Rock me like a cyclonic tropical storm with sustained winds over 74 mph.
Or, in my case, not so much.
Hurricane Irene, which did enormous damage in the Caribbean, was barely a tropical storm by the time it got to my house. Virginia, New Jersey, New York, Vermont, even nearby towns in Massachusetts, have all had dangerous floods. Fortunately for me personally, my house is near the top of a hill with excellent drainage, so I'm basically OK. M and I got some groceries and extra batteries, and spent a few hours making food that we could have if we lost power for a while.
And we did lose power at about 9 AM.
It was back on before 10 AM, and we haven't had any problems since. For us, it was just a cloudy, blustery, rainy summer's day. It cleared up after 4 PM, and we went for a walk.
Some more general stuff about me and my life:
1) I hemmed and hawed from March to July about my job. On the one hand, I have a job that's reasonably fun, at which I'm reasonably good (and experienced) and which has several attractive perks (wholesale cost graphic novels and games, running D&D games professionally, serious nerd cred, lots of time around things I love), but which pays poorly. On the other, I love teaching, almost any teaching job would pay at least 40% more (and could easily reach 100%), and teaching has a social cachet that retail store clerk does not. However, searching for a teaching job requires the same mental and emotional resources as research did in grad school, and that's hard for me. Plus, this is a bad job market.
After careful reflection, I decided to ask for a raise at Modern Myths, and to stay if i got it. After some awkward negotiations (salary negotiations require a somewhat different approach from home purchasing negotiations), I got a raise that met my minimum requirements. After a month of the new regime, I am pleased with my choice. I have found MG a pleasure to work with/for, I'm getting more free weekends (and more latitude in my hours in other ways), I'm finding the new mix of responsibility and autonomy energizing, and the opportunities for personal and professional growth open at the store right now (as JC starts up a store in New York) must be seized now or not at all. Everything that's appealing about teaching will still be there in, say, two years (assuming society doesn't implode).
2) Millari and I continue to share the house we bought together. We continue to be best of friends, and good housemates. She was away for about a month this summer, visiting her girl in Germany, and I found living alone to be difficult at times (especially when I got sick), but also to have its attractions. The biggest surprise for me has been that I would often prefer to go home and watch TV alone, rather than go out and see people. I don't know if that's a genuine personality trait (given my father & brother's dispositions, it might be), or if that was an effect of depression.
Anyway, now that M is home, we have begun to discuss the painful subject of furthering our separation. I know that it's something that I need to do, but right now it's difficult. I'm not dating anyone yet, so I have a very comfortable home life with a beloved family member on the plus side, and no real drawbacks. It's different for M, because she's got a girl (who is actually pretty cool), so she's got an emotional stone in her shoe to prompt her to make changes.
I have, for now at least, made a firm professional commitment, which has in turn reinforced my sense of identity. I am loathe to undo the other mainstay of my sense of self (and, really, the best decision I think I have made heretofore in my life), but I know from experience that if I don't keep moving on this, I'll regret it later. I just hope that I don't have to let things turn into an ugly confrontation in order to proceed, as I have seen that happen to others. (in particular to Fran, a woman I have known since college, who used to have a lovely relationship with the woman she married, but which has curdled, to say the least.) I would find it deeply painful if my friends found it necessary to pick sides.
3) My parents continue in declining health. I visited on Friday and Saturday, and in addition to helping my brother make (as it turned out, unnecessary) preparations for the storm, I gave my dad a short test I found in a book M gave me about living with and caring for people with Alzheimer's. The idea of the test is that, if the person does well, they most likely don't have it, and if they do poorly, they might. Dad did poorly on one element (naming as many animals as he could in a minute--he got 10), but had no trouble remembering the month, day, date, year, who is and who was president; telling time on a clock face; and little trouble remembering four images of common objects that I showed him (which is fine, since he is 82). So, it's possible he doesn't have Alzheimer's, which is great. Except that I have no idea what the hell is wrong, or what to do about it, if he doesn't. My loins, I must gird them.
