Finals... ugh

Studying for my sociology final has me exausted. I think I'm done for the night. George and I went to see our three houses yesterday (with Abby and Georgie, since we couldn't find a babysitter) and I found my dream house!! George said if he talks to ketler tomorrow, and all goes well with the conversation, then he will call and put an offer in on the house!!!!! I hope so, because I really love it. I'll let you know how my final goes tomorrow, if I'm not too busy studying for my English final for Tuesday!

Pacemakers and fire alarms

It's been a while since I updated last! Been keeping busy! Last month we all went to the shore with Jay, Lisa and the kids for a long weekend. It was a great trip. The kids had so much fun together, and the weather held out nicely for us. On our last day there, we got a call from home saying that George's dad was in the hospital, having a pacemaker "installed." Apparently his heart stopped a few times, and they had to put the paddles on him to reboot. It's pretty much the same thing that happened to my dad a few years ago, when Abby was a baby. Everyone was very scared, as you can imagine. But everything went very well. So well that the next week, even though I worried Al was not going to be ready for such a trip, we headed down to the boat with Al and Dot for our annual cruise. Actually, not all of us went. Denise took Georgie for the weekend, since he doesn't bunk well on the boat. We dropped him off on Friday, and George and Abby and I enjoyed a couple days at home alone before we headed to the boat on Sunday night. ETA 11pm. This year Al was told not go any further than the canal with the boat. The jerking of the waves in the bay was enough to pull the wires of the pacemaker out of their stratigically placed points in his heart. Late Monday morning, maybe early afternoon, we scooted out of the marina towards the canal, but when we hit the bay, it was so calm that Al dismissed all doctor's orders and he and George kept right on going... to Chesapeake City, where we stayed for two nights.

I started back to class last week. My first day of English was the 7th. I've already had 2 quizzes, written 2 short essays, and I have a big essay due on Tuesday. Sociology just started this Monday, the 13th. So far I think I'm going to love both classes, but they're going to be alot of homework and studying. Sociology class was a bit of a waste on Monday. Someone pulled the fire alarm during the first half-hour of class, and we had to stand outside for 45 minutes until they got everything sorted out. But somehow we still managed to squeeze in 4 pages of notes and a pop quiz on the 20's by the end of the night.

Georgie has been walking everywhere!! He finally got the hang of it. We think Jayme taught him how. He does not like the whole concept of shoes yet. Everytime I put them on his feet, he either crawls, or he'll walk (actually, it's almost an exagerrated march) raising his feet as high as he can lift them, probably hoping the shoes will fall off mid-stride! I guess he'll get used to them, I don't remember if Abby had this problem or not.

Remembrance of things past.

Class again last night... I noticed on my way up to the second floor that all school stairwells smell exactly the same. I cannot describe the smell, but whatever it is, it took me back to my junior year of high school again. I do not know why it took me back as specifically as to my junior year. Maybe I spent a lot of time going back and forth from floor to floor that year. Have you ever had this experience? Where your nose gets ahold of a scent and suddenly you you're transported back in time to a person, place or thing that you had forgotten for years? It happens to me all the time. A whiff of pipe tobacco, the aroma of bread being baked in a bakery, or any long-forgotten scent can instantly conjure up scenes and emotions from the past. Certain perfumes and colognes always remind me of certain people, past or present, in my life. Even tastes. Certain foods will do it too, and rightly so, because most of the flavor of food comes from its aroma.

