Some of Us Have Been Reading Upside Down for an Hour

So I am expanding my menagerie repertoire (pronounced in a snooty, French-y, tone) of students and now have an adult in the mix.  With the chitlins, I sit next to them while they read.  With this one, I, of course, sit across the table.  Which means I follow along upside down during the reading.  Which makes for a very interesting hour.  I'm getting really good.  If anyone wants to recruit me for like, the CIA, just let me know.  Hopefully they pay better.

Here was the progression of my day, post K-8 school chaos work:

Lunch with SJ!  Mexican food, my spicy lover!

I would just like to say that I don't, in fact, have 2 inches of tar black roots in my hair.  That's the lighting.

Since I downed my last DDP last night, an emergency trip to Sonic was necessary before an afternoon of tutoring.  Miracle!  I managed to get about an hour's worth of research done in between sessions!  I may just pass after all.

And right before my last sesh tonight (below).  Please note the progression of caffeinated beverages.  Please also note that I will be cursing myself as I'm laying awake until like 3:00 a.m.  Why am I my worst enemy?  Why do I not just acknowledge that I am no longer 22 years old?

BUT!  Look what I found tonight!  Impulse buy and it was totally worth it!

I ran into Barnes & Noble to use a 20% off coupon (got Kingsolver's The Bean Trees for $5.00!) and saw this at the cash register.  I am so not an impulse-buy-type, but whatevs!  I snatched this puppy up and got a different one for G!  I will now crack up every single time I open my book. #howtosurvivegradschool

And with that?  Monday's over!

The Next Best Thing

Well, it's Sunday night and I'm sipping the last Diet Dr. Pepper I can find in the fridge, and I'm 15 pages from finishing the next Cather novel for class. 

It has been a good weekend.  If you subtract the homework, the errands, the chores and the stress about Lucy, it would have been the perfect weekend.  But I'll settle for the next best thing.

Lucifer is on the mend!  Blockage gone - fluids done - back to normal!  G and I have slept the sleep of the dead this weekend and I think we'll pull through.

I am thankful for my little family.

Back in business with her buddy.

G has a photo app on his phone that creates comic book looking pictures.  This one is from our forced slumber party in the living room with Lucy - during the 45 minute chunks of time we were able to sleep.  On the furniture.  With the light on.  In case you're wondering, yes, I am sleeping on ottomans shoved together in front of the loveseat.

Gone are the days of road trips with Orca, but this one is coming along, begrudgingly.  One of these days, Lucy.  One of these days.

Two of my favorite things...(no, he's not resting the cup on her head, it just looks like that).

In between tutoring prep for the week and bonding with Willa, I darted out of the house for a sushi date with one of my K-8 school peeps.  It has been way. too. long. since I've had sushi and it was time. Hot night roll!  Spicy tuna and jalapenos are my culinary lovers!  It was divine!  G avoided me the rest of the night on principle.  He retreated to his X Box and I retreated to Willa.

We shared this plate but I could have easily downed the entire thing on my own.  In the bottom pic you can see the golden mussels in the background.  It was so good there are no words.

What else?  I didn't quite reach all my April goals and here we are almost in May.  But that's OK.  I finally got myself back into a church; started exercising semi-sort-of-almost-regularly; started on yard word with G (posts to come!); got out and explored (Nebraska!); registered for summer and fall; complete with ordered books; and procrastination on my final research paper is in full swing. 

Only 5 more weeks of work at the K-8 school and then it's 24/7 sleep for this girl (reference comic book picture up above).  Then the fall semester will start and all academic hell will break loose.

Here's to Monday morning!  Hold on while I fill up the Keurig...

TGIF, people!

(P.S. It looks like we are in the clear with Lucy Loo, who sets things askew.  Her digestive system is back on track and we are back at work.  We have to take her to the vet for the next couple of days so she can get extra fluids - like a bunny IV - but she is back to her frisky self.  W-H-E-W.  If you need us, we'll be asleep.)

The Night Shift (or: Florence Nightenbun) (or: Pass the Coffee Pronto)

Well, peeps, we are exhausted.

Guess who was up all night with this one?

Yesterday morning after I left for work, G noticed that Lucy was acting strange, like she couldn't get comfortable.  Immediately he knew that something was wrong. 

