Oh man.  Vacation is niiiiiicce.

Yesterday, I got up and did some things around the house, took a shower and hit the town.  I got my pool pass, went downtown and did all the things I never have time for: a trip to the library, a stop at the UM Museum of Art (which is in downtown Bangor), poked around the used bookstores, saw That Guy* and some other acquaintances, and enjoyed the sunshine.  Came home and cleaned up a bit, made dinner, enjoyed Dave and all of that.

Today I was out early because of a dentist appointment (no cavities, yay!) and then I got some groceries for dinner tonight; I’m making a roast chicken meal for my dad’s father’s day present.  I had to run out again for butter and beer (nice combo, eh?) and I had a few interactions with the Bike Boys that haunt our street.

They are awesome.  When I got back from the dentist this morning, they had parked their bikes on the side of the street and were chasing a cat.  I stopped and let them chase it, and when I parked they came over.  Neither has front teeth.

"That cat! Something’s WRONG with it!  It’s all shaved on one side and there’s some RED STUFF and we’re trying to CATCH IT!"

"well, guys, if it’s shaved it probably means it had surgery at the vet.  Cats aren’t too good with razors you know, they can’t shave themselves."

They thought about it for a minute, and decided that they would try to ‘rescue’ it anyway.  I know the cat, it’s our neixt door neighbor’s cat, and I really wasn’t concerned for it.  But listening to the boys, all morning "There it is! RUN!" and hearing that the cat was outwitting it? That was awesome. 

Then, when Dave was home for lunch I was leaving to buy the butter n’ beer, and the boys stopped me in the driveway.

"Can you help me tighten my seat? It keeps MOVING on me!"

I tried, but it was awkward, so I got Dave.  Meanwhile, the kids told us their latest adventure.

"There’s a BIG GIANT puddle that we like to ride through and hit the BUMPS with our bikes!"

Dave, working on the bike: "It smells like maybe you hit some poo."

"No, it was cow manure we rided through."

Just, awesome.  Love that my street, the only kids on it, are out on their bikes from dawn til dusk.  It gives me hope for our future kids, you know? The street is so safe, the kids know they can go up to adults and ask for help with their bike or whatever.

Tomorrow, NYC! YAY!  I still have to pack, but my camera batteries are charged.  That’s the important part, right?  Also, just added a picture of my blog-matching daypack to the last entry.  The safety pin I use on it is even blue, the same blue as my link text.  WHAT a goober I am.

*That Guy:  TG is a guy, homeless, I think, that is always seen around town.  He is fairly neat, but has a long, bushy yellow beard and slicked back yellow hair, and a very red face.  He is always seen with a lit cigarette balancing on his lower lip, and his fingers almost never touch the smoke. Whenever we see him we say "Hey! It’s That Guy!" he’s somewhat of a landmark — for us, anyway.

Well, I’m done.  Today was spent doing records in the morning, which I totally dragged out because it was really all I had to do, so I read through old files and looked at the kids’ kindergarten screening reports, which ask stock questions like "What does your mother do?" and getting a kick out of the responses.  I wonder what my kids will say when the time comes.

After that, I got lunch, and cleaned off my iBook, and surfed for a bit.  But then someone was found to open the door to the tech office, so I had to shut down my MLTI iBook for the last time and put it away, which left me with more than an hour of literally NOTHING to do.  I played cat’s cradle with an extra large rubber band until 2:15 when the secretary announced to the school "You are free to go." And go I did.

However, on my way out I was stopped by several teachers who said "oh, wait! Is this it? Are you leaving now?" and then followed my affirmative response with  lots of good luck/ you’ll do great/ I can’t believe they let you go, of all people/ come visit.  And I’m done.  Is it weird that the most emotional moment today was turning in my iBook?

Anyway.

