Ringworm and Baby Mama

Tina Fey is pretty cute as a wanna-be mom. I won't give up the ending, lest any of you decide to see this movie, but it was a very decent way to spend the afternoon. Much gratitude to my friend and co-worker, Amy, for taking me. I think we should consider going after school on a regular basis. Matinees are only 6 bucks.

This movie is cute and happy because when people are trying to have a baby or in the pregnancy stage, they never think about things like ringworm, which is what I think of when I think of children. Ringworm and lice and soggy, wrinkly thumbs, pulled from mouths and trailing with saliva as they reach out towards me.

I guess it's different when it's your own kid. Have I mentioned that I love my job?

Can't Stop the Rain

Last night window panes rattled as thunder boomed. Rosie the Cat stayed close to us, and we fell asleep to the sound of heavy rain.

I woke up around 5:30, with rain still falling steadily, facing the following dilemma. If I drove the car, I could sleep in another hour and still make it to work on time, and also not get all wet while walking two miles to the bus stop. If I took the bus, I might get wet, but then I would be able to read one of my new library books, and also stay committed to my pact to be somewhat car-less this month in observation of Earth Day. I guess I really wanted to read that book, because I decided to take the bus. Either that, or I really love the Earth.

I got very wet.

I felt somewhat foolish about choosing the bus. I mean lots of people (myself included, before getting my first car at age 26), can't avoid getting all wet while waiting for the bus. I could have, at least on this particular morning. And let me tell you, my feet were wet all day as I sat in training, some of which was good, and some of which was clearly not very well thought out.

But being a person who doesn't mind getting Economical, or the trials and tribulations that sometimes accompany frugality, has granted me a tremendous amount of freedom. When I hear my colleagues and friends bemoaning the fact that they can't leave jobs they hate because of financial obligations or debts, I feel very, very lucky that I can pay all my bills on a minimum wage job.

Of course renting a small apartment from a slum lord has its downsides.

This morning, the leak that was formerly just bubbling plaster in the bathroom turned into steady stream. M was late to work as he haggled with the land company. But the thing is, we don't care if water is pouring out the ceiling into our bathroom, so haggle is not exactly the word I'm looking for. We've been dutifully reporting the leak every few weeks as we noticed a crack, then a bubble, then damp plaster, then falling plaster, etc. each time we noticed a change. But one would think that they might care, as something that would have been an easy fix a few months ago, is now something of a disaster.

Anyway, our bucket is only so big, so all M wanted to know was if they planned to come over sometime in the next hour, so he could leave the bucket, or if they would be by many hours later, in which case, he would need to stay home and change the bucket, which was steadily filling up, and which, left unattended, would likely spill all over the floor and into the first floor apartment.

Again, not that we care, but....

So, eventually they came and the leak appears to have stopped, as did the rain. Happy endings all around.

Congratulations, Mom!

Today we had the pleasure of attending the English/Film Studies graduation ceremony at the University of Pittsburgh. M's mother finished her degree in English Writing - her second bachelor's degree. She has been working really hard (while also holding down a full-time job) for a long time and I know that she really loves to write. Hopefully we will be seeing some children's historical fiction flowing from her pen in the near future. Congratulations, Mom!

The Path

Last year at this time, spring was in the air. Even high up in the mountains, the days were starting to get warm, the forest floor was carpeted with flowers, and I woke up everyday and followed white blazes until I got too tired to move any more. Then I stopped, ate a ridiculous amount of food and went to bed. Sometimes I wrote in my journal, or knit a few rows on a pair of socks I was working on. But often, I just stared out into the woods, until it was too dark to see anything.

It was the opposite of multi-tasking, and it was very, very good.

On Monday, I found out that the state department of education has a problem with my certification application. After a dizzying number of phone calls and emails, it seems that there are some ways to work around this - transfer my credits to a new university, appeal to the state board, do another round of student teaching. But it will all take six months or more, and a good deal of money, and I think pursuing it would be a little bit like walking off the trail and bushwacking through dense, Appalachian vegetation, instead of just staying on the obvious, well-maintained, clearly-blazed footpath that leads directly to one of the most stunning mountains in the world.