The thing about rabbits, and I probably mentioned this before with the little old lady Orca, is that any time anything shifts in their behavior or their routine, it is a sign that something is wrong.  Due to a rabbit's small size and high metabolism, things tend to go wrong much more quickly than in bigger animals or in humans.  We might go through a few hours of discomfort before things get real.  For a rabbit (read: and the rabbit's owners) that *&%$ gets real fast.

G spent the entire day in the vet's office yesterday.  They ran a series of tests and did X-rays that showed she had mild GI Stasis - which means something was blocking her digestive system.  Most likely a piece of something from her bag of crap she loves to play with.

They hydrated her and gave her special food - and even did bunny acupuncture, I kid you not - and then sent her home with strict instructions to force feed her throughout the night.  Every hour on the hour.  The rabbit who won't let us touch her, move her, or even come close to picking her up.

That was fun. 

Especially around 3:30 a.m.

Step One: We have to completely dismantle her cage and force her carrier down into it.  Then G has to wrangle her into the carrier.

Step Two: I manhandle her while he force feeds her.  We do this in very small increments so she won't bolt or have some sort of bunny aneurysm.  Because we take so many mini-breaks, it takes us about 15 minutes to feed her.

None of us enjoy this process.

Step Three:  Re-assemble her cage.  Then line up the carrier with her cage door so that she can scramble as soon as it's unzipped.  G will most likely divorce me for posting this pic.  It was taken around 5:30 this morning - I think it was our 8th forced feeding.

Step Four:  Lucy dives into her cage and gives G the look of death from atop her toilet.  Rabbits aren't very dignified.

Then she frams around in her cage while G and I crash in the living room.

An hour later it starts again.

It occurs to me that this is reason #345,987,324 why we don't have children.  Newborns?  Doing this every night?  How is that even possible?

We both had to call in to work this morning because she has to be observed for a few more hours, and I'm trying to drink enough coffee to enable me to go to class and tutoring this afternoon.  This is so coming out of her allowance...

Thank God and the Heavenly Host that tomorrow is Friday.  We are going to sleep all weekend. 

Why Croatia?

In our day to day chaos (which is - and I'm not over exaggerating here - substantial) I forget that our big vacation is right around the corner.  Every now and then when it comes up in conversation, I've discovered that people have a similar reaction to our plans to visit Croatia as they had when we were planning to go to Africa.  Which is to say largely noncommittal and just this side of tactless.  Things like, "Croatia!  Oh!...why?  I mean, what made you decide to go there?  I mean,...why?"

Reason #1: The Adriatic and the architecture

In the past few years we have been very lucky to see some exotic places.  We knew we were in a unique position to knock off some big locations and we tried to be as strategic as possible in going to (1) Africa, and (2) Asia.  In the months before making my big career change, we brainstormed one more big vacation.  At first, it was going to be Alaska, until we realized that the "best" time for us to go would be the beginning of the fall semester, and I was hoping to be teaching at that point (yayayayay!).

Reason #2: Roman Ruins

So we thought.

And thought.

Japan?  If we go there we want to see the cherry blossoms and they bloom when I'm in school, so that's out.  Australia?  We would need two weeks off at a minimum, and that's not doable right now.  Plus, another super duper extremely long international flight?  No thanks.  My knees and neck are still recovering from last summer.  Then we thought about Europe.  Not just Europe - what about Eastern Europe?  Russia?  Not enough time.

Reason #3:  The nude beaches!  (I kid.)  (But yeah, they're nude.)

That's when we both started to recall every cool picture we've ever seen about Croatia.  It's beautiful and temperate and inexpensive and thriving in the time period we would be able to visit.  We could bookend the trip with Germany.  It was within the budget for one last (hopefully second-or-third-to-last) vacation hoorah.

Done and done.

Then we started researching it and realized that it has a ton of in-tact Roman ruins, including a fully functional Colosseum that still hosts concerts and performances.  We picked some deluxe hotels.  We decided to opt out of private cars or rental cars; we are gonna bus it across the country.

And it's only a few weeks away!

Need I say more?

Get ready, Croatia!  Cuz here we come!

Snapshots of an Easter Sunday

Where Did My Saturday Go?

I tell you, the weekends are passing quicker than ever.  It's very hard to deal with.  Also?  Where did the month of April go?  I'm caught between a rock and a bunny place because I want the next few weeks to pass quickly so that school will be out for summer and I can sleep for a thousand years.  BUT!  I don't want time to pass quickly because I still need to write a honkin' research paper which involves, you know, the honkin' research piece, and I'm like so over school work at this point.

