Still aten't dead
Wow, it's been a long time since I've posted. Oddly enough, it's not for lack of interest: I still tend to read LJ almost every day, for that sense of faux bonhomie and pseudo-involvement in the lives of people whom I like (even when I'm kinda turning into The Inadvertent Hermit). It's not a choice: it's more a side-effect of, a) raising a toddler, b) teaching and trying to keep a foot in academia, and, c) trying to start a business. Even a small one.
So how am I finding the time to write this - and during the end of the term, no less? Why, my in-laws are in town!
I love my in-laws. Seriously. No tongue in even the distant vicinity of cheek. They're the first family I've ever seen that's well-adjusted. They never fight. You can show up late to dinner because of unforeseen circumstances, or even just because that catching-up-with-a-friend thing was so fun it ran over: they don't mind. You can not like a given foodstuff: nobody guilt trips you. You can need introvert time, even in the midst of a celebration, and they? Nod agreeably, direct you to a quiet room, and make sure to press a wine-glass and a plate of hors d'oeuvres into your hands so you don't feel deprived. I'm sure my shock and awe at this sort of behavior says more about my family of origin than I might wish to reveal, but ... damn, people, that is some great role-modeling right there, and it came just at the time that I needed it to.
So, on this, their first day of visiting, I walked them to the zoo, waved goodbye, and got to knock all of my long-delayed errands out. Tomorrow, I grade long-delayed papers, Wednesday I post long-delayed artisan-ry (is that a word? normally, I know my words - I was ridiculously delighted to discover the new-to-me otiose the other day - but I'm drawing a blank on this right now) to the internets, Thursday I plan to write a long-delayed book review, and then, ideally, on Friday/Saturday/Sunday I engage in otiose leisure activities, familial and otherwise (see? I KNEW it would come in handy).
Things I want to remind myself to write about in the near future, before they slip my mind: the baby's second birthday (and his occasionally weird cross-connections, like trying to figure out how my house-keys and my computer keyboard can possibly be related, or his having learned his alphabet, figuring out that letters correspond to sounds, and looking puzzled when I keep telling him that, no, A is not for Oberon, O is ... maybe he prefers the variant spelling?), the Manhattan Vintage Show and, relatedly, the Pier Antique Show, non-traditional family structures, the gleeful triumph of finding a book I'd been trying to hunt down ever since I read the first twenty pages in somebody's study during a wedding in Malmo four years ago, and the Best Student Excuses of the year.
But in the meantime, Imma going to go and have some delicious wine and a gourmet-quality dinner, courtesy of my MIL's home cooking. Ah, bliss.
P.S. - Is it odious to be otiose? If being otiose is wrong, then, baby, I don't want to be right.
So how am I finding the time to write this - and during the end of the term, no less? Why, my in-laws are in town!
I love my in-laws. Seriously. No tongue in even the distant vicinity of cheek. They're the first family I've ever seen that's well-adjusted. They never fight. You can show up late to dinner because of unforeseen circumstances, or even just because that catching-up-with-a-friend thing was so fun it ran over: they don't mind. You can not like a given foodstuff: nobody guilt trips you. You can need introvert time, even in the midst of a celebration, and they? Nod agreeably, direct you to a quiet room, and make sure to press a wine-glass and a plate of hors d'oeuvres into your hands so you don't feel deprived. I'm sure my shock and awe at this sort of behavior says more about my family of origin than I might wish to reveal, but ... damn, people, that is some great role-modeling right there, and it came just at the time that I needed it to.
So, on this, their first day of visiting, I walked them to the zoo, waved goodbye, and got to knock all of my long-delayed errands out. Tomorrow, I grade long-delayed papers, Wednesday I post long-delayed artisan-ry (is that a word? normally, I know my words - I was ridiculously delighted to discover the new-to-me otiose the other day - but I'm drawing a blank on this right now) to the internets, Thursday I plan to write a long-delayed book review, and then, ideally, on Friday/Saturday/Sunday I engage in otiose leisure activities, familial and otherwise (see? I KNEW it would come in handy).
Things I want to remind myself to write about in the near future, before they slip my mind: the baby's second birthday (and his occasionally weird cross-connections, like trying to figure out how my house-keys and my computer keyboard can possibly be related, or his having learned his alphabet, figuring out that letters correspond to sounds, and looking puzzled when I keep telling him that, no, A is not for Oberon, O is ... maybe he prefers the variant spelling?), the Manhattan Vintage Show and, relatedly, the Pier Antique Show, non-traditional family structures, the gleeful triumph of finding a book I'd been trying to hunt down ever since I read the first twenty pages in somebody's study during a wedding in Malmo four years ago, and the Best Student Excuses of the year.
But in the meantime, Imma going to go and have some delicious wine and a gourmet-quality dinner, courtesy of my MIL's home cooking. Ah, bliss.
P.S. - Is it odious to be otiose? If being otiose is wrong, then, baby, I don't want to be right.