Fucking hell. I need a break from this summer.
First off, let me say that life is pretty fucking good when the World Cup is going on. Awesome, awesome time to watch the best soccer players come together. And I can't help but get a teary eyed seeing South Africa host. The Olympics comes off smarmy and saccharine compared to World Cup, in my opinion.
Here's to hoping Uruguay can topple France today.
That said, the past few weeks were nothing short of emotionally, mentally and physically challenging and exhausting. I've been on an epic 2 week journey that took me to five states for the visiting of friends and family, a wedding, and work. Gah. You have no idea how happy I am to be here at home, but I'll clue you in.
The journey began with a visit to New York, where we stayed with Ken (Evan's dad) and hung out with Evan's friends and and his Aunt June. It didn't begin well as Ken immediately made Evan read a card that Carolyn left for him. It was a rather vague piece of shit that said, hey, let's put the past behind us and move ahead. She probably spent all of 30 seconds writing it. Ken was adamant that no discussion of past events would happen, that Carolyn would never leave the apartment again should we come visit, and that if Ken would visit us in Texas, then Carolyn would be in tow. Of course, this is nowhere near acceptable for Evan and me. There are outstanding issues that must be addressed, not the least being that Carolyn is "afraid" of Evan. Now, if you're afraid of someone - and I mean genuinely afraid - would you get over your fear instantly just by forgetting what made you afraid of that person in the first place?
Long story short, Carolyn is up to her old tricks. She issued some ridiculous ultimatums to Ken, who has neither the energy or the wherewitall to deal with this. Her story changes according to what's most convenient and once again, she's making herself the victim in all of this. This really put a damper on everything for the rest of our trip, especially since Ken wouldn't let a quiet moment go by without bringing all of this up. And bonus: he cornered me when Evan wasn't around and tried to get me to see how reasonable Carolyn's "plea" was. I told him flat out it wasn't acceptable and that I would honor whatever decision Evan, my husband, made. He wasn't keen on that answer, but I wasn't keen on his divide-and-conquer attempt. Ken also kept trying to get us to agree to meeting Carolyn for a drink the night before we left New York. Um, no? I honestly can't understand his insistence that all of this will just go away over drinks.
Ugh, and as if Carolyn wasn't enough of a train wreck, Ken took us to the country house that he's going to buy and fix up. Man, I know shit about house buying, but I know that this place won't be worth the time and money. It's basically a shack that the previous owners never cared about and never took care of sufficiently. The wiring is circa 1930, roughly when the place was built. The rooms terribly laid out and far too small. There's mold. There's no insulation. It's dark because the windows are small and few in number. Ken plans on completely redoing the place, but still using most of the existing walls. Um, the only two things worth saving on this place: the chimney and the foundation. The rest needs to be completely destroyed. Anywho, Ken thinks this will be a 2-year redo and cost hundreds of thousands of dollars. Gah. Evan's been trying for months to convince him that this place isn't worth the time and money, but Ken has dug in and won't listen.
Well, that sucked, but I thoroughly enjoyed hanging out with Evan's friends. There's David, Evan's friend since at least high school, and his partner, Elaine, and their daughter Billie. I met them briefly at our wedding, but I didn't have much an opportunity to get to know them, wedding being the crazy that they are. We took a little day trip to Connecticut with them to visit Phillip Johnson's Glass House, which was a lot of fun. Johnson's estate was amazing and he designed some amazing buildings. Excellent examples of modern architecture. We annoyed the shit out of our uppity tour guide and laughed hysterically when an old lady on the tour just let one rip during a lull in the tour. We're all still 10 years old, apparently.
I also met Sean, another high school friend, his wife Coco, and their daughter Dahlia. Sean and Coco couldn't make it to the wedding, so this was my first time meeting them. We had an excellent dinner at their house, some sort of Jamaican stewed chicken. All in all, it was nice to finally get to know all of these people that have been a part of Evan's life for so long. I had to endure a few jabs on my age (David: "Do you need the car seat, Jen? Billie's is in the trunk!"), but they were all awesome and fun to be with. It'll be fun to see them again next visit to New York. And we will because we won't be staying with Ken...
Candi's wedding was a blast up in Vermont. It was fun getting to see so many high school people again, even though it made me a little uncomfortable (Savannah so frequently renders change and personal growth impossible and occasionally unacceptable). Vermont was gorgeous and the ceremony wonderful despite the 30 mph winds at the top of the mountain (but hey, no bugs!).
After one more night in New York, staying with David and Elaine, Evan and I parted ways. Evan returned to Austin while I went onto Louisville for the APUSH reading. I think that is best broken down into a list of pros and cons.
Pro:
- I made money. Come July, I'll have a check for roughly $1700. Sweeeeet.
- I had free food and and free place to stay.
- I hung out with some colleagues I haven't seen in a while. And it turns out that Erica is 5 months pregnant. Who knew?!
