Babysteps back into writing

Prior to the midglet's arrival, I spent hours of "free time" working on writing fiction. Mostly fantasy, with solid writing and weak plotting. Rereading some of it now, I still stand by individual scenes and characters, but the overall story-arcs give me pain.

Groan-worthy pain. Who-was-I-trying-to-fool pain.

Fortunately, I have a sense of humor about my own limitations, so after the pain comes laughter and head-shaking.

But in any case, after my "free time" became kid time, I convinced myself that I was a much better editor than I was a storyteller, so I might as well accept that the writer gig was never going to work out for me anyway, so I wasn't missing anything by just giving it up.

But lately?  Lately I'm feeling the twitch to write again.  I have new ideas in slightly different genres and I find myself playing around with character and plot in ways that I haven't in years.

So... I'm doing some research on a few topics - New England history and mythology mostly - and we'll see how it all meshes together over the next few months.

Regular Posting to Resume

I have seen the error of my ways. I will hereforth desist in posting lengthy updates on the Dooce Community and Facebook and Ravelry, and will instead attend faithfully to this long neglected Blog.

Yeah, sorry, I can't continue with that, even if it is April Fool's. Heh heh.

Here's the short version of life:

Work has gotten a lot crazier lately in a "be careful what you wish for" kind of way. It's good, and it means more job security, but it also means a lot less time for slacking off.

There is a definite element of being on the Life Merry-go-round these days... wake up, feed Zoe, shower, hand Zoe back and forth as we get ready to leave for work, drive to work, hustle through the day so we can leave by 4:30, pick up Zoe, drive home, make dinner and feed Zoe, eat, maybe watch a few episodes of something on Netflix, continue to feed Zoe until she passes out, pack up diapers and other morning gear, brush teeth, go to bed. Rinse. Repeat.

This weekend we're trying something ever so slightly different - driving to NJ for spring break with the in-laws. My parents are meeting us there and staying at a hotel with us, since the in-laws aren't really set up for hosting two adults & a bebe. It's the 2010 Grandparent Extravaganza! Should be fun, but I'm not really looking forward to the drive. Babies need more breaks than we big people do, ya know. Usually the drive takes about 6 hours with one or two stops. We're thinking it's going to be more like 8. Hours, not stops. I hope.

Anywho... just checking in again. Time to grab lunch and get back to work.

She lives!

Apparently pregnancy completely deletes my creative writing inclinations and abilities. Zoe Jeanne was born October 9, 2009... and is currently sleeping in her bassinet at my side.

Other than work-related reports and a few posts on Ravelry.com, I haven't written a thing since April. This will also be the first year I'm not even starting NaNo, though I am on maternity leave until December. Still, Zoe is not so much for leaving me chunks of time to write, and I'm already sleep-deprived because of the whole night feeding thing.

Anyway, just checking in to note that I am alive and kicking. I think I might try to revive the blog a bit more, if only to get back in the habit of writing regularly. Somehow Facebook updates don't fill quite the same niche. ;-)

Two months later...

Yeah, I dunno what happened to March and most of (okay, all of) April either.

I'm still here, still ticking along. Signed up for another week-long travel event at the end on June - but it's for a workshop I really wanted to attend, and it is only one trip, not four all squished together. It should be fine, I'm sure.

And if not, at least it will be interesting.

Also, it will be an important test run for the possible Salt Lake City trip in August. Jay has a conference there, and I would really like to accompany him, but not really sure how it's going to feel like traveling at that stage.

Anywho... I have actualy work to do today, so I better get to it.

February Shmebruary, and a note to male students

So I'm still not really back in the habit of regular posting yet. Who knows if I ever will be. I had a five day travel to Florida for a conference experience, quickly followed by rehearsals and then a performance of the Vagina Monologues, then poker night. By the time we got home on Friday the 13th, I was shaking so bad I was just about literally crying for sleep.

And this week I've been pretty lame. Had another late night on Tuesday, hosting an event to talk with students about advising at the college, and since then have just been coasting toward the weekend. Next week the students are all gone for winter break, and I am heading south to NYC to check in with my sisters. Yay!

