A Real Entry! Finally!
10:07 a.m. - 2004-11-07
My parents, my brother, and his girlfriend left for Florida yesterday (have I mentioned how ready I am for Thanksgiving?), so Alan and I are house-sitting for the week. It's not so much "house-sitting" as it is baby-sitting, though, because the real reason we're here is to take care of all the animals. Three dogs, a cat, and two horses require a lot of feeding, bathroom breaks, and attention. I'm not the least bit bothered, however, because I absolutely love being here. I'm more comfortable in this house than I am in my own, which makes a lot of sense considering that I spent the first twenty years of my life here. I wrote an entry about it last year, if anyone's interested.
I went to work on Friday, though I knew full well that I shouldn't have, and just barely made it through the day. My students were awful, as they always are after having a substitute, and I didn't have the energy nor the inclination to deal with them. Brought home a shitload of stuff to do this weekend, though I still haven't gotten around to it (I'm going to, though, as soon as I drag myself away from the computer) and I'm beginning to stress over the shit that I haven't done yet but should have. I'm supposed to have two (or is it three?) observations done in the coming week, and I haven't scheduled any of them. Ungraded papers are overflowing from my bag, my lesson plans aren't completed for this week, and my gradebook is virtually blank.
If I had any sense I'd be freaking out, but for some reason I've just taken on an "it'll get done when it gets done" attitude. It's hard enough dealing with the thought of surgery (which I have yet to schedule because I'm a big scaredy-cat) and the terrible cramping without worrying about work as well. I'm actually grateful to be away from my own house, because at least I'm not worrying about what needs to be done there, too. Being here makes me feel much more centered, and I woke this morning with a sense of calm that I haven't had in months.
My dad finally sold the store, and they're in the process of tying up all the loose ends so the new owner can take over. Alan found out yesterday that he won't be working there for much longer, so I'm a little nervous about what's going to happen for him, job-wise. On the up-side, this means that we're no longer tied to this place and can put the house back up for sale in hopes of getting the hell out of Dodge. (I'm so ready to get out of this town that I can hardly stand it, even though I really don't have any idea where I'd like to move.) On the other hand, we don't have a clue about what he's going to do, and since I'd really like to finish out the year at school, we probably need to stay where we are for now. It's an awkward and uncomfortable situation to be in, but hopefully we'll manage to make it through okay.
I mentioned that I'm taking care of three dogs, but only one of them is my mother's. Alan brought in a puppy Friday night, and the tiny little thing has completely stolen both our hearts. He found her out by my father's equipment shed, all alone, and rescued her. She can't be more than five weeks old, and was being eaten alive by fleas. We bathed her, wormed her, and are keeping her inside until she gets well and grows a little. She looks like she's got a lot of yellow lab in her, and I'm astounded at how trusting she is of people. Poor baby doesn't seem to be scared of anything, really, which sort of makes sense since she's obviously been fending for herself since she was born. Lily's less than happy about the situation--been snapping and growling at her incessantly--but I suspect that she'll warm up to the idea eventually. I took a picture of the puppy yesterday, but don't have the equipment here to post it. I'll stop by the house tomorrow and pick up the camera cord, and will hopefully have time to get it up so everyone can see how cute she is. We still don't have a name for her, so if anyone's good at naming animals, I'd love suggestions.
Wow. It's nice to be able to write without fear of being unexpectedly kicked offline! I think I'm going to do some layout changes now, and then I need to get to work.
Happy Sunday.