- I met a lot of awesome people. It was very different from an academic conference in that the reading was a gathering of educators, not scholars. So rather than everyone talking about how awesome they are, they're talking about how to work with students and share their knowledge. It blew my mind, the difference. Also, my table was fantastic. We all got along and had fun sharing our knowledge and our snark.
- Louisville doesn't suck as a whole. But it took us a while to figure this out.
- Kids say the dumbest things, like: "Jonathan Edwards said, 'The road to Hell is paved with baby skulls."; "Oliver Branch sent a petition to King George, but the king rejected it."; "All men are created equal and are well endowed by their creator."
Cons:
- The free food was pretty bad and made me nauseous most days. Ugh. They could have served peanut butter and jelly everyday and I would have been more welcoming of that than what we were served. Salisbury steak?! Did you find those in some old WWII C rations?!
- High school teachers lead very unhealthy lives and it makes me a bit nauseous. I couldn't believe the stampede - literally, a stampede - during breaks when they served ice cream. People would race to get it. And you wouldn't believe the amount of sodas consumed. Egads!
- Talking with these teachers, I don't know if I would be happy teaching at that level. I would make decent pay considering my education level, but still. Most likely not my bag.
- GRADING. GAH. I scored roughly 900 tests in 7 days. At the end, I was so numb. I couldn't feel anything anymore. And sleeping only 6 hours night is the worst. It doesn't prepare me for a full day of work. Next time (should there be a next time), I will sneak my ipod in with me and take minibreaks in the bathroom. At least grading for my classes here at UT, I can stop at any point and watch cartoons to clear my head.
- I DON'T GIVE A FLYING FUCK IF I'M NOT GOOD AT BUBBLING IN SCANTRON SHEETS.
- My roommate, though very nice, was not good at sharing space with someone else. For instance, rather than asking, "Hey, do you mind if I watch some TV before going to sleep?" , she would just say, "OMG, I love CSI Miami!" and then crank up the volume. At 11 pm. And we're waking up at 6:30 am. Really?????? (Best part: she thought our living arrangement worked out so well that she wants to request me to be her roommate next year. Oh how wonderful.)
- Downtown Louisville sucks pretty hardcore. There's nothing to do and hardly any good restaurants within walking distance from where we were. And to add insult to injury, the people at the front desk of my hotel (the Hyatt) couldn't tell me anything about Louisville that was outside of a two block radius of the hotel. For instance, I asked for a nice liquor store where I could buy my husband a nice bottle of bourbon. The woman's response: there's a CVS nearby. WTF?!
it was an epic two weeks and I'm beyond happy to be at home. I could sleep for the next week I'm so tired. Hmmm. Maybe I will...
Here's to hoping Uruguay can topple France today.
That said, the past few weeks were nothing short of emotionally, mentally and physically challenging and exhausting. I've been on an epic 2 week journey that took me to five states for the visiting of friends and family, a wedding, and work. Gah. You have no idea how happy I am to be here at home, but I'll clue you in.
The journey began with a visit to New York, where we stayed with Ken (Evan's dad) and hung out with Evan's friends and and his Aunt June. It didn't begin well as Ken immediately made Evan read a card that Carolyn left for him. It was a rather vague piece of shit that said, hey, let's put the past behind us and move ahead. She probably spent all of 30 seconds writing it. Ken was adamant that no discussion of past events would happen, that Carolyn would never leave the apartment again should we come visit, and that if Ken would visit us in Texas, then Carolyn would be in tow. Of course, this is nowhere near acceptable for Evan and me. There are outstanding issues that must be addressed, not the least being that Carolyn is "afraid" of Evan. Now, if you're afraid of someone - and I mean genuinely afraid - would you get over your fear instantly just by forgetting what made you afraid of that person in the first place?
Long story short, Carolyn is up to her old tricks. She issued some ridiculous ultimatums to Ken, who has neither the energy or the wherewitall to deal with this. Her story changes according to what's most convenient and once again, she's making herself the victim in all of this. This really put a damper on everything for the rest of our trip, especially since Ken wouldn't let a quiet moment go by without bringing all of this up. And bonus: he cornered me when Evan wasn't around and tried to get me to see how reasonable Carolyn's "plea" was. I told him flat out it wasn't acceptable and that I would honor whatever decision Evan, my husband, made. He wasn't keen on that answer, but I wasn't keen on his divide-and-conquer attempt. Ken also kept trying to get us to agree to meeting Carolyn for a drink the night before we left New York. Um, no? I honestly can't understand his insistence that all of this will just go away over drinks.
Ugh, and as if Carolyn wasn't enough of a train wreck, Ken took us to the country house that he's going to buy and fix up. Man, I know shit about house buying, but I know that this place won't be worth the time and money. It's basically a shack that the previous owners never cared about and never took care of sufficiently. The wiring is circa 1930, roughly when the place was built. The rooms terribly laid out and far too small. There's mold. There's no insulation. It's dark because the windows are small and few in number. Ken plans on completely redoing the place, but still using most of the existing walls. Um, the only two things worth saving on this place: the chimney and the foundation. The rest needs to be completely destroyed. Anywho, Ken thinks this will be a 2-year redo and cost hundreds of thousands of dollars. Gah. Evan's been trying for months to convince him that this place isn't worth the time and money, but Ken has dug in and won't listen.