Of course, then I get back from that and leave for another (more local) two day conference down in Nashua, NH (starts on my birthday, thanks a lot), but Jay will be at another conference in Massachusetts that weekend, so it's not like we would be enjoying the time together in any case. I get home from that on the 7th though, and then on the 10th, I leave for another conference in Saratoga Springs - where I will actually be presenting. Ack.

So, pretty much what I'm saying here is that the scarcity of posting looks like it won't let up for a while yet.

But you're used to it now, I'm sure. Heh heh.

And finally, a note to the college men who come to my office:

Please bathe. Regularly. With soap.

I will be more likely to spend lots of time with you and help out and let you use my computer if you don't smell like someone who has been sleeping in their own stench for weeks at a time.

If you smell like sour funk, don't be surprised when I suggest that you go look up the information about the college you might want to transfer to in your own room, and then come back when you have something more concrete. And after you have bathed.

That is all.

Pants on Fire

Or maybe not...

I think I just caught a coworker in a blatent lie that affects another former coworker.

But maybe she just has poor reading comprehension?

What to do, what to do?

Would feel better if I didn't suspect confrontation will end badly for me.

Don't want her to think I was checking up on her, even though I totally was.

Maybe I will wait a day and mention the "updated" rules to the organizer directly.

Hmm.

All's well

Dad finally went in for his bypass surgery - double bypass instead of the single that we expected - but he's doing well and will soon be driving all the nurses in the cardiac care unit completely insane. Mom is hoping they keep him in until Tuesday, but Dad want to be home for his birthday... He turns 70 on Saturday. Knowing my dad, he'll be home sooner rather than later.

In house-related news, we still haven't seen our furniture - the sofa and loveseat that were left behind at the factory by mistake (f**kers) - but we should have Internet access at home in two weeks. I had hoped for sooner, but apparently, despite what the provider told me, the guy who does the actual installation in our area does not work on Saturdays, so we have to wait until Jay can stay home on a week day.

Anyway, in light of the first paragraph, the gripes of the second are pretty damn minor, so I'm just gonna get back to work now and count my blessings, eh?

Lame. Weak.

Okay, so the title is actually a quote from one of my favorite South Park episodes, but it's also rather apt for the blog recently, non?

Last week was a little crazy - lots of 12 hour days at the office... the Board of Trustees came to visit and I had to help present on "Student Success Strategies". Went pretty well, I think. It was also the last week that students were able to drop classes or withdraw without receiving failing grades on their transcripts, so that kept me running around. Sometimes the only strategy for success is a timely retreat.

Next week I'll be in Massachusetts for a two-day planning meeting relating to a grant we're working on with 5 other New England colleges. Someone else is driving the van, so at least I'll have a few hours of knitting time along the way. And I get my very own hotel room - oooh aaaah. Right. In any case, I think it's a really neat project and I mostly enjoy the company of the people I'll be going with, so it's all to the good, I suppose.

At home I've been on caulk and spackle patrol. Hoping to get the "medieval" room ready for some paint. The walls are in such bad shape that I hate to expend the energy until we can afford to replace the drywall and maybe - I dunno - cover the subflooring? But I simply cannot live with the faux stonework, reddish-brown walls, and sky blue ceiling for much longer. I mean, could you? I thought not.

I'll try to remember to take before and after pics. Too bad we already took down the wall sconces and the dungeon door. (You only think I'm kidding here.)

Regardless, we still love the house bunches and bunches. Just needs some tweaking... and to stop leaking in the upstairs bathroom. But that's another story.

More blather

I know, I know. I'm tragically boring lately. So sue me.

I've decided that the one major benefit of not having a lot of furniture is not having to move it when painting and prying things off the walls.

Now if only I could find more time to work on my little projects around the house. This full time job thing really gets in the way. However, next weekend will be my last Saturday at the yarn shop, so at least I'll have 2 day weekends to play with.

Tomorrow, however, I'm heading out on the residential life's weekly bus trip. I'm going with one of the math profs (who is also in my poker circle) to Salem, MA. Just in time for Halloween, eh? All we have to do in regard to the students is to count heads when we get on the bus at the college, and then count heads in the evening before we leave Salem. Hopefully it will be as easy as it sounds.

I'm kind of looking forward to the change in scenery - especially since I don't have to drive and will be able to knit.

