Autumn in the Air….

September is here, and while it is not exactly sweater weather here in GA, it is cool in the morning and at night and pleasant to sit on the deck and look at the stars.

I am a lover of all things Fall.  I love Thanksgiving and sweaters, leaves and wind and smoke from chimneys.  I bask in a brisk, slightly subdued-looking atmosphere.  I think I like the “changing” seasons the best.  Fall and Spring are seasons that are ushering in a difference.   Everything is somewhat unpredictable and changing.   Winter and Summer are what they are.

This change in the seasons and weather have put me in a nesting mode.  David knows when I hit it—I begin to bake more, read, fluff pillows and generally become more domestic.  As a matter of fact, I am working from home today and hope to be doing this most Fridays—since I only teach Tuesday-Thursday this semester.

So, it is off to work with me….maybe I’ll put in a pan of brownies while I’m typing.

America the Fearful

I’m so tired of all the fearmongering Republican blah, blah, blah.  Can someone tell me why these people don’t care about anyone but themselves?  Can someone explain to me their lack of compassion, their overall need to control others based on personal preference and their inability to be empathetic for one second and imagine what it is like to be poor, uninsured and afraid that your kids will get sick?  I find myself with no patience today.

It always amazes me that some folks have no capacity to figuratively walk in someone else’s shoes for long enough to see another point of view.  To see that their world view and perspective is not ALL THERE IS.  Intolerance is perhaps the thing that I am least tolerant of……

Up In The Morning and Off to School…

Chuck Berry makes it sound a lot more fun than I think it actually is….I’m really looking forward to starting the semester, though.  I’m teaching Children’s Wear this semester as well as an Apparel Construction class.  I have, I think, at least 8 new majors, so that is exciting.  I will miss teaching 2-D Design, though.

D and Z start back on Monday, but today we go to the school open house  to find out who they have for which classes….and my favorite part—-I get to fill out about a thousand pages of paperwork.  Hurray for twins!!!  They are nervous and excited.  8th grade–it is almost impossible to believe they are in the 8th grade.

David begins classes on the same day that the girls do.  I begin my classses the following week.  We are all trying to get out of the bad summer habit of staying up too late and sleeping late the next morning.  I have 8am classes two days a week, and the other days I take the girls to school, so I need to nip that right in the bud.

Got to get ready for the big open house!

When bones break

When your own bones break, you must rest and relax and let them heal.  When other people’s bones break, say, your spouse’s, then you must help them get bathed and dressed, prop them up, ice them down and in all manner of things, be helpful.

Not that I am complaining.

It has been a week since David broke his arm and I am pretty much exhausted.  Of course, we had a lovely time in TN visiting all our friends there, but I had to do all the driving and also working on the Elam Rd. house that had to be done.  It is hard to be the sole adult in the family that has mobility and use of both arms.  David has been in this predicament with me, of course, when I had my little hospital stay at Christmastime—so I know that he knows where I’m coming from.

Right now he is resting, which is what he should be doing lots—-and I’m about to finally take a shower after having been to yoga this afternoon and jogged with Zoe (I use the term “jogged” very loosely, mostly it was fast walking)

Hope I don’t break any bones.  Then we will really be up the creek.

Eat your veggies:-)

The girls and I went to the Farmers’ Market this morning….it was a dreary a.m. with rain and clouds and when we arrived, there were only 4 or 5 vendors set up.  The ones that were there, however, had some goodies.  We bought a flat of strawberries to make jam, some lettuces and radishes and onions (with which I plan to make soup and salad for lunch) and some asparagus and a mini loaf of pumpkin bread.  Yummy.

I plan to go to the Farmers’ Market every Tuesday and Saturday that I can…..I much prefer it to the produce at the grocery store.  I wish that we had had the foresight (and the money) to do a CSA share this summer.  One of the vendors at the market had baskets of goodies for his CSA people—there were lettuces and greens and eggs and onions—-a whole bunch of good stuff.  That would be so cool.

I’m off to find a recipe for onion soup.

Dating and Contemplating

Tonight David and I are going to accompany my friend and colleague, MB and her husband S to the Fox theatre in Atlanta to see SPINAL TAP–UNWIGGED AND UNPLUGGED.  It is a welcome occasion for David and I to be in the company of adults that are comparable in age and temprament—and have fun.  We call all our our “childless” outings “dates” even if it is just a run to the grocery or Lowe’s.  Tonight, however, I think qualifies as a bona-fide DATE and we are both excited and happy to be going out.

I suppose the entire SPINAL TAP thing dates me as I remember the movie when it came out, although I don’t think I actually saw it until I was older.  I’ve become a huge fan of Christopher Guest and his compatriots—-always droll and funny and a bit obtuse, just like “real life”.

I am a week away from being done with my contractual obligations at work, as our contracts go from Aug 15-May 15 each year.  There will be the odd couple of times that I will need to go in for a meeting or to pick up a book I’ve requested, but I have tried to be steadfast in my committment to “taking the summer off”.  My boundaries about this have been tested recently with an administrative refusal to pay a stipend that I thought was due me for extra work that I have done for the university.  I am naieve, I admit, because as I have said before, I always expect people to do the right thing and when they don’t, I am ALWAYS surprised.  I can’t say I was surprised about this, but that is another matter having to do with intuition and history.  At any rate, I won’t do any more work in this vein without some sort of contract or written agreement.  Lesson learned.

