Moonspun Spins

As I was mulling over various topics in the last few days to blog about, I was thinking about talking about a friend of mine from work. She’s a year younger than me, very  spunky (I seem to attract women friends who look polite on the outside, but really are kickass take-no-prisoners women), has a great sense of humor and is very talented. Like me, she is an administrative assistant when really there is much more she could be doing with the master’s degree she has. We go to the same church, although, since RP and I have been heathens this year and not been so much, that sounds like a stretch. We did make an effort to go in the fall when my friend ML and her partner officially joined the church. And afterwards we went out to brunch to hang out.

ML has a five year old daughter who adores lil moonspun and we had a nice time together at that bakery. ML’s partner was a mellow, easy going man who clearly adored ML and her daughter. In the past several months, ML and I have gotten together for workouts, lunches and even a movie when our men were out of town. I know that if ML and lived physically closer to each other, we’d be even better friends. Each time we work out or go for a lunchtime walk we share more and more about our lives. You know how it is. I’ve heard plenty of stories about her shitty ex-husband and the psychological games he plays with her, the court and her daughter. I was originally going to post about how lucky I am compared to her in that matter.

I had been thinking today about e-mailing her and I had actual work to do, so I didn’t. Now, I feel bad for ever thinking I was more lucky.

Because tonight she called to tell RP and I personally that her partner had died suddenly yesterday and she wanted to tell us before we got the e-mail from the church. She was at work tying things up before leaving for the week to make arrangements. RP and I said, and quite sincerely, that she should call us if we needed anything, help with her daughter, an ear at 3 am. But my heart hurt for her, hearing the tears she was barely holding back and knowing that there wasn’t a damn thing I could do to make that better.  I don’t know answers to any of of the questions that were (and still are) swirling in my head. Like how did it happen? When? Where? We just know it was unexpected.

And then we hung up the phone and sort of looked at each other. I know my eyes got wide as I looked at RP. Like…wow….and then we gently told lil m, who remembered him and she said that she’d make a card for her friend…but wow….

I feel befuddled and sad because not only can I not do anything to help my friend, but having someone who is my age go through this, well it makes it seem more real somehow, you know?

In my yoga class tonight my word of intention was ’strength.’ Apparently I wasn’t working on that one for myself……

I didn’t used to cry this much. I swear. But when I used to get upset in my former life, I got bitchy and mean and defensive and bitchy. Oh yea and I got bitchy.

Now don’t get me wrong, I still have serious bitchiness in me now. It’s hereditary, I can’t help it. And I can be quite proud of it, even. Now,  however, when things bother me or push me or I get upset, the first thing I want to do is see RP. Or hear his voice. Because, despite his tendency to want to fix things, he’ll do two things that are important to me. 1) he will always listen, no matter how ridiculous I may sound or how much I am babbling and 2) he will always hug me.

That was how I felt last Friday night when plunged into darkness and cold again after the generator quit on me. But once I heard RP’s voice on the phone and knew he was coming home, I was all good. And of course I cried, but only when I knew he was coming home.

And that was how I felt this afternoon when feeling frustrated about my graduate program after looking in my new classroom (my new class starts next week) and finding out that according to it I supposed to come up with a topic for my final project in two weeks. I was all kinds of frustrated and scared and pissed off and overwhelmed. So I timed my mail run to head to RP’s office right when I knew he was coming back from teaching his afternoon classes. And so when he came in I was there waiting, practically wringing my hands.

And RP did what he does best for me. He listened to my rant, he held my hands, he reassured me, he calmed me, he gave me perspective, and he reassured me. He squeezed my hands harder when I bit my lip and tried unsuccessfully not to cry. And he told the lawyer’s office that called him for a scheduled conference call to call him back in 5 minutes. Then he hugged me, assured me that I was smart and beautiful and it wasn’t going to be so bad. And I took a moment burying my head on his shoulder to find that inner calm again.

And when I went back to the office to e-mail the assistant program director whom I decided to confide in, who was the first professor I had, actually and vented  my frustrations in a much more rational manner than I’ve have been capable of without seeing RP first.

So it’s ok with me that I cry more now. It feels better than feeling bitchy all the time, more of a release. My frustrations work up, I sputter a bit, I cry on RP’s shoulder and then….I am good.

Once again, it’s so obvious to me how lucky I am to have the love of my life and my best friend,  RP, be such a wonderful partner and source of support.

Who is your shoulder?

