*blinks* in the daylight
Hello, Llama-fans:
It's been awhile. Still recovering from my mysterious viral death illness (turns out, not Epstein-Barr). I don't like posting about negative things, so these last few weeks have produced little in the way of blog material. Safe to say that staying home and "resting" (i.e. sleeping 18 hrs per days) is not healthy for my psyche, though I have watched a marvelous amount of television (Outlaw Biker Wedding! Gypsy Weddings! Cat psychologists! Nature documentaries! You get the idea...) Luckily, thanks to better living though chemistry, I'm re-emerging into the daylight - like a new butterfly llama (now wrap your head around *that* imagery!). I still get tired easily, and if I push too hard, I crash the next day. Yet I'm making it out of the house each day, showered and dressed (new rule!) and feel much better for it. Sadly, I had to quit my cool summer job (very, very disappointing :( ) but I felt I couldn't commit to scheduling when I had no idea if I could physically honor those commitments.
M. and I went to B'more to celebrate his dad's 60th birthday and his stepmom's retirement. After a day walking around the American Museum of Natural History in D.C., we spent one night in Silver Spring, where M's siblings took us to the Pirate Tavern. The waitstaff all dress up like pirates and they serve pirate-themed food (alas, not weevily hardtack, but everything on the menu is named after pirates like i.e. "The Anne Bonny") and on Friday nights the Pirate Band sings pirate songs (which grew increasingly bawdy and hilarious as the evening progressed). They also serve a prodigious amount of alcohol (being a tavern), including "grog" which was a large, deadly stein of rum with a little flavoring and ice. (I did not partake, but detected a pronounced effect on my companions who did.) There are band groupies, who dress up like pirates and sing along. The jovial and ironic atmosphere reminded me a lot of Philo, but with costumes. yes, I know that real pirates were terrible and violent individuals (which we learned in the maritime exhibit at the smithsonian). Which also taught us about Anne Bonney, a female pirate who sailed with Calico Jack Rackham, and later avoided execution due to being pregnant at the time.
The rest of the weekend, we spent with the family, BBQ'ing and hanging out. We had a surprise retirement party for M's stepmom with all her co-workers. Also spent some time getting to know my niece, Emory, who is 4 years old and extremely entertaining. (i showed her alice pictures on my phone, she showed me her new sleeping bag.) It was a concentrated weekend of family fun, but we were happy to come home and retrieve our cat from M's mom (our dedicated cat-sitter). She told us that Alice spent most of the weekend under the bed, with occasional forays into the rest of the house. Alice stubbornly refused to come out from under the bed when we arrived, so we had to get the broom to shoo her out, but eventually resorted to lifting the bed, grabbing her and stuffing her into her cat carrier. She was very vocal when we brought her home, but much calmer now that she was in her own territory. We think she may have forgiven us, but only because we feed and pet her. "Remember, human, I can kill you at any time!"
Also taking online summer courses for my degree - Content Reading is geared towards training subject area teachers (math, science, social studies) to incorporate teaching reading into lessons. I realized how much reading and comprehension we expect kids to get out of textbooks, but many kids have difficulty parsing the text, much less learning scientific vocabulary. Looking to continue working on the fatigue (exercise, vitamins, positive thinking). Praxis update: I passed the Biology Content exam! They even sent me a certificate for scoring in the top 15%. Yay! (I think.)
Met up with the always delightful arsenicjade for Thai food and ice cream, which decidedly raised my spirits. Also watching the excellent (but disturbing) Game of Thrones on HBO (by DVR'ing the episodes at Chez Parents). Love the gorgeous sets and costumes and writing, but wow, the sex and violence is even more graphic than the books! Some of the swordfights are ridiculously reminiscent of the Monty Python sketch in the holy grail where the enemy Knight keeps fighting ("It's only a flesh wound!") even as gouts of blood gush from his amputated stumps.
Thinking about planning a trip to NYC for later in the summer. Email me for details. Trying to coordinate with my sister llama and various relatives, so the dates may shift around slightly before I buy my tickets.
