house, in the house

maura @ 9:18 pm

It is incredibly weird to me that it’s only been a month since I finished working. My days are so completely, entirely, starkly different now. Like Gus*, I’ve not had the easiest time finding my new groove. I guess when you work the same schedule for three years that groove gets worn pretty deep, and it’s harder than I thought to jump into a new one. I wrote out a very insanely OCD schedule for myself because I’m not sure what I’m supposed to be doing all the time yet, and that seems to be helping.

* Actually, Gus is doing really well at school, remarkably so given the circumstances of his transition. His teacher and classmates are great, and he seems happy to be there. But he’s still giving us that old transition-phobic pissy attitude at home which, while completely understandable, is frustrating nonetheless.

So we’ve been watching season 1 of House lately, and I’m fairly ambivalent about it. On the one hand, it’s enjoyable enough: I’m very medical-friendly (I’ve seriously contemplated going to medical school several times) so that part is fun, and Hugh Laurie is a good guy. But part of me is kind of annoyed by the whole thing, because it’s not THAT good of a show. And now we are interested, paying attention, invested, hooked. And the real shows that we do watch (Veronica Mars, Battlestar Galactica, Lost) will be starting up again next week which will probably take up all the spare time we have. But I will be tempted to watch House too, and will stay up too late and will be tired and grumpy. Grrr. If only I’d had the restraint to space out that Veronica Mars marathon over the summer, damn me!

The theme song for House is this slow instrumental sort of rap-like (rappy? rappish? rappesque?) keyboard and drums thing, fairly benign (like a tumor! get it?). But Jonathan’s taken to inventing his own words for the song every time we watch. Of course I can’t remember any of his hilarious lyrics right now, but maybe they are only hilarious to us, anyway.

take a nap, take a nap

maura @ 9:39 pm

Is it even possible to write for a long time on the visor? I am out of non-library things to read on the way home from class tonight (and too tired too read school stuff) so I guess I will find out. Certain letters are even faster than my handwriting, which is often crabbed and illegible, even to me. But mostly it is slow.

So I’m partying like it’s 1999 here recently. I wanted a lightweight & portable word processing solution for taking notes etc. so I got an old visor pda & targus folding keyboard from ebay.

It’s been interesting having a pda again. Before Gus was born I completely relied on my pilot for keeping track of appointments. But when I cut my hours after I found that I didn’t use the pilot as much, so I sold it on ebay (har).

Now I am not quite sure what to use it for, beyond taking notes at libraries. I never used the to do list before, but it might come in handy for homework. And the appt. function is useful for remembering to move the car, go to a meeting @ Gus’ school, etc.

But damn, without the keyboard it is SLOW. Elapsed time for this entry = approx 20 min.

we just got a letter

maura @ 9:01 pm

Well, not really a letter, but rather a phone call. Friday afternoon, while I was in class and J was at the playground with Gus after school: our top kindergarten choice let us in! We are so so so happy and relieved: we are set for the next 6 yrs (and longer if Gus wants to go to their middle/high school), they are friendly and progressive, and no homework for kindergarteners, hooray!

On the minus side, poor Gus is not having the easiest transition. He’d gone back to his old school last week and reunited with a best buddy who’d been away all summer, and now we are making him go someplace else. He’ll be fine soon enough, and did really well today on his first day (though we didn’t make it the whole day and I was there the whole time). But of course we have a ton to do with our work and school too, so hopefully the transition will not take too long (selfish, selfish me).

Woah, it’s been so long, internets! We have been busy here in Brooklyn. First our vacation, which was lovely (read 3 books) if terribly rainy (7 out of 9 days). Then my classes started, and they are all shaping up to be pretty fun, with the papers/projects nicely spaced, too. Then the kindergarten thing. I am looking forward to a few weeks from now when we are all set in our new routines (and maybe the house will be clean by then, too).

Tiiiiiiiiiiiiiired, so tired.