The Presidential Effect

Happy Halloween!

I've been dealing with things far more scary and monstrous than those that go bump in the night.

You know the presidential effect? How, as soon as a newly inaugurated leader is in place, he goes gray, wrinkled, and ages about 3 decades?

Welcome to my life. Not that I'm president or anything, but I'm juggling more responsibility than I have in a couple of years, and it's catching up with me.

G and I had an actual date night last week and I noticed the horror.

Bags. Under my eyes. Like, permanently.

This is in addition to what may or may not be an actual patch of gray hair that I found. Like, Cruella DeVille style. Things, they are starting to fall apart. I blame it on all the stress of grading, which has taken over my life.

I have graded (for my class and the side job) off and on since 5:30 this morning. I'm about halfway done.

It's sad when I take a break from grading and move on to a different kind of grading. I'm so tired of looking at papers. I'm so tired of writing them, too.

But! We get an extra hour this weekend! Blessings upon blessings! G asked me if I had marked it in my planner so that I would know to expect extra sleep. I didn't need to mark it. I will always, always remember when I can expect an extra hour of sleep. Silly man.

OK, enough procrastinating. Frankenstein is on TV. Lucy is camped out on her good will pants. And G is painting his man dolls. Time to grab another stack of papers.

TGIF, people!

Perhaps, If We Cleaned...

Over the past couple of weeks, as the weather has (FINALLY! THANK GOD IN HEAVEN!) cooled down, I've made the pleasant discovery that a few pairs of my pants are now too big (FINALLY! THANK GOD IN HEAVEN!).

Like, big enough that I can pull them on and off while they are fully fastened and zipped. So, it's time they go to good will.

Don't ask me how this happened, because it might reveal that we live like animals around here, but a pair of my now-too-big pants ended up on the living room floor instead of the good will pile, and Lucy has claimed them.

Like, really claimed them.

She spends time grooming them and laying around on them. She eyes them adoringly from her cage. And because I'm a total pushover, I don't have the heart to toss them into the good will pile. 

So, the dishes are piled up in the sink, spilling over onto the counter. G has been sneaking his dorky nerdy hobby paint stuff slowly into the living room, counting on the fact that I'm too exhausted to really put up a fight about it right now. Lucy has claimed her pile of old clothes on the floor. And I still haven't unpacked my suitcase from Vegas. I'd like to cook eggs for breakfast but I don't want to clean the pan. All my casual clothes are dirty, so I'm going to have to dress up and look nice today.

I'll give you all my King Sooper's coupons if you'll come over and tidy up. And by 'tidy up' I mean overhaul the house. Thanks.

The Best Lit Society Without a Book EVAHHHH

Last night we had Lit Society without the Lit part, because yours truly can't get it together enough to read another book. It just hasn't happened the last couple of months, so Frasier and Niles are a little less...literary than usual.

But that's OK because guess what! Nat King Cole and Chef Campo got a kitten! A furry baby cuddly warm little ball of lovey dovey goodness!

I was in complete and total heaven. In one night I managed to catch up on the amount of lovin's that Lucy should have been giving me since we brought her home from the Dumb Friends League years ago. He is the sweetest little thing ever.

I did manage to put him down long enough to stick my face into Chef Campo's homemade red curry. I ask you, could it get any better than this? As we were oohing and ahhing and stuffing our faces, Nat King Cole goes, "This is the best way to eat vegetables." Agreed.

Speaking of Nat King Cole, she's presenting in my class again today. I've basically outsourced my life to her family. She teaches my class; she watches Lucy while we're gone for the weekend; Chef Campo cooks me meals; and they give me this to love on!

For the Record

After teaching a class yesterday, I was packing up my stuff (<-- I look like a Sherpa at all times because I carry my life on my back because I'm always on campus or at work and I'm never home.) and a student came up to me.

I figured she was going to ask a question about their next big writing assignment, but instead, she said: "I just want you to know that I was dreading this class so much. I dreaded it all summer. And I love it. Like, it's one of my favorite classes and I've learned so much. I just wanted to tell you."

Hold on while the clouds part and the angels sing us a heavenly tune.

That was a nice ego boost. It's nice to know that students are getting something out of this. It's hard to stand up in front of 25 of them every morning, looking like they'd rather be asleep or, say, undergoing water torture rather than learning about visual analysis.

Also? Fall is here!

Nat King Cole is a guest speaker in my class today and tomorrow. I plan on bringing a frothy beverage and just kicking back. Let her handle these cray crays while Bunny Momma takes a break...

