Everydayness

I handed back my last batch of papers for this go-round last night. Today I spent my office hour recording odds and ends, updating grades, and planning the next essay (argument!), and so now I feel alright about spending a moment or two blogging before getting out of here.

It's that middle season when it's as cold as a winter day, but we don't have any snow and the sun is out most days. You look out the window and think, "Oh, it looks really nice outside. Maybe we should go for a walk!" But when you get outside, your nose hairs freeze together, and you scamper back into the house to watch some more tv. Ah well. It beats having cold weather AND cloudy skies and slushy snow everywhere.

We are getting used to the everydayness of life in Midland.

Our stake got a new president last Sunday. We didn't know the old one and don't know the new one, so it means about as much to us right now as a shift in the city council of Taos, New Mexico. It's just kind of a meh moment for us.

We had Parent/Teacher conferences this week which Northeast Middle School treats as a giant cattle call. Teachers sitting at tables and long, long lines of parents waiting to have their five minutes. There's no schedule or sign ups. You just dive into that pool of sweaty humanity and hope for the best. In an hour and a half, we made it to three teachers - one of Avery's and two of Maryn's. It was a sweaty, b-o filled night.

Parker started a new dance class last week and so is now interested in showing off her sweet moves every so often. She still had her tutu on yesterday when I got home so did a mini-recital in the living room which was a sight to behold. The thing is, you'd think all these things we have her doing (a dance class, an exercise class before that, preschool) would wear her out and make her sleep really well all night. But no. Apparently, Parker is some kind of life-force vampire who only gets stronger the more tired her poor parents become. Lately, she's taken to waking up somewhere between 3:30 and 5:30 to come into our bedroom to sleep. We've started turning her away so she'll go back to her own bed and, oh I don't know, go the heck back to sleep?! But instead, she just wanders around the house turning lights on. So instead of doing what I would like to be doing at 5:30 a.m. (you know, dreaming about unicorns and rivers of soup), I am corralling her back into her bed, shutting off lights, and praying that I can go back to sleep before my alarm goes off. I love Parker. More specifically, I'd love for her to stay in her own freaking bed and sleep through the night.

The semester is on the downhill slide now. Week after next is Thanksgiving and once that happens, the rest of the term is pretty much a bust. It feels like I just started here, so it's weird that the first semester is winding down already. But I'm glad. I need a couple of weeks off to reset and recalibrate. All the newness has thrown off my game quite a bit, and this has been far from my best teaching session. Hopefully, next semester will even out a little, and I'll feel a little more settled and less insecure. I think I really took tenure and the security it provided for granted back at IVCC. Now that I'm here, I feel all nervous and uncertain about everything again. That's a weird sensation to have at age (almost) 40 after teaching full time for over ten years. I'm not a fan.

Well, my office hour has run out. I'm due to head back to Midland for a dentist appointment. Suzy had her time there this morning and apparently they took two hours just to get through a basic cleaning. Awesome. Guess I'd better bring a book.