top rated on Consumer Reports (you know I do my homework). Sells for between 80 and 100, we got it for $64. Our old one was just a wreck. Isn't our new one all classy and fine?

4. We decided to finally buy the mother of all small kitchen appliances - the Kitchen Aid stand mixer. It was always on the fringes of my cooking consciousness, and it remained there because of the $300+ price tag and the fact that I don't bake very much. When trusty cooking types told me that it was oh-so-much-more than a baking tool, I paid more attention.

Tim was always a fan, I'm guessing because it's got wattage being cranked out by like an engine or something, so he didn't need convincing. I also suspect that he's thinking he'll get more home made desserts this way. Maybe, but more importantly, I'm fascinated by the dough hook for my pizza and bread.

But you know me, I can't spend the typical going rate. To do so would probably make me break out in hives. So we started watching. The 325-watt Artisan series seemed to suit our needs and is very well rated, and occasionally, Amazon runs specials for $249 or even as low as $229, but only on the basic colors - black, red, white. So we kept on. At the moment, my favorite color is Boysenberry, but that never goes on sale. Sigh. Note that a nice color is important to me because it would have to sit out on our counter top - I have no convenient place to store it. Black would be ok, but just ok, not sassy and sexy. You know? Yea.

Yesterday we were in Binghamton. We went to Kohls (were I found the jeans, by the way), and they were having a CLOSEOUT on the Kitchen Aid Artisan series mixer in Cobalt. I like Cobalt, but it wasn't my favorite, but the closeout price of $179 was making it my total fave. Then, to our disappointment, they didn't have any left. We offered to take the floor model (for an additional 10% off), but when they couldn't find the box and the paddle and whisk, we said never mind.

After we got home, we decided to find out if they could check other stores for the same deal. The Kohls in Horseheads has one sealed in a box, and they are shipping it to Binghamton. When it arrives, it is being set aside for us and we'll be able to pick it up for $179...but there's more good news...Kitchen Aid is offering a $30 manufacturer rebate until March. Yep. ONE FITTY is my final price. I love it. Like Jill would say, "I win."

So when I get the thing, I'll post a pic of it in its new home, and I'll tell you all about my first experiments with it.

Transcribing is not that bad

If the alternative was sliding down a razor banister.

Honestly. This part of my thesis is making me climb the walls. It's just the tedious data entry part which I wish I'd paid someone to do. I could have planned ahead, surely, but you see, most of my academic life has been a cycle of extreme motivation to extreme laissez-faire, knowing that in the end, a trance-like state of brilliance will settle in for a few days and it all ends up stellar. It has worked for nearly twenty years of education, so it's a hard habit to break.

Not that I don't know better - on the contrary, what I might accomplish with a more steady stream of focus and planning would be nothing short of revolutionary. It's just too scary, which is why I don't go there. The world isn't ready. And besides, it's no fun that way. It's more fun to see what you can create under extreme conditions, and honestly, it's how I get my kicks these days.

The trance begins to creep in about 10 days before...ideas and observations start swirling around while I'm showering, cooking, driving, blogging. I remind myself to remember them. I get scared I won't. I tell myself I need to carry my voice recorder around. I don't. Sometimes I scribble them down somewhere, only to forget where later. I have bursts of confidence and bursts of panic. I think I might be a genius or a fool. Or a phony.

I waste hours with false starts. Sit, stare at the computer. Click open a document. Close it. Later. Tomorrow is a better day. The trance is still thin.

It thickens tomorrow, and next week it will be a fog. I might not remember if I talk to you. Or, I might say something tactless. Or I might be nice to you and curse your existence later. It's only my auto-pilot, and she is still in training. I'm somewhere else for a while, but I'll come out of it in just a couple of weeks. Then I'll realize that I was a major tool about this whole thing and we can both mock me. Promise.

Hall of Fame

Thursday evening we took Sam to O-State's community Halloween event - they invite local families to a kids oriented carnival and then escort them through a number of residence halls for trick or treating. Since Tim and I are obviously familiar with campus, we went off on our own, unescorted. We're crazy like that.

I wanted to visit Ford Hall, where I was the director from 1999-2001. It was renovated shortly after I left (that's always the way it goes), and I was curious about the changes. Apparently we were the first family there; as we approached the entrance, a group of students showered us with attention. They discussed who would escort us around, and were having some difficulty deciding on the best route. "Should I tell them?" I asked Tim. He just shrugged. I cleared my throat, "I used to be the hall director here, I know my way around - we can go on our own." Blank stares. A half nod in the back. I think someone said, "Aw." Aw? That's it?? Did they hear me right? I was once virtually Numero Uno in this place...hello? Don't you want to know about all the stories and wisdom and observations I have to impart on you? Why are you not all buzzing around me?

A bespectacled girl came forward and preceded to lead our way. She was pleasant enough, but I wondered...is she just waiting to get me away from the group to ask me all about my past tenure?

I made observations as we walked through the building. The layout was actually a little more complex than I remembered, but of course I didn't admit that. Shh. I asked her if she was a Resident Assistant in the building, hoping to flatter her, to make her feel like it was now ok for her to show her regard for me..."Nope. Hall Government." She chirped happily, and went on to explain how Hall Government helps to plan out the event. As if this was new information to me.
"The sisal on the wall is nice." I said. Wow, at least Sam is having a good time.

We went down another level and she announced the ground floor. "Ah, the Pit," I said knowingly, "or as Res Life would like us to say, the Garden Level." Silence. Come on, that was funny. Tim? Nothing. E tu, Sam? Ugh.

On our way back up I pointed out that they'd re-treaded the stairs. "Really?" she said flatly. I suppose that wasn't so impressive to her. But they really did look better.

Sam did a great job - he said trick or treat and thank you to most of the students, but toward the end, he was more interested in his bounty than making his way out of the building with us.

We thanked spectacles. Oh look, new carpet in the lounge. Sigh.

Back in the car Tim asked me what's wrong with me. That's the dumbest question, isn't it? Nothing and everything, clearly. "Re-treaded stairs, Cristina? Really? Who points that out? Do you think they care?" OK, so maybe he had a point. We laughed. Maybe if I put myself in their shoes, I wouldn't be awestruck by some old dorky director popping in either, as if they were a celebrity. But for a few minutes, I thought maybe, just maybe, I had some kind of a mystical legacy to the residents of a coed state dorm. Everyone wants to be a little bit famous in their own circles.