...cures a multitude of ills. I've been making homemade hot chocolate the last little while. (Kim, you've inspired me!) And it's helping in the process of getting over the "ack, I'm still stuck in an apartment with my little family even though we're ready to move on and be real people" troubles.
In part through the hot chocolate, I've been having serious Christmas nostalgia and enjoying it oh so much. This year is the first that we've had the crucial combination of enough money and the disposition to buy a big tree (we've just never had them both at the same time). It's seven feet tall, hardly fits in our little apartment (though it's got nothing on the monsters that Dad would cut out of the tops of the pine trees in the valley, and then walk down the hill to the house...we have numerous photos of a giant Christmas-tree-ball with about 18 inches of human leg...love them). Ben did the lights (my Dad always did them when we were little, figure Bee can do with the same tradition) and then we all decorated. Today Bee decided that we should string popcorn on red thread and add it to the ornaments (almost all of which came from Gran....it's one of her funny Gran things to buy everybody several new ones each year) and lights, so that's what we'll be doing for family home evening. We've been listening to Mannheim Steamroller (another childhood tradition, thanks Mom for gifting us some so that we can listen too!) Christmas albums (really I can only imagine LOVING music this technology dependent because it's Christmas and they do a good job....and it's what we DID when I was little).
And possibly even more than the other stuff, this is the first Christmas in ten years that I've not had crazy deadlines hanging over my head making most of December totally unenjoyable (I guess there were two of those that were mission Christmases...so not the same sort of stress, but still, not really like home Christmas for sure). All I have to do is give my students their final and keep hacking away at reading my list. But I can enjoy Christmas during all of December because I have no page count to worry about, no final projects or presentations stressing me out.
Life is just pretty great.
Monday, December 7, 2009
Thursday, December 3, 2009
Disappointment
So Ben and I had both applied for jobs at Miami University in Ohio, in the hopes that we'd be able to move home. It seemed perfect...both of us working at the same place, Ben in systems security and me teaching majors and minors and maybe even starting a theater production class.
The Spanish department interviewed me and wanted to hire me on the spot. I told them we felt like we needed to wait and hear about Ben, and they said fine. The guy in charge of hiring for the job Ben applied for has not responded in any way to Ben's phone and email requests for information about the status of Ben's application. I emailed the Spanish department to ask when they needed a final answer. The answer was, basically, "Well, before now. We had to hire someone else!"
Dang it.
There is, however, one bright hope. The Spanish department chair told me that they will be hiring another person for the fall, and that I should email him in March. So we'll see how that goes, I guess.
The Spanish department interviewed me and wanted to hire me on the spot. I told them we felt like we needed to wait and hear about Ben, and they said fine. The guy in charge of hiring for the job Ben applied for has not responded in any way to Ben's phone and email requests for information about the status of Ben's application. I emailed the Spanish department to ask when they needed a final answer. The answer was, basically, "Well, before now. We had to hire someone else!"
Dang it.
There is, however, one bright hope. The Spanish department chair told me that they will be hiring another person for the fall, and that I should email him in March. So we'll see how that goes, I guess.
Wednesday, December 2, 2009
29 gifts for 29 days
My mom (who I think is a pretty phenomenal character) had this great idea....for 29 days leading up to Thanksgiving she got me, my aunt T, and my sister Hannah into this "give 29 gifts for 29 days" thing. It has a pretty cool story, you can read about it here.
I learned a lot about myself in the process, mostly that I do more than I think that I do. But it also got me into a new mindset about finding opportunities to give. Bee was in the car with me one day, and saw a homeless man standing at the corner where we were stopped at the light. I hadn't really looked at the man, but she said "Why does he look worried? Does he not have money for a house for his family?" I took a better look at his face, and the sign he was holding....it was a chance to give that was outside my comfort zone, but because I had gotten into this 29 gift-mentality, was able to get beyond myself a little bit.
And it's got me being a nicer/better/I don't know how to put it, driver. I've tried to let some of my gifts be things like not getting road-rage-y at people who try to kill me and my kids in the car. :-)
But the BEST thing about it was the daily contact with these women that I love. We decided to continue that aspect by doing a daily exchange of things we're thankful for. I'm excited about it because I'll get to keep talking to them about interesting and just downright cool observations that they have on life.
Don't really why I felt the need to post this...maybe just an invite to do something similar. A journal, or an exchange with people you love...either of the 29 gifts or the grateful days.
I learned a lot about myself in the process, mostly that I do more than I think that I do. But it also got me into a new mindset about finding opportunities to give. Bee was in the car with me one day, and saw a homeless man standing at the corner where we were stopped at the light. I hadn't really looked at the man, but she said "Why does he look worried? Does he not have money for a house for his family?" I took a better look at his face, and the sign he was holding....it was a chance to give that was outside my comfort zone, but because I had gotten into this 29 gift-mentality, was able to get beyond myself a little bit.
And it's got me being a nicer/better/I don't know how to put it, driver. I've tried to let some of my gifts be things like not getting road-rage-y at people who try to kill me and my kids in the car. :-)
But the BEST thing about it was the daily contact with these women that I love. We decided to continue that aspect by doing a daily exchange of things we're thankful for. I'm excited about it because I'll get to keep talking to them about interesting and just downright cool observations that they have on life.
Don't really why I felt the need to post this...maybe just an invite to do something similar. A journal, or an exchange with people you love...either of the 29 gifts or the grateful days.
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