Well, that sucked, but I thoroughly enjoyed hanging out with Evan's friends. There's David, Evan's friend since at least high school, and his partner, Elaine, and their daughter Billie. I met them briefly at our wedding, but I didn't have much an opportunity to get to know them, wedding being the crazy that they are. We took a little day trip to Connecticut with them to visit Phillip Johnson's Glass House, which was a lot of fun. Johnson's estate was amazing and he designed some amazing buildings. Excellent examples of modern architecture. We annoyed the shit out of our uppity tour guide and laughed hysterically when an old lady on the tour just let one rip during a lull in the tour. We're all still 10 years old, apparently.
I also met Sean, another high school friend, his wife Coco, and their daughter Dahlia. Sean and Coco couldn't make it to the wedding, so this was my first time meeting them. We had an excellent dinner at their house, some sort of Jamaican stewed chicken. All in all, it was nice to finally get to know all of these people that have been a part of Evan's life for so long. I had to endure a few jabs on my age (David: "Do you need the car seat, Jen? Billie's is in the trunk!"), but they were all awesome and fun to be with. It'll be fun to see them again next visit to New York. And we will because we won't be staying with Ken...
Candi's wedding was a blast up in Vermont. It was fun getting to see so many high school people again, even though it made me a little uncomfortable (Savannah so frequently renders change and personal growth impossible and occasionally unacceptable). Vermont was gorgeous and the ceremony wonderful despite the 30 mph winds at the top of the mountain (but hey, no bugs!).
After one more night in New York, staying with David and Elaine, Evan and I parted ways. Evan returned to Austin while I went onto Louisville for the APUSH reading. I think that is best broken down into a list of pros and cons.
Pro:
- I made money. Come July, I'll have a check for roughly $1700. Sweeeeet.
- I had free food and and free place to stay.
- I hung out with some colleagues I haven't seen in a while. And it turns out that Erica is 5 months pregnant. Who knew?!
- I met a lot of awesome people. It was very different from an academic conference in that the reading was a gathering of educators, not scholars. So rather than everyone talking about how awesome they are, they're talking about how to work with students and share their knowledge. It blew my mind, the difference. Also, my table was fantastic. We all got along and had fun sharing our knowledge and our snark.
- Louisville doesn't suck as a whole. But it took us a while to figure this out.
- Kids say the dumbest things, like: "Jonathan Edwards said, 'The road to Hell is paved with baby skulls."; "Oliver Branch sent a petition to King George, but the king rejected it."; "All men are created equal and are well endowed by their creator."
Cons:
- The free food was pretty bad and made me nauseous most days. Ugh. They could have served peanut butter and jelly everyday and I would have been more welcoming of that than what we were served. Salisbury steak?! Did you find those in some old WWII C rations?!
- High school teachers lead very unhealthy lives and it makes me a bit nauseous. I couldn't believe the stampede - literally, a stampede - during breaks when they served ice cream. People would race to get it. And you wouldn't believe the amount of sodas consumed. Egads!
- Talking with these teachers, I don't know if I would be happy teaching at that level. I would make decent pay considering my education level, but still. Most likely not my bag.
- GRADING. GAH. I scored roughly 900 tests in 7 days. At the end, I was so numb. I couldn't feel anything anymore. And sleeping only 6 hours night is the worst. It doesn't prepare me for a full day of work. Next time (should there be a next time), I will sneak my ipod in with me and take minibreaks in the bathroom. At least grading for my classes here at UT, I can stop at any point and watch cartoons to clear my head.
- I DON'T GIVE A FLYING FUCK IF I'M NOT GOOD AT BUBBLING IN SCANTRON SHEETS.
- My roommate, though very nice, was not good at sharing space with someone else. For instance, rather than asking, "Hey, do you mind if I watch some TV before going to sleep?" , she would just say, "OMG, I love CSI Miami!" and then crank up the volume. At 11 pm. And we're waking up at 6:30 am. Really?????? (Best part: she thought our living arrangement worked out so well that she wants to request me to be her roommate next year. Oh how wonderful.)
- Downtown Louisville sucks pretty hardcore. There's nothing to do and hardly any good restaurants within walking distance from where we were. And to add insult to injury, the people at the front desk of my hotel (the Hyatt) couldn't tell me anything about Louisville that was outside of a two block radius of the hotel. For instance, I asked for a nice liquor store where I could buy my husband a nice bottle of bourbon. The woman's response: there's a CVS nearby. WTF?!
it was an epic two weeks and I'm beyond happy to be at home. I could sleep for the next week I'm so tired. Hmmm. Maybe I will...