Hurricane Irene, which did enormous damage in the Caribbean, was barely a tropical storm by the time it got to my house. Virginia, New Jersey, New York, Vermont, even nearby towns in Massachusetts, have all had dangerous floods. Fortunately for me personally, my house is near the top of a hill with excellent drainage, so I'm basically OK. M and I got some groceries and extra batteries, and spent a few hours making food that we could have if we lost power for a while.
And we did lose power at about 9 AM.
It was back on before 10 AM, and we haven't had any problems since. For us, it was just a cloudy, blustery, rainy summer's day. It cleared up after 4 PM, and we went for a walk.
Some more general stuff about me and my life:
1) I hemmed and hawed from March to July about my job. On the one hand, I have a job that's reasonably fun, at which I'm reasonably good (and experienced) and which has several attractive perks (wholesale cost graphic novels and games, running D&D games professionally, serious nerd cred, lots of time around things I love), but which pays poorly. On the other, I love teaching, almost any teaching job would pay at least 40% more (and could easily reach 100%), and teaching has a social cachet that retail store clerk does not. However, searching for a teaching job requires the same mental and emotional resources as research did in grad school, and that's hard for me. Plus, this is a bad job market.
After careful reflection, I decided to ask for a raise at Modern Myths, and to stay if i got it. After some awkward negotiations (salary negotiations require a somewhat different approach from home purchasing negotiations), I got a raise that met my minimum requirements. After a month of the new regime, I am pleased with my choice. I have found MG a pleasure to work with/for, I'm getting more free weekends (and more latitude in my hours in other ways), I'm finding the new mix of responsibility and autonomy energizing, and the opportunities for personal and professional growth open at the store right now (as JC starts up a store in New York) must be seized now or not at all. Everything that's appealing about teaching will still be there in, say, two years (assuming society doesn't implode).
2) Millari and I continue to share the house we bought together. We continue to be best of friends, and good housemates. She was away for about a month this summer, visiting her girl in Germany, and I found living alone to be difficult at times (especially when I got sick), but also to have its attractions. The biggest surprise for me has been that I would often prefer to go home and watch TV alone, rather than go out and see people. I don't know if that's a genuine personality trait (given my father & brother's dispositions, it might be), or if that was an effect of depression.
Anyway, now that M is home, we have begun to discuss the painful subject of furthering our separation. I know that it's something that I need to do, but right now it's difficult. I'm not dating anyone yet, so I have a very comfortable home life with a beloved family member on the plus side, and no real drawbacks. It's different for M, because she's got a girl (who is actually pretty cool), so she's got an emotional stone in her shoe to prompt her to make changes.
I have, for now at least, made a firm professional commitment, which has in turn reinforced my sense of identity. I am loathe to undo the other mainstay of my sense of self (and, really, the best decision I think I have made heretofore in my life), but I know from experience that if I don't keep moving on this, I'll regret it later. I just hope that I don't have to let things turn into an ugly confrontation in order to proceed, as I have seen that happen to others. (in particular to Fran, a woman I have known since college, who used to have a lovely relationship with the woman she married, but which has curdled, to say the least.) I would find it deeply painful if my friends found it necessary to pick sides.
3) My parents continue in declining health. I visited on Friday and Saturday, and in addition to helping my brother make (as it turned out, unnecessary) preparations for the storm, I gave my dad a short test I found in a book M gave me about living with and caring for people with Alzheimer's. The idea of the test is that, if the person does well, they most likely don't have it, and if they do poorly, they might. Dad did poorly on one element (naming as many animals as he could in a minute--he got 10), but had no trouble remembering the month, day, date, year, who is and who was president; telling time on a clock face; and little trouble remembering four images of common objects that I showed him (which is fine, since he is 82). So, it's possible he doesn't have Alzheimer's, which is great. Except that I have no idea what the hell is wrong, or what to do about it, if he doesn't. My loins, I must gird them.