BFF's

On Friday I hosted the Happy Meal Slash Cupcake Lunch with my little buddies at the K-8 school.  Do you know that I don't think I have ever before in my life spent TWENTY EIGHT DOLLARS at McDonald's??  Anyhoo, eating with 6 little kids is something akin to one of the Biblical plagues.  Locusts come to mind.  They had a great time though.

Pharaoh Pharaoh, let my people go.

I'm not one to criticize the weekend, like ever, but I feel like I didn't really get a Saturday.  It started with our Meals on Wheels route - which is a fantastic program - that took about 18 years this morning.  Then I got the gray covered up my hair done.  Then I had to work on the endless homework and reading that is now my life.

BUT!  THEN!  Season 2 started of the best show ever ever ever!

Source

Did I tell you that I have a new student to tutor?  I'm up to four!  AND I got a call about tutoring 2 additional students this summer.  And I got all the information about being a TA in the fall, which involves taking an additional class (on top of the class I'm already registering for AND on top of teaching). We just may be able to afford to eat after all.  Too bad I won't have the time.  It's a great weight loss plan though. 

Time to read some more. 

Enjoy Easter tomorrow, peeps!  There's still time to purchase this little bunny for your kids!  Free shipping to a good any home!

Just try to put me in a frilly basket.  I dare you.

TGIF, people!

Summer Reading List?

So I'm thinking of creating a summer reading list for myself.  I mainly want to feel justified for laying around the house all today in my pj's and I figure that if there's some kind of list to be checked off, everyone will know that I'm being productive.  In actuality, my summer break is only going to be about 8 weeks, but I'm thinking on top of grad class and tutoring, I can knock out at least 15 books or so (this is only because my class isn't heavy on the reading side).

Here's what I'm thinking.  I need your feedback and suggestions.

* The Bean Trees and Flight Behavior by Barbara Kingsolver

* O Pioneers and Collected Stories by Willa Cather

*  Little Britches by Ralph Moody (<----------- thanks, Rapper L)

* Paper Towns by John Green

* Bossy Pants by Tina Fey

What else?  I'm open to any books of any kind!  Be a pal and help me out because after summer I won't have another spare minute to read for fun...

It worked!

I promise I'll stop talking about the Nebraska trip soon.  But!  I had an idea in mind and it worked!

While staying at Willa's old home, I implored her to help me with my paper rewrite.  While laying in bed and thumbing through Song of the Lark for the millionth time, I was all, "Willa?  You gotta throw me a bone here.  I'm in podunk Nebraska, sleeping in your brother's room for heaven's sake.  The least you can do is send a sister some ideas.  Also?  Your town could use a Starbucks.  Just sayin."

I finished the paper rewrite today!  Hallelujah and hallelujah!  I plan on throwing it at the instructor on Thursday - I'm that over it.

No rest for the weary, though.  On to the annotated bibliography and work for the final research paper.  In addition to reading additional books for class. 

But anyhoo.

We had a marvelous steak dinner in Omaha (when in Rome) and celebrated (1) a weekend away!, (2) my TA position!, and (3) no homework or responsibilities for three straight days.  Did I mention it was marvelous?  :)

OK, We've Seen Nebraska.

Lucy looked mildly interested when we got home tonight.  Mildly.

It's safe to say we've seen Nebraska.  There are like 4 cows for every person.  And it smells like it.

We started the day off with coffee and granola bars from - you guessed it - the gas station.  We ate in the car in front of the Willa Cather Foundation, like a couple of geriatrics.

Then we took the Cather tour, which was so interesting!  (Which is to say that G sat in the car and read his miniature killing machines man doll magazines while I tromped all over creation in the frigid temperatures with the guide.)

The Second home of the Cathers - the B&B where we stayed last night.

Willa Cather's writing desk!

Her childhood room, which is featured in Song of the Lark.

Her original house - the family didn't move until well into her adulthood when she was living in Pittsburgh then New York City.  We have on approximately 400,000 layers, it was so cold.

The train depot was a crucial place, right in the middle of the path from Denver to Omaha.  As you can see, they even sent coffins via trains back then.

What a great weekend!  What a great chance to get away!  Now we just need to check off Cheyenne, Salt Lake City, Las Vegas, Seattle, Vail, etc.

My goal for this week is to rewrite that dang paper, or die trying.