---

In The Remembrance of Things Past, Marcel Proust described what happened to him after drinking a spoonful of tea in which he had soaked a piece of madeleine, a type of cake: "No sooner had the warm liquid mixed with the crumbs touched my palate than a shudder ran through my whole body, and I stopped, intent upon the extraordinary thing that was happening to me," he wrote. "An exquisite pleasure had invaded my senses...with no suggestion of its origin... "Suddenly the memory revealed itself. The taste was of a little piece of madeleine which on Sunday mornings...my Aunt Leonie used to give me, dipping it first in her own cup of tea....Immediately the old gray house on the street, where her room was, rose up like a stage set...and the entire town, with its people and houses, gardens, church, and surroundings, taking shape and solidity, sprang into being from my cup of tea." Just seeing the madeleine had not brought back these memories, Proust noted. He needed to taste and smell it. "When nothing else subsists from the past," he wrote, "after the people are dead, after the things are broken and scattered...the smell and taste of things remain poised a long time, like souls...bearing resiliently, on tiny and almost impalpable drops of their essence, the immense edifice of memory."

---

Between the stairwells, and the tiny little desks, with hardly room for one opened textbook, I felt like a teenager again. Class went well, but I'm still a little bored. I remember everything so far from my Algebra classes in HS... but I'm sure I won't be saying that for too much longer. I looked ahead in the book, and in about 2 or 3 more chapters, which is equivalent to about one-half of the next classes, it should be getting a little harder. The weather outside is lovely, beautiful, gorgeous. 75 and sunny. And the lumps that Abby and I decided to be, stayed in all day. It's a Jeremy Piven marathon day. I think he would probably fall under the category "People I Fancy, But Feel I Shouldn't." I think he's kinda cute, and an awesome actor too. It sucks that he always seems to be cast as the sidekick/best friend. Hey Cusack! Why don't you play the best friend for once? Why don't you sit Piven down and explain to him why he can't let this fantastic girl walk out of his life? George is going to "the" Korean restaurant with the Koreans and the other guys from work again tonight... The last time he went, he ate live octopus (still moving on the plate), and drank some Korean whiskey all night... he smelled like death when he walked in the door. As a precaution, I asked him, very nicely, to sleep downstairs tonight. No way am I having my sheets smell that bad again! Ugh! Nothing much else to report... it's been a fairly uneventful week. Sometimes no news is good news, right?

Math 118

I got home from class a little while ago, and I hope it doesn't sound too insane, but I had so much fun! I really love my teacher (Deb)... she is very cool. I decided not to pick up my Algebra book before the class. I wanted to wait until I knew what book the teacher wanted us to use. I was glad I waited, because I definitely would have picked up the wrong book... Most of the people in the class that got their book ahead of time didn't get the right one. Anyway, once we were shown the correct book to buy, we were allowed to go down to the store and pick one up before we started our first class. The air conditioner was broken in our classroom, so I thought I was going to hate my first night... It was so hot in that room!!! But we were told we could move our class down to the Study Lab, and we did. We did alot of work tonight! Deb said she moves fast, and boy, she wasn't kidding! I guess we kind of have to, being that it's only a 7 week course! By the time everyone had gotten back to the room from getting their books, and we moved down to the Study Lab, we only had about 2 hours left (out of a 3 hour night), and we blew right through that book. I have about 8 pages in my notebook, just full of all the algebra equations we did in class tonight... Not to mention the 5 workbook pages of homework... That's alot of math for one night!! :) I can't imagine how much more work we're going to do when we have the full 3 hours! Like I said at the top, I may sound like a complete dork, but I think it's fun!

On the way home, I stopped for a sandwich and did my homework at the restaurant. It's good to get it out of the way. I might do that every week, just so the everything is still fresh in my head, and there are no kids vying for my attention while I'm trying to do my work!

Back to school.

I start my first day of classes tomorrow night! I'm very excited, a little curious, and just slightly nervous to see what my instructor is like. According to the schedule, she's a woman. I haven't bought my algebra book for class yet, so I might try to head to the school a little early tomorrow and browse around the store before class.

I got a lot more work done in the yard today.

George went to the Preakness yesterday with Al. Smarty Jones won! Woo-hoo! They had great seats, about the best seats in the house. Something like $250 tickets right behind the finish. I think George took a video on his digital camera of the end of the race, right when Smarty pulls in front, and wins by maybe a bazillion lengths.

That's about it...

Potty talk, baseball games, and hitting the books.