Catching Up, Hawaii Style

Last night I got to catch up with my main peep from Hawaii!

She's in town for a conference and basically spent the entire dinner convincing us to make another trip out there. OK! Arm officially twisted!

So, now we're up to our eyeballs in Macadamia Nuts, and talking seriously about our next trip to the tropics.

Can I borrow a million dollars? Thanks.

It Depends What You Mean By "Lazy"

Yesterday was glorious, people.

I did, in fact, stay in my pj's all day.

Room Service in Vegas. So glorious.

The Hogs beat Auburn in the 4th overtime. I got about half of my papers graded. Managed to fit in a 3-hr nap. Life is good.

It occurs to me, though, when I try to describe yesterday as lazy, that is not the right word. Here's how it went down:

7:00 a.m. - noon: Graded papers for my side job (<--- had a lot to catch up on bc of Vegas)

12:00 p.m. - 1:00 p.m.: Break for lunch/Catch up on The Good Wife

1:00 p.m. - 5:00 p.m.: Camp out with heating pad (per the masseuse) and prep for a Woolf essay/read for American Lit/nap

5:00 p.m. - 10:00 p.m.: Grade for my own classes (<-- almost finished one. Still have one more to go.)

10:00 p.m.: Start new Woolf book in bed/drift off to sleep

So, 'lazy' is perhaps a misnomer.

This is lazy:

That is her BFF. They are inseparable.

This morning's agenda consists solely of a Woolf essay. I'm making myself do it before I'm allowed (allowed! so sick!) to grade any more papers or clean up around the house.

I'll give you all my King Sooper's coupons to come write this thing for me. Don't even knock. Just come right in.

Pliable

Remember when I got my first massage back in the summer? And I was so impressed that I scheduled another appointment for mid-semester?

That appointment was yesterday.

When I scheduled this appointment (back in August) the intent was to motivate myself to work out during the semester.

I'll pause while you have a good laugh.

Go ahead, really.

Since I haven't been working out, I thought that I don't really "need" a massage. But I was wrong. (1) I (everyone?) hold a lot of stress within my body, which causes lactic acid build up in knots all along my back, (2) Massages are good not only for relieving physical stress, but mental stress as well. So, I went for it. And I'm really glad.

I tell you, that was the most relaxing and quickest 80 minutes of my life. Swedish Massages FTW. I went to my mental travel happy place and became clay in the hands of the potter. It was magnificent and I am hooked. I never in a million years would have guessed I would be such a massage fan, but live and learn. I am!

Because Loo Loo Bean has refused to go back in her cage at night, and I've ended up sleeping on the couch, I've had the worst pain ever in my neck. The masseuse spent extra time on that and gave me advice about what to do the next couple of days to help elongate that tendon and relieve the pain. !!!!

So, I scheduled another appointment for mid-semester next year! I've decided that a massage every three months or so is just what this bunny momma needs.

I'm sitting here drinking my coffee and realllllly looking forward to the glorious Saturday before me. No plans. We're not leaving the house and I most likely won't get out of my pj's. I've got so much homework and grading to do that I'll probably alternate between tasks and cleaning all day. And I'm fine with that. :)

Happy Saturday!

Where is My Buffet?

I'll give you all my King Sooper's coupons if you'll take me back to Vegas. (<-- I no longer have $1,000 to offer you.)

I have the worst pain ever in my neck because I've spent the last two nights sleeping on the couch because this one refuses to go back into her cage once we let her out. She's mad that she was stuck in there all weekend while we were gone (Auntie Cole took care of her) and so she's letting us know. About her anger and rage. Because she's entitled.

It's like living with a furry toddler. I don't trust her at all to be out at night by herself, so I camp out down there and overload my system with Ibuprofen throughout the day.

The view from my "bed":

I got up at 5:00 this morning - despite the cozy and delicious rain falling outside - to clean and organize the house. Where is my house keeping staff? Where is room service? Where is my Krispy Kreme deliciousness and my Cirque du Soleil show?

How did I end up back here, doing homework and grading endless papers?

Wife of the Year, Husband of the Month

I took advantage of my Wife of the Year status and forced G into seeing a Cirque du Soleil show with me. Oh. My. Gosh. I'd heard they were amazing, but I had no idea how amazing. I would go see them again in a heartbeat.

We saw KA, the story of an epic battle. Since the theme is right up G's alley, he only gets the designation of Husband of the Month. Because I spent all day in the Nevada desert watching airplanes, my status remains Wife of the Year.