My painting plans will just have to wait a bit longer.

Gimping along

It's been a busy week. Of course, that might be obvious from the total lack of posting here...

I have finally seen all but about five of the students I'm supposed to be monitoring. I'm still monitoring them, of course, just not firsthand. But the things I hear... oy vey.

I stained the two windowpane end tables I bought from a local guy via Craigslist. We don't actually have a local list, but the one for Burlington covers the whole state more or less. Mostly less, unless you're in the Burlington or Montpelier areas. But in the process of sitting on the garage floor and staining them, I managed to throw out my back. Joy. So they are still waiting for the coat of polyurethane. But I am gimpified by the unexpected bursts of pain whenever I do something crazy... like twist from the waist.

My mom and the older of my baby sisters came up for a quick visit. They brought my old IKEA desk that I got when I was 12 - it's kind of beat up, but beat up furniture is better than no furniture right now, so I'm happy to see it again. They also brought an old maple dining room table from one of our dead relatives. It needs major refinishing, but is otherwise in great shape. We also have three more sets of "stackable" bookshelves and some metal chairs for the back porch. This is way more exciting to me than it would have been a year ago.

Prior to their visit, I managed to talk Jay into a trip down to the booming metropolis of West Lebanon, NH so we are about $800 poorer, but now own a 26" flat screen TV, a shop vac, new pillows, large microwavable bowls, and fabric for curtains. My mom very kindly volunteered to make said curtains, so they are now hanging in our living room, covering the hideous purpley-red paint smears on the wooden trim left by the previous owners' paint job.

However, we also looked through the photos from the "history of the house" file that the previous owners left for us, and the house had been a wreck when they bought it 15 years ago. Underlying structure was there, but the walls and windows and everything else was pretty well trashed. So as sketchy as I think some of the cosmetic details are, considering what they started with, it's still fairly impressive.

In non-house-related news, we also took them to the big corn maze nearby. Beautiful weather Sunday, only took us an hour and a half to get through (which is about average), and we bought a bunch of preserves from the local memorial orchard which raises money for ALS (Lou Gehrig's Disease) research. My fridge now holds dilly beans, fresh salsa, and wild blueberry jam. Yummy.

Anywho... I should be working on my research into effective practices in basic skills instruction at the college level. Much more interesting than it sounds, I assure you.

No Shock

Finally got the deposit back from ye olde landlady. Of course, she told me that despite our previous understanding, she was keeping the 2nd half of the month's rent because her new tenants weren't able to move in right away like she thought they would be. (And this is our problem because...?)

But frankly, I'm so happy to be done with her (Except for the fact that we work together... sort of) that I don't even really care. Not having to deal with her brand of insanity except in a purely professional setting is fricking priceless. Or at least worth the $325 that she's keeping. Or so I'm telling myself.

How the hell did we live with her for 2 years?

It feels good to be free from renting. Very very good.

And another

From the other side. You can see the really awesome northwest facing windows in the sunroom (the vertical windows) and in the kitchen and living room (the horizontal windows). Also, you can see a little of the garage/workshop in the back beyond the kayaks. The garage was originally located on the giant concrete slab closer to the house, but the previous owners has to move it because of some zoning law.

Trickle trickle trickle

Jay put some photos up on his Facebook page, so if you're on there, you can probably see the whole set. Of course, most of the pictures that he took are of the outside of the house and property, because that's what makes him happiest. Here's one that actually shows the house:

Teasers

View from the back deck:



Our kitchen:



More later - these are just the two that Jay emailed to me from the pics he took last night.

Why there still are no pictures

Friday I left the campus retreat at 1:30 to sign papers. At 2:45 we picked up the UHaul (I hate U-Haul - they relocated the 17 foot truck we were supposed to have, leaving us with a ten foot truck... argh). Jay took that home, and I went back to school to work until 5:30.

When I got home, I found that Jay had recruited a student to assist in loading the truck, and after a little more work, we had a load ready to go. We took the student to dinner at the local pub/restaurant as a thank you, and then he left and we drove up to the house. We stashed all the boxes in the entry room and drove back to the apartment to continue packing and cleaning.