It's been awhile. Still recovering from my mysterious viral death illness (turns out, not Epstein-Barr). I don't like posting about negative things, so these last few weeks have produced little in the way of blog material. Safe to say that staying home and "resting" (i.e. sleeping 18 hrs per days) is not healthy for my psyche, though I have watched a marvelous amount of television (Outlaw Biker Wedding! Gypsy Weddings! Cat psychologists! Nature documentaries! You get the idea...) Luckily, thanks to better living though chemistry, I'm re-emerging into the daylight - like a new butterfly llama (now wrap your head around *that* imagery!). I still get tired easily, and if I push too hard, I crash the next day. Yet I'm making it out of the house each day, showered and dressed (new rule!) and feel much better for it. Sadly, I had to quit my cool summer job (very, very disappointing :( ) but I felt I couldn't commit to scheduling when I had no idea if I could physically honor those commitments.
M. and I went to B'more to celebrate his dad's 60th birthday and his stepmom's retirement. After a day walking around the American Museum of Natural History in D.C., we spent one night in Silver Spring, where M's siblings took us to the Pirate Tavern. The waitstaff all dress up like pirates and they serve pirate-themed food (alas, not weevily hardtack, but everything on the menu is named after pirates like i.e. "The Anne Bonny") and on Friday nights the Pirate Band sings pirate songs (which grew increasingly bawdy and hilarious as the evening progressed). They also serve a prodigious amount of alcohol (being a tavern), including "grog" which was a large, deadly stein of rum with a little flavoring and ice. (I did not partake, but detected a pronounced effect on my companions who did.) There are band groupies, who dress up like pirates and sing along. The jovial and ironic atmosphere reminded me a lot of Philo, but with costumes. yes, I know that real pirates were terrible and violent individuals (which we learned in the maritime exhibit at the smithsonian). Which also taught us about Anne Bonney, a female pirate who sailed with Calico Jack Rackham, and later avoided execution due to being pregnant at the time.
The rest of the weekend, we spent with the family, BBQ'ing and hanging out. We had a surprise retirement party for M's stepmom with all her co-workers. Also spent some time getting to know my niece, Emory, who is 4 years old and extremely entertaining. (i showed her alice pictures on my phone, she showed me her new sleeping bag.) It was a concentrated weekend of family fun, but we were happy to come home and retrieve our cat from M's mom (our dedicated cat-sitter). She told us that Alice spent most of the weekend under the bed, with occasional forays into the rest of the house. Alice stubbornly refused to come out from under the bed when we arrived, so we had to get the broom to shoo her out, but eventually resorted to lifting the bed, grabbing her and stuffing her into her cat carrier. She was very vocal when we brought her home, but much calmer now that she was in her own territory. We think she may have forgiven us, but only because we feed and pet her. "Remember, human, I can kill you at any time!"
Also taking online summer courses for my degree - Content Reading is geared towards training subject area teachers (math, science, social studies) to incorporate teaching reading into lessons. I realized how much reading and comprehension we expect kids to get out of textbooks, but many kids have difficulty parsing the text, much less learning scientific vocabulary. Looking to continue working on the fatigue (exercise, vitamins, positive thinking). Praxis update: I passed the Biology Content exam! They even sent me a certificate for scoring in the top 15%. Yay! (I think.)
Met up with the always delightful arsenicjade for Thai food and ice cream, which decidedly raised my spirits. Also watching the excellent (but disturbing) Game of Thrones on HBO (by DVR'ing the episodes at Chez Parents). Love the gorgeous sets and costumes and writing, but wow, the sex and violence is even more graphic than the books! Some of the swordfights are ridiculously reminiscent of the Monty Python sketch in the holy grail where the enemy Knight keeps fighting ("It's only a flesh wound!") even as gouts of blood gush from his amputated stumps.
Thinking about planning a trip to NYC for later in the summer. Email me for details. Trying to coordinate with my sister llama and various relatives, so the dates may shift around slightly before I buy my tickets.