No Time For a Title. I'm Late.

Man! Talk about anti-climactic. Graduation evoked such misty, bittersweet emotions in me and now whump! It's all over. There is a 22-year-old with a bad cold hanging around the house, sniffling, sneezing, and hacking up her lungs.

She does make herself useful, though. The dogs and cats are thrilled to have her home all day and since our lives revolve around the pets' emotional well-being, we are all very happy with the arrangement. For the time being.

NO, she doesn't have a job yet. Christ! She just graduated 5 minutes ago. WITH A DEGREE IN RELIGIOUS STUDIES.  Howdy, pardner! Would you like fries with that?

*    *    *

I am so crabby and unmotivated at work right now. The only way I can force myself to get out the door in the morning is to count the number of school days left in the year. (Twenty after today.) The wolf-children continue to devolve.  They'll be lucky to get any recess at all between now and June 12th.

Oh, ha-ha, this made me chortle: little Estefania, who is light-fingered as hell and regularly annoys me by STEALING MY SHIT, had a little pink and purple bracelet on the other day. Naturally, she couldn't leave it alone and she kept taking it off and waving it around and twirling it on her finger. And, naturally, I confiscated it. I put it on the shelf near the take-home folders so that I would remember to give it to her at the end of the day.  (I'm not completely heartless.)  Little Jennifer yoinked it when no one was looking, and at dismissal time couldn't resist waving it around and twirling it on her finger. I restored it to its rightful owner, warned Jennifer about the perils of a life of crime, and then hissed triumphantly to Estefania, "There. How do you like it when people take YOUR stuff, HMMM?" We teachers have to take our pleasure where we can find it.

My friend Ellen (xoxo) and I have big plans for the summer. We are going to:

• organize our teaching shit so that we never again wander around helplessly saying, "Where the hell did I put the [insert name of important teaching aid here]?
• plan all the poetry for the first quarter of the upcoming school year so that one of our teammates doesn't pick a stupid, wordy poem that our kids can't read.
• go through our curriculum guides and actually plan ahead. (I know! What a concept!)
• A bunch of other stuff

We were going to do this last summer, too. But this time we mean it!

In other real-life friend news, a certain someone whose name I will not reveal, someone who reads this blog, someone whom I adore, is going to start trying for a baby this summer. A baby! A little cuddly soft cooing baby!

I have counseled her repeatedly that cats are much easier than children but she seems intent on this project. I want to give her a good Mommy Blog to read. Do you have any suggestions? I'm thinking Swistle (on whom I am seriously crushing these days, she is SO adorable and wise). If you have a mommy blog that you enjoy, leave me a link.

Talk to you later.

Comments

[Belle]

"A bunch of other stuff". That was awesome. That is MY plan every single day of my life. I think that about covers it, eh?

[Tessie]

Hello! I read upwards of 75 mommyblogs! Sad but true.

Swistle is a great one, she IS adorable and wise. What are her interests, other than sweet, sweet babies? How does she feel about CUSSING? I can recommend more.

[Sarah]

http://amazingtrips.blogspot.com/

Funny, well written and quite entertaining to someone (me) who doesn't even have kids.

[blackbird]

You read mommyblogs?
Interesting.

[Pam L]

http://julia.typepad.com/julia/ If you want funny, intelligent excellent writing about kids and families, and also read the archives for infertility issues if that comes up, and she does it all with amazing and sometimes self-deprecating wit. She has her own blog and also writes entries for Redbook online so check out her sidebar links too, now with recipes!

[Jane]

NOOOOOOO! For the love of all things holy, not Julia. If your friend reads Julia she will never conceive because her ovaries will recoil and shrivel upfrom the endless bragging about Julia's genius child and her endless bitching about her shiftless husband. Swistle, definitely. Or even Sundry BUT NOT JULIA.

(Love ya Pam. xo)

[Heidi]

Daring Young Mom:

http://www.daringyoungmom.com/2008/05/12/lost-and-found/

And at the risk of being on the receiving end of the Wrath of Jane, I highly recommend Julia too.

[Maggie]

I second Jane's recommendation for sundry. I've been reading her for years, even before she had kids. She is funny and extremely realistic about what parenting a baby and toddler can be like - the good and the bad. Some of it may scare unnamed baby-trier, but hey, having kids can be scary.

[Kimberly]

Wait...aren't YOU a mommyblogger?

[Steph]

I recommend Amalah (www.amalah.com) and her assorted articles for AlphaMom. Personally, I'm taking your advice about cats being easier (for now).

[Flibberty]

My favorite blogger of the mommy persuasion has got to be Tessie at http://messingwithtexas.blogspot.com. I adore her.

[Margaret]

I read many blogs where the people have kids, but I'm not exactly sure about the definition of a mommy blog. We blog a lot about our older kids--are we mommy blogs too? Hmmmm...Ashley is graduating with a degree in geography (but not in lucrative GIS) so she'll be slinging food alongside S.

[Pam L]

Wow, I never took it as bragging about Julia's "genius boy". He is a genius, that's a fact, but he also says and does some pretty funny stuff, or at least the way she writes about it is funny. And the few times she's actually vented about Steve was so mild I was thinking, man, I would have probably really let him have it, because let's face it, people you live with CAN be irritating as hell sometimes, but again it's always done with the humor I very much enjoy. This is probably why I don't have a blog myself, I would get in so much trouble with the internets and my family.

[MsCellania]

I'm betting on "lots of other stuff" getting done. Oh, and the poem-picking. Does Baxter Black have poetry? (cowboy from NPR)
I second Amalah (AIM A LA) and maybe suburban turmoil.
HA HA HA on the Revenge of Miz S with Estefania!
Give your Big girl a Big Hug from me. And tell her to quit farting around and start her own church. She will be exempt from taxes.

I have been hanging around the classrooms and offering assistance if our teachers have 'sticky up hair' as even my kids are awful these days. Yes! My PERFECT children, too! There is an unbelievable amount of year-end stuff and every teacher wants the kids to have fun and bask in the glow of fond memories of the school year. Plays! Picnics! Trips to zoo! Parties! Field Days! Memory books!

[Miz S]

I like Julia. I think she is a very engaging writer and a nice person. Honestly, it would be hard for her to ever say anything about her Patrick without sounding boast-y because the child is unusually precocious. And the stuff that he says and does is funny and eccentric and definitely worthy blog material. But he's also sort of retarded in practical life skills, which Julia freely admits and even pokes fun at.

Julia has seen her share of hard times, and I'm happy for her that she has those twins now.

[Pam L]

P.S. Why were you panicking 1 day ago? Is it the get organized or oh shit, it's almost the end of the year thing? Fear not, all will be well, and, if not, at least over soon-ish, for the year , that is.