All the classic phrases were muttered on the way down the ski slope today while lil moonspun and I were heading on our first run. “It’s ok, you are doing fine.” “Attitude is what it is important, you can do it.” “Are you ok? Here, let me help you up.” “Just try a little harder, I KNOW you can do it.” Panic attacks were worked through, two spectacular butt-falls survived, and the run blissfully ended with visible relief.

But it was a case of role reversal as my 9 year-old daughter was the one assuring ME. My second time skiing with lil m ever happened today. You can read about my experience two years ago here. After some confusion about where I was supposed to meet FFO and not being sure how to adjust the bindings on my skis, lil m and I headed up the first lift, on a quieter side for the mountain. They slow down the lift for me, lil m gives me pointers on how to get off and still, I ungracefully fall on my butt trying to dismount and the operator shuts the lift off and rushes out of his little hut to help me up. And then, despite it’s easy rating, I look down the slope I am supposed to be going down and it’s much much steeper than I think I can handle on this first time skiing in two years and only the 5th time in m whole life. And I panic. Lil m easily skis down and I do what any self-respecting mom would do, I walk to better ground.

Our first run was 45 minutes and was pretty tiring and traumatic for me with my two butt-falls and several times I felt out of control. Lil m, goddess love her, was very patient with me. “Mama,” she said at one point. “Are you having fun?” “Uh, honestly I am not sure,” I say, leaning to pause on my poles. “Well, it’s all in your attitude,” she chided, “think positive.” I tried not to laugh and agreed that I was happy to be with her.

We finally did manage to make it to the side of the mountain we were supposed to meet my cousin, EightofNine and her SE the timing worked out well. They found us, they got their stuff in the hotel for their mini-vacation, lil m and I were able to get a snack and relax before we all headed out.

As promised, SE gave me some instructions on how to ski and for the first time ever, it made a bit of sense. It wasn’t easier physically, but mentally I spend less time panicking and more time concentrating. SE was very patient my first run and gave me tips. “Are my thighs supposed to be burning like this?” I asked half way down on another turn. “Yep, that’s means you are doing it right” was the reply.

The best thing about Eight and SE being there (outside of seeing them) was that lil m had someone to go down harder slopes with.  I lost track of how many times she went up with one or both of them. After we had some lunch (outrageously priced!) we all  headed to the bunny slope for my last run of the day (my quad muscles were screaming with effort) and then we went to the bigger side of the mountain. They have a small terrain park and lil m wanted to do a ski jump again. Yea, she can ski jump, I was so impressed.

Then we all rode up in THE Gondola to the scenic top. I had no intention of going down on my skis, but it’s also a tourist attraction and I’ve been up it a couple times before and always when the top is enveloped in clouds. So I had a chance to actually see a view, which I did. It was amazing how different things looked up there once you got to a certain elevation it was all winter with snow topped trees. Even the gondola house was snow-crusted. Lil m, after some thought, decided to ski down with Eight and SE and I took some pictures, bid them farewell and headed back down the gondola.

I got to see lil m do a couple more jumps in the small terrain park and suddenly the day was over. Eight and SE headed back over to their hotel for their ski vacation and lil m and I skiied to the car. I am taking the next two days off from work to hang with lil m for the last couple days of her vacation. And boy am I glad that I don’t have to get up early and go to work. I feel beaten up. I am quite impressed by those people who ski. I know I’ll never do it much and honestly am not sure if FFO didn’t give me her free ticket she gets as an employee, I don’t know that I’d pay money for it.

But you do things for your kids and well, trying to stumble down that mountain to be with my daughter and to see her accomplishment and skill was one of them.

Now I’ve got to lay my exhausted body down and hope it all works normally tomorrow…

This post is a bit of an update on last night’s power outage story. So it’s about a half hour after I write my post, I’ve trolled through my reader, joyfully catching up on everyone’s blogs, not feeling too bad, a bit leisurely even…I am relaxing. Even to the post of tuning out the generator outside. Every ten minutes or so the generator makes a surging sounds and the lights would pulse a bit. I am in the midst of reading Aunt J’s latest post and I hear the generator surge…and the stop. WTF?!

So….I decide to be country woman and go out and see if I can restart it. This is to no avail. The nearly full moon is giving off decent light and I’ve got candles on in the living room still. I wait for five minutes and realize, I’ll never make the more than two hours until RP is expected to come home. As I said I would I leave a message on our friend ND’s cellphone who is in charge of the talent show to tell her that I need RP to call me. Down the road I see a car with headlights that’s just hanging there. Maybe near a electric pole, across from the empty lot next to us. Then it comes down the road and stops in front of my house. I am in the dark kitchen, flashlight in my hand, damn dog at my side. Trying not to panic. I can sort of see it is a small power company truck (at least I hope it is) and it turns around in my driveway as I still fight my feeling of panic.