If an obvious path presents itself to you, I think you should probably just get on it. Now the Appalachian Trail, while clearly marked, does not provide the most direct, nor the easiest route, from Georgia to Maine. To drive it would only be about 1,400 miles. Walking the path is nearly 2,200. So, I think I'll be taking advantage of the opportunities that have presented themselves to me, instead of fighting this bureaucracy.

It was a hockey night in Pittsburgh...

...sadly, not a baseball night.

Pens prevailed over the Rangers 5-4. Pirates succumbed to the Phillies 5-6. Since everybody and their mother from Pittsburgh was watching hockey, PNC Park had an uncomfortably high number of Philadelphia fans.

But the rain held off, and Mark, Matt, Sloan, Stan and I rode our bikes downtown to the game on the Jail Trail. We met Matt's brother and Peter and Jason from Mark's work down there. The game went late, and there were fireworks after. So all in all, it was a fun time.

Riding home in the dark, we were a dizzying collection of blinking red and white lights. We stopped in Oakland, which I expected to be more empty than it was, since classes are over, but throngs of drunk college students roamed the streets, and we could not even find a bar that was satisfactorily empty. Instead, we got a pizza from Antoons, and sat on the wall across from the Towers dorms and took in the show.

I love riding my bike around at night, especially with a group of people. Even when I got slightly separated from my group, and a woman in a giant SUV cut me off, there was another cyclist right there behind me in a flash, cursing her out. It's like being in a club.

I love Pittsburgh in the spring time - it's been a few years since I've lived here for this season, and I forgot about the sweet and heady smell of lilac that hangs in the air on a humid night.

Definitely eased the tension I was feeling this week over my job.

K & M....EX-vagabonds

The era of sleeping on a futon, in other people's spare bedrooms, in our car, and yes, on the cold, hard ground, is finally over. M and K have purchased a bed. This was a rather impromptu decision, fueled by the desire to spring clean our apartment and the fact that the skies were clear on Sunday afternoon - allowing us to transport the mattress on the roof of Sandy. She did great. So we are now resting peaceably on an extra firm pillow top.

So maybe I won't be a teacher after all....

I just heard from the state that my application for certification will not be accepted after all. This after I spent $1,700 on tuition and close to $500 on Praxis exams to fulfill the gaps in my original application, not to mention a good six months of my life. I can go to Harrisburg (4 hour drive), for a fifteen minute meeting with a committee who will make recommendations to the Secretary of Education, who will then make a decision. Twelve to fourteen weeks later.

Grrrr....

To boot, four teachers called off today and there were not enough subs, so the rest of us had to cover. I, suffering from a cold, nearly called off, but thought it was not a good enough reason. I know that some people are just burning their personal days, which I do not blame them for. I just wish more people would sign up to sub, although I know why they don't.

So, while I thought my life calling was to educate children with special needs in high poverty areas, there seems to some resistance on the part of the universe in me actually fulfilling that calling.

I'm thinking...banking?

What? A Japanese Vegan Restaurant??

And to top off our California vacation, we headed down to Oakland to visit Leah and Kristijo, former TFA colleagues and neighbors of ours in Phoenix. They are both students now, and seem to be studying all kinds of fascinating things. It was great to catch up with them over dinner in Berkeley at a Japanese vegan restaurant - you heard me right...no fish! The food was delicious and ample. Now if we could only get them to come and visit us in Pittsburgh!

Baby Butler

While in CA, we drove up to Sacramento for a quick, but fun, visit with Jamie and Trisha and their new baby, Sean. He is two months old and quite charming. Jamie and Trisha seem to be doing well with their new California life. We miss them tons in the Burgh, but I must say Sacramento has a certain sunnier disposition about it.

Boats!

K & M in Monterey Bay, CA, watching the humpback whales dive. Luckily the weather was unseasonably warm, with calm seas. It was still pretty hard to keep my delicious Carmel Valley wine in the glass. You can also see that I felt the need to bundle up in my fleece jacket. The boat was pretty small, but had a little cabin area, where we spread out some food. It also had a toilet, much to the relief of everyone. The captain was also very knowledgeable about sea life and also had another person on board who was a marine biologist. I definitely recommend taking a cruise in the Monterey Bay.