The Last Precious Day of Break

It's cool and rainy out this morning, and I can see already that my to-do list is in trouble. An advisee e-mailed me looking for a ride back to campus at a time that interrupts my afternoon plans and just adds to my car time ... but her mom has no car and I know I am going to help her out. So no point fussing about that. It's 9:20 a.m. and I have

• done laundry
• dropped off the clothes donations
  
• done the dishes
• been to the supermarket
• scanned an article for my students and e-mailed it to the one person who asked

We are attempting to meet the challenge of throwing out or donating 50 items (per family member), partly sparked by the imminent arrival of the puppy, partly by an overwhelming sense of encroaching STUFF, and partly because our current school housing situation is such that we could, as is always the case, be asked to move in June. I helped D#1 with this endeavor last night and she has set the standard with 92 items pitched, donated, or handed on to her sister. I'm up to 45 items myself, and have not even begun to look at books yet. We are at that dreadful stage in the life of a family when we really could begin to get rid of all of our picture books, and this makes me sad.

We spent the bulk of the weekend working at the Masters' Meet at Harvard. This is a huge fundraiser for our team and a really terrific opportunity for the kids to see that swimming can be a lifelong engagement. We saw a number of records set, the usual heroes swimming the 500 free as the 500 fly, and I ran into a high school classmate who paid me the ultimate compliment by recognizing me on the pool deck after having not laid eyes on me in 30 years.

I did get the last of the Red Sox traveling scarves into the mail last week and am awaiting the return of my own. I'm using some lovely Malabrigo worsted to make a hat for a colleague (she picked out the colorway, a springy turquoise) and might even be done with that today if all goes well. Then it'll be back to the rest of the UFOs.

We go back to school tomorrow, and will be immediately plunged into the frantic pace of the spring semester. Fortunately I have only 5 more night classes and will be free of that commitment during the busiest time at my other school. Both places are facing financial cutbacks and restrictions; the past couple of weeks have been a nice break from the institutional worry. My major accomplishment over break, though, has been returning to the kitchen. It's really hard to manage that during the academic year and we need to figure that out a little better. Chocolate may be a food group but pizza really ought not to be.

Red of Surviving Grady had a great idea for today (one week to Opening Day). You don't have to go there, although I would usually encourage you to do so, because I'm blatantly stealing it.

Coming Soon ...

She's between 5 and 6 months old, probably a dachshund/terrier mix, and was rescued on a busy street somewhere in Arkansas. She weighs 18 lbs (she is smaller than Sirius). She'll be here next Saturday.

O, the furnace is dead ....

so we went to the Smith College Spring Flower Show, where it was nice and warm.

My sweetie has a new camera

Dobby.

A clever chipmunk.



He may have the cool new camera, but I did make the bread ... Jamie Oliver's Basic Bread Recipe from Happy Days with the Naked Chef ...

Off to London and I Miss Her Already

and I'm watching her flight on FlightView Live --what is that going to accomplish, really? Still, it makes me feel better. My big plan was that we would be silly in the airport so she wouldn't have a chance to get teary (while she's excited about this trip, this is a child, remember, who never wanted to go to overnight camp--she's gone away twice with her class, for one and three nights, but that's it).

So I gave D#2 a pair of sparkly gold pompoms and she immediately went into a very energetic and polished cheerleader act. The British Airways desk agent said it was a first for her, and D#1 said "Oh my God, Mom," which seemed quite promising --and in fact she hung in there and did NOT get teary until she got into the line to go through security. So her father and I held up our Bon Voyage signs and her sister waved pompoms ... and then we fled. I'm not even sure I said goodbye to my parents. I did not cry til we were out of the airport.

Our recent Netflix fare:

Get Smart (many stars from D#1, and R even grudgingly admitted that they hadn't ruined his memory of the tv show)
Charlie Wilson's War
Body of Lies
National Treasure 1 and 2
Finding Neverland
3:10 to Yuma
It Could Happen to You
Hoodwinked
Pirates of the Caribbean (all 3)
Encounters at the End of the World
The Dark Knight
Good Night and Good Luck
Elizabeth
The Bourne Ultimatum

You can see that my spouse and I never get to the theater ... and that I'm trying to find ways to combat the Hannah Montana craze. Mostly unsuccessfully, I might add.

Knitting? Yes. I have frogged the traveling scarf now four times, I think -- but the end of my section is in sight. Am on to the second of my plain vanilla purple socks... and am contemplating the rescue of some UFOs. I'm still on break, after all.

I have written a huge note on the easel in the front hall so maybe I won't forget to go teach my evening class tomorrow. Mary Peters is on tap, and I'd hate to miss that conversation.

They're at 37,000 feet and 588 mph. I don't think I'll watch the flight all the way to Heathrow, but I'll never tell.

Six O'Clock, and All's Well

• I am on duty, but there are only 4 girls sleeping here tonight and I don't expect to be here late. My colleague's cats are keeping me company, though, and it's all very congenial.
• One of my colleagues is a 3 year breast cancer survivor; the therapy destroyed all of her eggs but even so she has been trying for all of those 3 years to have a baby, and she's just had a positive pregnancy test!
  
• I got a reappointment letter today, final confirmation that I do indeed have a job for next year.
• D#2's mummers' play performance is next week.
  
• There was warm sunshine this afternoon, and the snow is almost all gone. What's next, daffodils??
• D#1 is about to go traveling ...
  
• Knitting, on both the swim meet socks and the traveling scarf, proceeds apace.
• I have some very vacation-y things planned for tomorrow and may even finish the day with a workshop at Stitch House. Of course, I may go to bed at 7 p.m. instead ...
• Aside from my evening class next Thursday (only 6 of those left), I don't have to teach again until March 31st.
  

Springing Forward

Today we were all as if run over by a truck. The girls slept relatively late and they & I stayed in our pjs til quite late in the day. Late nights and all ... D#1 with a sleepover and a snow-tubing party earlier in the weekend, D#2 up late with her sitter last night, me arriving home at midnight/1 a.m. from yet another swim meet (school-related this time rather than an event featuring my own personal child) ... it was an emotional experience, as one of my favorite students is a senior and this was his last high school meet. I got there in time to see him swim his last 2 events, and he did very well.

Lest you think we didn't have sufficient chlorine this weekend, we did go to see a couple of D#1's teammates (and some of my students) swim in the 13 and up championships at MIT this afternoon. I cast on for some swim meet socks (Ravelry link) on the long bus ride yesterday, as I was afraid to take the traveling scarf out of the house, and my own Noro scarf has gotten so long that it would have been cumbersome indeed in that setting.

We had, I thought, a good time at the championship meet today. But as we left, my companion got very silent and white in the face. When queried, of course she said that nothing was wrong. Not being an idiot, I could discern the lack of truth in this statement. In the hours since, neither her father nor I have been allowed to know what it was that upset her so... but she has also taken little trouble to hide her distress. As a result, I'm worrying more about the difficult task of parenting an adolescent; we're venturing further down this road every day. One minute she looks like my little girl and the next minute I can see the teenager looking out of her eyes; I've said before and will probably say again that it reminds me a little of the 2's, all the pushing away and then clinging as closely as possible. It's hard to know how much so-called rope to give, and where, in these muddled times, it makes sense to hold the line absolutely. I wish so much that she might be able to learn from my mistakes and her father's difficult adolescence but it's quite clear to me that she's going to walk her own path & make her own painful mistakes, do what we will. And my other child is so different from the first that nothing we learn this time will be the slightest use.

I need to make it through four more days til break. Maybe this will look a little sunnier from the vacation mindset?