When it leaves I decide enough is enough and not trusting ND to check her voicemail, I get on the phone and call campus security. In a wavering voice I am trying to keep calm, I tell them who I am and that I need them to find my husband at the talent show NOW. Then I continue to fight panic and tears and ten minutes later RP is on the phone assuring me that he is coming home, after stopping for more gas for the generator. It wasn’t until after RP called that I let my tears come, and then they were mostly in relief.  Part of me feels like a wimp and the other part knows I didn’t need to be a hero and stay here alone in a powerless cold house.

So RP came home, filled the generator with gas and the house warmed up a bit. We turned it off to to go sleep and then this morning it wouldn’t start. Poor RP just looked at me with crestfallen eyes for a moment. We’ve had several “what now?” or “why us?” moments in the last few days. He figured out it probably needed oil this time and so we went to town to do our trash and recycling and get oil.  Thankfully that worked and once again the house is warming up and we are hanging out in Lrp1’s room as it’s got power and is warm and comfortable.

In a bit we will head to campus to work out and take showers (I am trying not to think about how gross I feel right now) and relax this afternoon by going to the women’s hockey game. Then it will be back to start the generator up again for a couple hours before bed. Because we aren’t supposed to get power until tomorrow afternoon. Oh yea….

A couple weeks ago we had a day in the office where we had no heat as the oil tank had run dry and it took all day for them to take care of the situation. And it was fucking cold, people, it’s hard to type when it’s 50 degrees. I swear that between that awful day and these past few, I’ll never ever take heat for granted again.

Ever.

Those are the words, I said to RP not long ago. Because after all, it’s a Friday night, and we’ve had a busy and kind of crazy week. I have just finished my graduate school seminar project and even received the grade (a 96 thank you very much) and so there is much reason to celebrate. So let’s…..

Oh no, let’s not. Because you see there is HEAT on in our house and it’s warming up steadily. BUT the heat run is from our generator outside that was so easy for us to come home today and hook up.

Oh yea, it wasn’t. Because you see, things sometimes don’t go smoothly and thus getting the generator to power the house required a call to our electrician to come fix the box or some such thing to get the generator to actually work. So we had to choose one of us to stay with the house to make sure it heated up and all is well and of course it should be RP because he’s a guy and what the hell am I going to do if something goes wrong?

Only, yea. RP agreed to be a judge in the talent show on campus tonight. And me? I only agreed to bake some brownies which everyone knew I couldn’t with our power outage. And so me? On my night of celebration? I stay home.

But all is not lost as the generator powers the fridge, AND the lights in two rooms, one of which is LRP#1’s room which is downstairs. Thus I am on the couch in her room thankful that the modem usually located in my office across the halll was able to stretch enough to the power strip. And thus I am not alone…I have you on my Friday night celebration!

I am SO relieved to be done with my project and schoolwork, but I am already in the ‘what now?’ mode. And yet am still excited about my grade and doing well with such a hard professor AND amazed that in the power outage craziness of my house, I still managed to sneak it in the last few days. And there is only a week, not the usual two in between seminars, so in just 10 days, I’ll back at it with a new subject.

SO…the other moonspun news is that I went to see my doctor this morning to talk about all the various lumps and odd pains I have had. Here is what I really like about my doctor. First, he listens and second, he never makes me feel stupid for mentioning something and he deals with every single thing. So he was worth the wait.

The quick report about the visit is that I am fine. My lumps are all “normal” and nothing to worry about and some a sign of well, my age. Now I don’t really care about my age in numbers, and I know, that all of us, no matter what decade we are in have felt old at one time or another. Me? Well the one thing that happened today was that my doctor suggested an x-ray because this pain I have been having in my thigh/groin/crease area could be arthritis in my hip. Now I don’t care how old  you are, but I can only imagine that we’d all have at ‘what the fuck’ moment when it is suggested that we might have arthritis! So I did have an x-ray today and I guess we will see.

Another thing that I find interesting about  my doctor is how at the end he dictates into a phone about the appointment in front of you so you can hear what he says. It’s fascinating. At one point he observed I “had good eye contact and no apprehension” so after he was done I said if I was anxious would he have said that in front of me? And he said “Heck yea! I want my patients to know that I have realized that are freakin’ out or suicidal”. Yea, love my doctor.