So what will I do with my mountains of free-time this summer??????  I have a stack of books to read, I have several things cut out for the girls and I that I need to construct/sew, I’ll go to the beach, I’ll go to the pool, I’ll take yoga classes twice a week, I’ll have a massage.  Mainly, I will have dates with myself, my husband and my daughters—–oh, and the beach and the H’s and the J-N’s visit from NZ and hopefully lots of lounging and relaxing with friends and family.  Relaxing–a very nice concept.

What is and what is not…

There are lots of things happening–or not happening today.  I think that we can all agree on that, huh?

The first thing that is happening is that I am reflecting about what it was like, 17 years ago (and also on a Friday, I might add) to be preparing to marry my loving husband, David.  One thing that was happening then was that I was frantically finishing Henry’s “Obi Wan Kenobi” shirt to wear during the ceremony.  Why, oh why, did I think it was a good idea to make David a kilt and Henry a shirt for the wedding????  You live, you learn.  Also, I remember that the flowers were wrong when they arrived and my sister-in-law to be, Angie, drove them all the way to Gallatin to get them fixed.  NO PINK, I told the florist, and yet, when the flowers arrived, there was pink fill in every blessed thing.  I think that some of the buttoneires were all pink.  I also remember some good things, too, like the rehearsal dinner at the Holiday Inn.  All those friends who helped make our day so special–Tracey, Henry, Norman, Richard, David B., it was truly a group effort.  I also remember that I was scared.  I knew that I loved that man.  I just didn’t know if I was the settling down type.  17 years later, I’m still not convinced….of course, we haven’t really ever settled down for too long:-)

It’s weird to think of the GA connection as well.  We moved to GA about 4 and a half months after we got married.  Since then, we’ve been everywhere man, and here we are in GA again.  Being in Athens as a young married couple was heavenly.  It’s pretty heavenly here in G’ville, too.  Just older and maybe more creaky.  Now, as then, however, we miss our friends in other places.

One of the things that is not happening today is that I am not going to be stressed out.  I have declared Fridays official “stress-free” days.  I taught my 3-D design class this morning, I met with a local couturrier (spelled wrong) to discuss his making some of the designs that were a result of our China collaboration so that they can be modeled in our university fashion show next month.  He was delightful to talk to.  He does mostly prom, wedding and pageant gowns.  He has a beautiful shop on the town square here.  Really nice and talented man.  I’ve been working from home this afternoon and being leisurely.  I’ve decided that I really must have this—stress-free ness on a regular basis.  So Fridays it is.

Maybe I will post one of our wedding pictures on my Facebook page tomorrow in honor of the occasion.   What is the 17th anniversary?  Lint?  Car Wash?  Facial?  Hmmmm, I don’t know, but I’m not stressing about it.

Have a great weekend!

Counting down to the beach…and the Kiwis’ visit:-)

OK, I made it to spring break.  SIGH.  It snowed–thank you–it was beautiful and magical.  I caught David’s cold–BLECH!  My nose is running AND sweating.  Lovely.

Oh, well.  Much other stuff to think of:

Right now, I’m counting down to The Beach. The H’s and the Smith-Gann-Smiths are going to visit Myrtle Beach this summer.  I am so happy that we finally pinned down the particulars and have made our reservations.  We did this a few years ago–went during spring break to Gulf Shores–and we had a blast.  Now that all the girls are older –I mean, M wasn’t even BORN last time   — I really think it will be great.  I’m scoping out a new bathing suit and a big fluffy towel for David.

Later in the summer D and M from New Zealand are going to visit.  I’m pretty excited about that too.  It’s been ages since we’ve seen each other.  M is thinking of coming to stay with us in a year or so and do her senior year of high school in the States.  She’s both an American and a New Zealander–having her Kiwi parents and being born in Athens, GA!

Speaking of, I’m at the teaching fellowship in Athens today through Friday.  I kind of hate to spend my spring break doing work-related stuff, but I also did not want to miss any of the symposia.  I think I really need something to boost my teaching powers since only one student passed the midterm I gave in Menswear. 

Off to read now…we are discussing the book SCHOLARSHIP RECONSIDERED at dinner tonight, and I’ve not finished it yet…a bad teacher and a bad student, I guess.

Harumph.

People whine too much.

When spring break won’t come fast enough…

I don’t want to live my life wishing for the future, but I swear, if spring break doesn’t get here soon, I’m gonna take somebody’s head off!!!!!!

I digress, already.

We had a wonderful Valentine’s day and After-Valentine’s day.  Some of our friends from grad school, their spouses and children came for brunch on Sunday.  It was great to chat and relax.  I hope to see them more often now that we are mostly settled here in GA.

Back to the rant—I need a break.  I need for my students to get a clue about the fact that if you want to accomplish something, you must DO IT.  Not think about it.  Not wish it to be done.  Actually, DO IT.  I need to sleep for about a week.  I need to quit craving carbs.  I need to do some of the things that I long to do, like finishing some pieces of art I’ve started and put aside, write letters, look at the stars.  Breathe.  2 more weeks until my spring break.  whew.

no more capitals today!

hope your day is pleasant and rant-free.