Tomorrow I will get my pool pass, and maybe go in the afternoon.  It’s $20 for the summer for an adult resident, and the pool is two streets away, which I know will be an even huger asset when I have kids.  You can see my neighborhood pool here and here, but funnily enough, NOT on the city website.  The pool info there is a scanned fax that is only viewable as a PDF, and lists hours, fees, and rules. So lame. Maybe I could work for the city when I finish my degree. Anyway, you can see the grassy area in those pics, and to even stretch out on a towel and read a book (currently "Little People" by Tom Perrotta) would be just delicious.

Speaking of my degree, I posted this on IM today.  Any thoughts? It’s driving me crazy, but it boils down to the sentence in bold, I think.

[fellow IM TTCing after a M/C]’s recent success, after having such
similar first pregnancies (we found out 2 days apart, both RH-, etc)
has me really rethinking my "wait 2 cycles" plan. I’ve been plugging
dates into the BabyCenter ovulation calculator (and then having a wave
of sadness when I realized I was logged in and, according to them, 15
weeks pregnant today
) and while I’m quite content to not have tried before my first post-m/c
cycle, I don’t know if I can keep convincing myself to wait one more
cycle.
 

I’m positive I ovulated, lots of EWCM and the return of the post-ov
fatigue, but I was sick and there was no F-ing of any kind, GO or no.
But now I’m eyeing July, and it’s just close enough to make me really
want to TRY then.
 

My GA spot goes to May 31, but classes end May 5, and a July cycle
would end up being a mid-April baby. I’m not really concerned about my
classwork — since I am only GAing 20 hrs/week I know I’d be able to
get it done early, esp where I’m spending so much time in the lab as a
GA anyway (most of my classes are project based, so it’s not like I’d
miss exams or whatnot). My dept is really small (2 profs: one is my
advisor, the other I’m GAing for; an independent study PhD student — I
think she’ll be there — and one GA, me.) and my biggest concern is
wondering if having to miss up to 6 weeks of the end of my GA service
would affect my tuition reimbursement. I figure I could always work
more before I had a baby, and/or work at the summer institute
afterwards, but, would that be bad?
 

I can’t help but think that it would work out. And that’s only IF I got
pregnant, which I am highly likely NOT to do. But not TRYING and
wondering if I missed my chance just seems like it would be more
difficult than trying and dealing with the consequences.

Sorry for the tome; I hope someone out there has some similar experiences or advice to share.

Yeah, so I imagine lots of people have heard about the US letting a guy with a bloody chainsaw, among other weapons, into the country and then finding out he murdered two people?  Google Gregory Despres, or here is a link from the BBC. 

FYI, that’s the border I’ve crossed most often.  On more than one occasion, whilst driving a CAR through the checkpoint late at night, I’ve had to honk to wake up the — I swear to god — sleeping customs agent to get cleared through.  There’s no gate, I assume there’s an alarm if I just drove through, but yeah.  Whooohooo, Maine is famous again. Sigh.

This week has been crazy-busy, with graduation, a 12 hour field trip, the last days of school, etc etc.  School is out, I have to go in Monday to do my records, but all my stuff is out of there.  My two kids — Kaitlin and A — showed up during lunch on Friday after kids had left.  (They were 8th graders, so they didn’t know that school was a half day that day, as they’d already graduated).  They arrived just after I got my candle-in-a-glass-mug and $25 WalMart giftcard as a going away present, and I was thinking "What a fucking joke, the people in charge of getting me a going away present so obviously DON’T KNOW ME."  (I am sort of a running joke in the middle school for my love of Target and passionate despisal of WM.  As it is, the giftcard is just going to be regifted to the MIL for her birthday.)  And I’m sitting there, mentally rolling my eyes and tapping my toes because I just want to be DONE, and I look out the caf doors and see K&A, waving at me with a bouquet of flowers.

When I went out, they gave me the flowers by saying "We know you have allergies but we wanted you to have flowers!" and they gave me a certificate they made themselves, of lime green construction paper, with a second layer of pink, and a third of blue.