If it is true that we won’t get power until tomorrow night, RP and I will probably spend much of the day on campus where we don’t have to run the generator all day. There are plenty of places for us to hang out and be comfortable.

You go, I’ll stay…my ass… Happy Friday!

So during that time a couple week’s ago when the mid-Atlantic was getting walloped with snow? Well we hearty Vermonters were feeling very put out. That was OUR snow! It was feeling very odd around here as snow was melting and  you could see grass. That’s not natural in February in Vermont.

Yesterday that all changed. And the “couple of inches” we were supposed to get? It turned into a couple feet. And my husband got to shovel again and snow piled up and it looked lovely. And we didn’t get to work until later because our road wasn’t plowed and there was no power at work. GB had called me on his way to a meeting to tell me.

We were feeling pretty confident in the magic mini-van with the studded snow tires on the way in yesterday mid-morning. Until I was facing the snow plow on our narrow dirt road and moved to give him room. And the tires slid and I said “Oh shit” as we headed toward the snowbank and RP said “It’s ok” as we softly landed in snow. Luckily the town plow guy stopped, got out and the three of us managed to maneuver the van out with no one worse the wear. Thankfully we weren’t on the part of our road where the banks are short and lead down a steep embankment to a brook.

We headed back home in mid-afternoon and all was well, it was lovely and snowy and we were warm and cozy. The power blinked off and on. That was ok. I was working furiously (ok well maybe steadily) on my final project.  We had dinner, watched the news, I got back to my project. I was in the midst of sending my professor a nearly final version to look at and the power flicked on and off. Longer this time.

So I quickly just sent a one sentence line with the two attachments to make sure he got it. Then I was 3/4 of the way through asking a couple questions and we lost power again.

For good.

Now, RP and I aren’t wimps. We can survive without our electricity and our technology for a while. But when we lose power we have no heat and no water. That sucks. Especially the no water, as that means no toilet flushing and well, it means pooping is a challenge.

We pressed on, I had plenty of battery life in my macbook and so I worked on my final project for an hour more in our candle lit living room. And about our usual bedtime, you could tell the house was losing  heat. So I dutifully gave RP ” you are a good husband for shoveling so much” massage and we went to sleep. And all was warm and cozy under our comforter. And we hoped the power would come back on overnight.

Not so much.

So this morning there was no reason to linger at the house once we shoveled (and I helped this time because waiting inside the cold, dark house wasn’t appealing) and we came to work. Where there is heat and toilets and a shower. The good thing is that the shower is in the locker room, so since I was gross and sweaty from shoveling, I just made myself sweatier by doing an elliptical for 15 minutes. And then got fresh and clean.

Hopefully our power will go back on later. And if not, we’ll need to drag out our generator. Which is good for heat and the fridge, a couple lights and oh yea, that pooping thing.

yea for winter….:-)

And speaking of winter, I am going skiing on Sunday with lil moonspun and EightofNine and her SE. It’s an annual ritual for me, and I suck, but I anticipate having much fun!

I honestly don’t know how much I have complained to you about the current class that I am taking in my master’s program. I either tried not to, or maybe didn’t have the mental energy, let alone time to bitch. And well it wasn’t terrible and I didn’t want to bitch ALL the time. And besides if all I did was tell you how wonderful RP is, how crazy FFO is, how hard my studies are and how adorable and funny my daughter is, you’d get bored easily. I’ve got other stories, too.

But back to that school thing for a moment…so this is my third seminar in my military history program and it is by far the hardest. Now I don’t resent hard. Hard is fine, hard is good. Hard pushes me (get your mind out of that gutter and stay with me, ok?) to really learn and get my academic shit together. If I had an easy professor I’d be bored and feel like I wasn’t learning anything. And when I am done? I want to get out and kick some military history butt, so hard is going to make me learn. (ok, no I don’t know where and how exactly I am kicking said butt, but one thing at at time)

Anyway, so I learned a lot this seminar in which we had the most reading and the hardest professor. But he was also the most engaged in our discussions, answered questions readily and quickly and honest. That grading thing, though. Even  though I did well, I tried to pin him down a couple times on how I could do better. (Like even though 186 out of 200 is an A, where exactly did my 14 points go). And it was frustrating that he couldn’t pinpoint it for me. Neither could my husband explain his grading in a way I understood, nor the associate program director whom I had a conversation with. I wasn’t questioning my grade, but I was just trying to figure out what was different say, on the week where I got 27 out of 30 (an A-) and 28 out of 30 (an A) when for me there wasn’t a difference. I finally resigned myself to just not being good enough…but being ok with not being able to have it explained to me.