Georgie is still sick today. Only symptoms are still just a fever and very cranky! Abby is still making progress on the potty! She woke up dry again this morning, and has been using the potty all day so far. George just called, and apparently he was offered tickets to go to the baseball game today. Conveniently, he called me to tell me this five minutes before he was leaving work to go to the game and he says he won't be home until late. I don't know why he's still going to be late, if the game is an early afternoon game. He should still get home at normal time, wouldn't you think? God forbid we ever go anywhere together. He always has plans that coincidentally don't include me. Guys night out, work related "meetings" after hours... blah, blah, blah... It might also help if we could ever get a babysitter. We can never seem to get one over here to watch the kids for the night so we can go out. I'm in the process of trying to find a teenager in the neighborhood so that I always have one on hand. It would be good to have one around for the summer too, so if I need help during the day, she (or he, I shouldn't be sexist) could always pop over for a few hours and help me out. There's a girl down the street, she's about 16 or so. I think she is Bill English's granddaughter (Dot's neighbor). So, anyway, I guess it's not really G's fault that we always have to go out separately. But, anyway... I'm trying to get alot done around here today, and I'll be so happy when it's done! The hard work always pays off in the end, when you can go to bed knowing how much you've done, and then wake up to a clean house!

I tried calling the counselor today for school, and they won't give you your admissions test results over the phone. I'm going to try to go tomorrow night (I have to be there before 6:30) and then I can get my class scheduled and underway! I'm looking forward to going back to school. It's going to be a little weird to sit back in a classroom again, I think. I felt like a teenager again while I was taking the ad. test last week. The pressure to do well came flooding right back, like I had never left a desk! I changed my mind after talking to Mom about taking English over the summer. She's probably right that English is alot of homework and essays to worry about, especially if I'm going on vacations. Math would probably be a better choice. I can always get the assignments ahead and do them while I'm away.

It's a beautiful day today! It's about 74 ° and so sunny. Not a cloud in the sky. A good day for a baseball game... a shame I'm not going...

Naptime for Georgie is over before it ever started... he refuses to go to sleep! Gotta run for now. Be back tonight...

Mean girls

I am so tired! I never feel like I can catch up around here. I work my butt off all day, straightening and cleaning, feeding, bathing and changing.... and then at the end of the day, the house is just as bad, if not worse then when I started. I have so much to do, and I'm hoping tomorrow is a better day to do it. I have to call about my admissions test for college in the morning... I wonder how I did. Classes start May 17th, so I have to get a move on signing up for a class. If given much choice, I'll start with English... get that out of the way! I think I did pretty poorly on the essay part of the test, due to lack of time... or maybe there was plenty of time and I'm just not used to writing on demand... I went to the movies on Friday with Natalie... girls night out... it was great to get out for a few hours. I haven't done it enough lately, and I have no idea why... Anyway, we wanted to see "13 Going on 30" on Friday (chick flick night). We were trying to get into the 8:00 show, but it was sold out! The entire movie complex was full of teenagers wanting to see "Mean Girls!" That movie was sold out for all of that night and half of the next day! So, anyway, we got tickets for the 10 o'clock show for "13 Going on 30", and decided while we were waiting to walk across the street to Ruby Tuesday for dinner. After we ate, we headed back to the theater and got our popcorn and drinks and stuff... and on the way to our movie, we saw a line of teens, mostly girls, waiting to get their pictures taken with the cardboard cutouts of the stars from "Mean Girls.." When they would go up for their picture, they would pose exactly like the "mean girl" they were standing closest to. Anywho, the movie we saw was really good. I want to see it again... I'm probably waiting for the video, though. Tickets for the movie theater are just getting way out of hand, and I heard they are going to raise the prices yet again! Poor Georgie has a fever tonight... No other symptoms except for the fever (running at about 102 °)... I'll see how he is in the morning, and if it doesn't get any better, I guess we're off to the doctor's! :( Alrighty... I'm going to soak in the tub and read my People magazine, and then I'm off to bed!