(And on the back "We forgot the E in forget but what do  you expect we went to GMS! haha")

THAT was my best award.  They were all sad that school was out, because they wanted to stay, so I said "Well, if you want to stay, you can, and I can give you a ride home if it’s okay with your mom."  They ran out to the car, and ran back in, grinning.  "We can stay!"

And they did.  They helped me until 3, when I took them home and they said "How can we visit you at the university? Do we need to call and make an appointment?" and I told them they only needed to email me if they wanted to see me, and that if they needed help with their math, to let me know. These kids? Are awesome.  I’ll toss out the card and candle and pass on the giftcard, but the flowers are on my kitchen peninsula, and the certificate will end up in my portfolio.  Because THAT’s what meant the most.

After school, we went to a bar at a bowling alley (note: a week in advance, all of the better watering holes in town had been booked by OTHER schools that were also getting out yesterday.  Apparently the last day of school is big money for barkeeps.) where I had THREE Heinekens, which is more than I’ve had all year, and I had a great time and stayed til 10:30.  At one point, we were outside so some of our group could smoke, and a parent arriving with middle school-aged kids very pointedly rushed his kids in the building while giving us the evil eye, and it just cracked me up.  Sweetie, we’re your kids’ teachers. (Well, they weren’t OUR kids, but still, I guarantee you that "teacher" would be the last occupation he’d guess of the group of us hoodlums.)  It was fun.

Now, it’s rainy and gray and cold (59!) and I cannot even believe I go to NYC on THURSDAY.  Whoo! Time has flown!  I can’t wait!

In other news, there was a job in the paper today that has me wishing it was being advertised a year from now.  This? sounds like my PERFECT JOB. SERIOUSLY.

"Position Available Technology Instructor (Technology Trainer-Mentor) As
part of a state-wide grant, the successful candidate will work with 8
school districts in Penobscot and Piscataquis Counties. This
self-directed person will be responsible for training and mentoring a
selected group of teachers in those districts to integrate the latest
technology in their classrooms. This person should have some knowledge
of MLTI program. Maine’s laptop program. The position begins July 1,
2005 and is scheduled as a three-year program depending upon federal
funding. The candidate will: – receive some out of state training –
will be required to travel extensively within the two counties The
candidate must have knowledge in the following areas: – computer
applications – use of digital cameras, scanners, and other similar
technologies – in working with adult learners – Maine Learning Results
Send cover letter, resume, transcripts, and three current letters of
recommendations to:

Everything about that job sounds awesome to me.  Some out-of-state travel (that sounds cool now, prob would change if I had a kid, but for NOW, awesome), lots of rural work, MLTI and teaching adults/teachers, integration, etc etc… PERFECT JOB. I’ve decided to take it as a sign that getting my M. Ed. will pay off.  Maybe next year this position will be available for the eastern counties instead of the central ones (which would be similar travel times, despite living in Penobscot, I’m sure they mean the rural areas which are as far, or farther, than the borders of the eastern counties).  Or even Washington County, where I grew up.  I wouldn’t mind that a bit, and if I DID have a baby and had to travel up there, hellloooo built-in childcare with Grandma S. Anyway. It’s a sign.  My M. Ed will pay off, right?

Just a quick FUCK ME post, because I just spent almost an HOUR composing a post for Amy’s 30th birthday, a really meaningful post, not a recap of shit that annoys me or anything, and I HIT THE WRONG BUTTON when I was done, and erased the whole fucking thing. Fuck fuck fuck.

Amy, I am working on a post for you.  But I’m all stuffed up from allergies or sinuses or something, and I was hitting post to go to bed, and I’m too pissed off to redo it.  It would end up being all "Dude! Amy is my best friend and shit, FREEEBBBIIRRDD!" And that’s not what I want to write.

Give me a day or so. FUCKITY FUCK FUCK. Happy Birthday. 🙁