And the last two weeks of the discussion grades, I got a 30 out of 30. From a professor whom I never thought I’d get a “perfect” score from. I felt excited and triumphant. Maybe I had learned something after all.

I’ve got this week to finish my final project, which is designing a undergraduate level class and it’s coming along just fine. If all goes well I hope to pass it in Thursday (it’s due Saturday at midnight) and give myself a couple extra days off.

And then? I’ll be half way done with my master’s!

In the realm of spousal bragging, I got in trouble this morning from RP. Because I e-mailed his dad and his siblings about some good things he did and RP is too damn modest. So I know  he’ll never tell people himself, and so on occasion, I take it upon myself to tell people good things about him.

Like I am sure that you thought to yourself (well those of you who live in a cold climate)…hey it’s February and a Sunday. I think I’ll drive 3 hours and run a marathon through a big city university’s parking lots.  With 30 mile an hour winds. Because, yea, I have nothing else to do…

No? You didn’t think that?! Me neither…but my slightly crazy husband? Oh yea, he did and not only did he finish it in 3 hours, he came in 4th. Not too bad.  I think I am in double now for telling all of YOU, but that’s fine!

I’ve debated all week about whether or not to blog about this, because the person involved, AJ,  is a pretty regular reader of  my blog. But after some thought, I realized not working out my feelings on here– MY space– isn’t being true to who I am and what I want moonspun.org to be. So with all due respect to AJ, a longtime friend of mine from college, here goes my story.

It’s my story.

Last weekend RP and I went to see Dar Williams. She’s a folk singer I’ve liked for a long time and we had actually seen her together back in the fall of 2008, a concert I took RP to for his 40th birthday. My friend, AJ, sells her merchandise (Dar’s) at local shows and we had met Dar back at that concert. We were excited to see when it was announced she was coming to our area. RP ordered us tickets back in September for the February show and netted us some pretty nifty front row center seats. They were lovely!

It was the same stage that lil moonspun had danced her heart out on and it’s a nice venue. Not a bad seat in the house, but the front row seats at an intimate folk show? Very very nice.

AJ was staying at our house for the night, and so after the show RP and I were hanging out waiting for her. It turns out that RP knew the director of the theatre and we were learning all kinds of interesting stuff about how he books acts and how far ahead he schedules and all that. The conversation turned to running and well, I got easily bored and kind of wandered away. At this point AJ was adding up the sales for the Dar CD’s, Dar had come out to talk to people and sign CD’s, but only a few people were left. There were about 6 people left from a local mother’s group who were doing fundraising for a midwifery clinic in Haiti. Dar had announced she was giving them the proceeds from her CD sales.

AJ called to me and handed me a Dar CD that I didn’t have and said “Happy Valentine’s Day, Have Dar sign this for you.” I was pleased and so I opened it while Dar was still talking to the local moms. Then she turned and talked to me and we had a nice easy conversation, including how we had met before (although I know AJ had reminded her about RP and I that was ok) and other things. The next thing I know, AJ says from behind me: “Dar, Moonspun was my first kiss.” I kind of blinked in surprise. And blushed, which AJ also pointed out and as Dar was writing on my CD unplussed by the reveal, I murmured something about it being over 20 years ago when were in college. I continued talking to Dar and heard from the side of me AJ talk to someone she knew who was standing behind me and say “yea, that’s her husband over there” pointing to RP who was still talking to the theatre director about running marathons.

So here is the thing…..and it took me a couple days to figure out what kind of niggled at me about the incident. I didn’t care at all that Dar Williams knew that I’d once kissed AJ in college. I know AJ knows her and it’s all good. What did bother me was the group of local moms (who may or may not have known me) that was standing there. As I told AJ the next night on Facebook when she apologized for her filters being off, it’s a tricky thing being a bisexual woman in a heterosexual relationship. I balance who I do and don’t tell about my past based on a number of factors that, well are hard to explain because they largely depend on the situation and the person.

But it’s my story.

If we’d been in a place where it was unlikely that no one knew me, I might have felt differently. But that group of women were my potential neighbors. And it was supposed to be my choice what they knew about me.

I am not embarrassed about my past and clearly co-parenting lil moonspun with FFO still provides me with plenty of opportunities to ‘out’ myself. And I’d never dishonor lil moonspun and her family history by lying about it.