All I'm saying is wow. The set was incredible! The performers flew (literally) all over the place and took advantage of all the space, horizontally, vertically, out into the audience...

OK, back to real life. Time to eat like a human instead of a rabid beast. It's gonna be a rough week.

The Fastest Motor Sport in the World

So, the reason for the Vegas trip was to watch the qualifying trials for the Red Bull Air Race. Have you seen this? These guys are Master Class pilots and they fly a series of races against each other all over the world. Vegas is their American stop on the tour. They fly through a maze of pylons and the race is decided for time. They go an average of 230 mph in these like acrobatic planes and zoom all over the place.

You can guess whose idea it was to go to this.

We were at the Las Vegas Speed Motorway all day yesterday. All day. Watching planes.

Wife of the year, right here, people.

The course was beautiful, though. Take a look at that mountain backdrop.

We got to walk on the speedway track (this is where they do NASCAR races, too). The course is crazy slanted so that the cars can stay on it at high speed.

Things got a little cray cray.

This is the podium where they'll announce the winner of today's race. I was looking around for all the bottles of champagne but I guess they don't put them out this early. :)

It was a really cool thing to see, all those planes racing, all the people out to watch. The day was gorgeous and so were the mountains. The air force had a few fighter jets patrolling the area, and Red Bull sponsored a series of air tricks in between the events.

There were sky divers and "winged" flyers and the only helicopter pilot in the country who can do this:

Not a bad way to spend the day. No homework, no grading, no reading, no note taking.

G took 400 pictures and tried to get me to look through them last night before we hit up a show. Hahahahahaha. So funny. No. I was like, "I'M NOT LOOKING THROUGH ALL THOSE PICTURES BECAUSE I WAS THERE, REMEMBER??????"

Then I forced him to go to Cirque de Soleil and it was fabulous. More later. The coffee is here and I need to sit and stare into space for an hour.

Vegas!

Hello from Sin City! Our kind of town for sure!

It's been about a decade since we took any fun trips of any kind. We actually planned this little getaway back in the summer when we were about to die of stress from trying to sell the VA house. We planned it for a specific purpose (more details soon) and I've been jumping through academic hoops of all kinds for the last two weeks so that I would be able to spend more than 24 hours NOT READING OR WRITING OR GRADING.

And we are livin' it up!

What happens in Vegas...

All those years of watching Top Chef have paid off!

Venice! No, the spoon is not sticking up my nose. G just made it look that way because he's super mature.

The Stereotypical Highlights So Far:

Casinos in the Airport

The Strip

New York New York

Paris

 

The Flamingo

 

The Mirage

The Casinos!

So, we don't gamble but man there's a lot to see in all these casinos. We probably walked 10 miles yesterday, just taking in the sights. Vegas has, like, no rules, and so people can walk around with their drinks, which makes for a lot of people watching opportunities.

The Buffets!

I'm gonna be up front and honest here. I paid more money for food at dinner last night than I usually do in a week. Also? I ate more in one meal than I usually do in two days. I'm just gonna be real. In my defense, I walked a thousand miles during the day, and, well, it's Vegas! One has to eat like a starving refugee! As I type this, there are 3 Krispy Kreme donuts staring at me from my bedside table. Oh, man, it's nice to be on vacation.

Plate #1

Plate #2

I had gelatto TWICE yesterday!

The Outrageous Shopping

I think everyone in the world has been to Vegas, except us. This is our first time! This is one of those places that you feel like you already know because it's portrayed so much on TV and in film. Everything is extreme and lavish and over the top here. So, we spent a lot of time walking around in the hotels, admiring the thematic architecture and all the shops.

 

The Grand Canal

Caesar's Palace

The Aria: Look at this enormous fall display! The leaves and acorns are made of glass and are just gorgeous. They hang from the high ceiling.

In the Excalibur with a view of New York New York behind us.

Do you love it or what??

 The Nightlife!

In order to make the first flight out of Denver yesterday, we were up at 4:00 a.m. Needless to say, after walking around and exploring all day, we were zonked. We took a nap before hitting the buffet and the strip yesterday, and still we were in bed by midnight. Not gonna lie, I may or may not have read some Virginia Woolf. But, remember! Reading her stuff doesn't feel like homework! So, it's all good.

Last night was the best sleep I've had in a long, long time. Who else can say that about Sin City? Time to hit those Krispy Kremes and get ready for the day!