Saturday morning, we got up early to work some more before our friends showed up at 9:30ish to help load some of the really big stuff. We managed to stuff just about everything into the truck, and filled the Subaru with bikes, laundry, and miscellaneous, plus strapped the kayaks on top. Our friends departed, and we made another trip to the house. Unloaded, drove back down to return the U-Haul, ate lunch, returned to the apartment to finish cleaning.

My sister-in-law, bless her, is on vacation and decided to come up to help/visit. With her help we unloaded the last of the miscellaneous stuff from the car and then drove over to Parker Pie in Glover for some of the best pizza I've had in a long time. When we got back, we wrangled the mattress upstairs (tight corners on the stairwell) and set up parts of the kitchen. Jay tested the wood stove and made the place all warm and toasty. We probably made it to bed around midnight.

On Sunday, we were up before 7am and we worked on unpacking - or at least placing boxes in the appropriate room - until about 1pm. Then Jay and his sister went kayaking. I was supposed to take a break, but I couldn't think of anything as interesting as setting up the house, so I pretty much kept at it until 5pm - organizing, doing laundry, etc.

Sunday night we only made it to 9pm before we just had to crash. But the house is fully livable - kitchen is all set up. Bathroom is mostly set up. Bedrooms have beds made up. The rest can wait for a bit.

Today I've been busy trying to organize my work life for the next couple weeks. Go figure - doing work at work... The way this week is looking, don't expect to see any pictures until Friday, or maybe even next week.

The house - it is ours

Now for the chaos of moving.

Will update with a real post on Monday. From work. No more home internet access for awhile.

Yet another mini-update

Financing approved! We're now chained to a $150K, 30 year, 6% mortgage... or we will be officially next month. Just have to wait for the sellers to finish up the few repairs and inspections that we requested, and we'll be good to go.

I am really looking forward to having enough space for my books and my knitting stuff. Right now I live with stacked bags of yarn and leaning towers of books everywhere.

As a side note - for anyone who I am linked to via Facebook, I do want to keep the ties from here to there a one-way avenue. In others words, people who read the blog can be aware of that stuff, but I don't want the people I know only from the big F to mosey on over here. If they find me on their own, fabulous. And kudos, too, because I have tried Googling myself in a hundred different ways and I never turn up, which I consider a good thing.

Sicko

Headcold just in time for my first day of work yesterday. So far, so good. Still in the set up phase, and it's hard to be productive when you're blowing your sore red nose every five minutes.

Mostly I'm reading all the information I need to be familiar with ASAP. Also signed up for Facebook. (Yes, finally! My sisters have been on me to do that for awhile.) So if I had an email addy from you, and you were in the Facebook network, you might have gotten tagged. Just say yes, okay? If you are on Facebook and are looking for me, I'm now there. I know you're excited - don't lie. Ha ha.

No new info on the house yet. I'll certainly update when I know more.

A few more tidbits

Inspection went very well. I highly recommend buying from a builder who doesn't like to be cold. Foundation solid, insulation good, no water damage, good electrical. The hot water heater and the furnace will need to replaced sooner rather than later, but we were expecting that. Mostly needs some cosmetic work - scraping, painting, caulking - deck needs to be bolted in on one side where it is pulling away from the house a little (like an inch) and the back corner of the garage/outbuilding has a bit of erosion that needs to be fixed. So now we're just waiting on the bank. Appraisal is scheduled for Monday.

And that's all for now, because I just came back from the eye doctor and my pupils are still pretty blown.

After we close in September, I'll put some pictures of the house on Flickr.

Meep

Home inspection scheduled for Wednesday. If that goes well, appraisal will be Friday.

I start the new job on August 20th. I will still be working at the LYS (that's Local Yarn Shop for you non-knitters) every other Saturday and teaching the occasional sock or lace class.

As for the job, I don't want to post too many details here, but it's basically a guidance counselor-type coach and coordinator for the at-risk first-year students. If they want to succeed, I help them find a way to do it.

Also, I deleted blog links for anyone who hadn't posted since March. If you visit here and notice your link is gone, that would be why. If you start posting again, please let me know, because obviously I liked your blogs enough to put up the link in the first place. There's still a few who haven't updated since May. If that's still the case in October, those will be cleared as well. I do like to remain mostly on top of stuff like that - otherwise I forget and click the link and get disappointed all over again.