But again, it’s my story, my choice. Especially in my home turf.

And so it was another lesson for me of how complicated life is and how tricky it can be to navigate, walking that fine line by being true to yourself and not letting the world judge you.

Lil m was a good sport this week. As she sits on the couch now while I let her watch Sponge Bob (which I think is stupid and evil, sorry if you think otherwise) and getting frustrated with the one side of her nose that has snot stuck in it, I contemplate the week behind us. Now lil m is no angel, she’s 9 going on 16 sometimes, but one of the things I do appreciate about  her is that I can take her places. Often she will be the only kid at a University event. Which is weird to me. During some of the faculty/staff receptions that are held at the beginning of the year or during the holiday, we are invited to bring a guest. Well, RP and I are not each other’s guest as we both are employed by the  University. And so for several years I will bring lil m. Only about 25% of employees even bring their spouses, which I don’t get. But lil m knows what to do, and never misbehves. She know greets the President with ease and will wander by herself among the food if she gets bored with whoever we are talking to. (Although often at these RP and I find ourselves at opposite sides of the room)

This week, RP and I had a fancy dinner to go to at a hotel in our fair capital. I had lined up a babysitter (which I never ever do) to come hang out with lil m. Lil m had her folk singing class in town and I didn’t physically have enough time to get her home and back, so I asked the babysitter to come hang out with her. That was all good. Until the babysitter got mono. Ugh. So I asked a school friend who lived  in town to see if they could take lil m at their house for a couple hours. They couldn’t. I called FFO who didn’t feel well and was working. She wouldn’t do it. I called the hotel to ask if they had a babysitting service. No, the nice woman said, but the lobby is always well-attended, she could just hang there.

And so she did. She was a good sport. I fed her ahead of time, bought her a new coloring book and oil pastels and introduced her to the desk staff when we got there. The room where our dinner was turned out to be right off the lobby and so I snuck lil m out some grapes and strawberries, a roll and a cookie at various times. She came in a couple times to ask me a question and it was no big deal. The problem was that when it was time to leave for home the Olympics were on the big screen tv and she didn’t want to leave!

Lil m also had to come to my office for an hour or so on Thursday afternoon so I could finish some work and yesterday, we spent from 8:30 to 3 pm there. It was probably more mellow for her than going to school and that was the idea. I didn’t think she was up for spending as much time outside as I knew they were going to on the last day of vacation with a school winter carnival. So lil m brought knitting, her coloring books, her iPod and beeswax. And except for an occasion blowing of the nose or humming to herself,  you’d never have known she was there. She also decorated our conference room white board for all the office to enjoy.

So it’s possible that my letting her watch more tv today than I normally would is me trying to make up for her less than perfect week. Although I know she wants to watch the Olympics, but there are hours yet before we can watch those.

Now, though her good sport label is being called into question because she wants me to magically fix her nose snot block and I am gently reminding her that is she took the Vitamin C and the tangerine I gave her an hour ago, they might help. She wants instant gratification though…oh well!

RP left this morning to get recertified in CPR/First Aid before  he drives to Albany tonight to do that marathon thing tomorrow Me? I am looking at a stack of 7 Civil War books next to me I need to add to my bibliography and find readings in for my final project. Just looking for now…guess I’ll open them in a bit.

Do you have a good sport in our life?

How come life takes up so much time?!

Right now I am sitting with lil moonspun at home when I should be at work because I am letting her stay home from school. She has a runny nose and is on the edge of getting sick. I am usually the ’suck it up’ and try to go to school today, but it’s the day before vacation for the lil one and the afternoon is a ‘winter carnival’ where they’d be outside the whole time. I didn’t see that as being the best thing for  her. The only problem is that I can’t stay home the whole day, so lil m got to chose to try to go to school or come to the office with me for a bit. She chose the office. And if she can be mellow than hopefully she won’t get too sick for her vacation when she is going to spend the good part of it skiing and  hanging with FFO. This is good timing for me as my final project for my class is due next week and so I’ll have the week to finish. Then I’ll be taking a couple days off at the end of her vacation so that lil m and I can just be….whatever we want to be….

And I can’t wait for that….

My weekend plans are working on my final project and turning a draft of it in Sunday. Lil m is going back to FFO Saturday night and RP is running a marathon on Sunday in Albany (because that’s what I’d want to do in February!) so I’ll have Sunday to hunker down with my huge pile of books.

What do you have planned?