The Real World

After a week off work with my mom, returning to work has been challenging. There are the usual rituals after a long absence: checking, deleting and responding to emails, reviewing tasks to accomplish, but this time it was harder. It may be that Hopkins commencement on Thursday usually means a short week this week, followed by another 4 day week for memorial day. This year, however, I volunteered to work commencement. It was hot it Baltimore yesterday. On the lacrosse field there was very little breeze. Everyone was aware and tried to prepare for he heat. Extra water bottles, extra first aid stations, and most importantly shorter commencement addresses. We actually ended 30 minutes early. Michael Bloomberg did a good job in his address, but it was the class president's address that choked me up. I am a sucker for emotional thank yous to family, maybe because I live so far away from mine.

What was I doing at commencement? Well, after helping the marshals get ready, I and my team-mate quickly joined the other Purell squirters on the field. It was our job to squirt the hands of each doctoral and bachelors degree candidate before they shook hands with the president. That is what we did for the 1000+ candidates. On the upside, several students commented on how cool the sanitizer felt and were happy to use it. The irony of all this is that I don't believe in hand sanitizers.

I traded off with others so I had a place to sit, rest and hydrate. Multiple bottles of water and juice later, we were done when I squirted Purell into Ms. Zhao's hands. It was a great day, but I was exhausted afterwards. I went home, took a 3 hour nap and relaxed until the hubby got off work. Overall, a good day. Congratulations, Johns Hopkins University, Class of 2010.

Lazy Days

Mom got in late last night after numerous weather delays. Arriving at our house after 2:00am, we were all exhausted. Today has been a day of naps, meals and visiting. It's good to have her here.

The cat and dog are in hog heaven having their grandma visit again. They are soaking up the attention, and can't wait to sit next to here or sleep with her. Of course I am the one they woke up at 6:00am to feed them.

Honfest is Coming

It will be too late for me and mom to get hon-ed, but I'm still excited about this year's Honfest in Hampden.

I love Hampden! My father-in-law is a Hampden native. His sister even danced on the Buddy Deane Show. Mom and I will make her annual shopping pilgrimage there this week to Mina"s and the other shops I adore.

To learn more about honfest check out this link http://findlocal.baltimoresun.com/downtown/community-events/fairs-festivals/honfest-downtown-hampden-baltimore-fair-festival

The Big Day

Mom is coming to Baltimore tonight. We are ready. I have some grocery shopping to do this evening before she arrives, but that's it. Now for a nice long week of visiting.

Maybe I'll try to divide the dog treats into baggies by day, so Mom won't be tempted to overindulge the grand-dog. Toby like other dogs, loves attention and food so getting a treat handed to him is the ultimate prize.

Then again, the ultimate prize may be when he uses Macgiver like cunning to army crawl under the gate to the bathroom to reach and eat the cat's food and then army crawl out without moving the bowl. Sometimes I think the dog plays dumb to lull me into a false sense of security and then he strikes, gobbling down all the cat food he possibly can before I can get to him and the bowl.

All My Exes Live in Texas

I've been thinking of ex-boyfriends lately because one of my former students has gone through a rough break-up this semester. It's easy, to forget what those days were like, now that Tom and I have been together for almost 4 years. Everything with him has been so easy, that looking back it is obvious that all my Mr. Wrongs were simply wrong for me. I could make a bad boyfriend behavior list, but I don't because I am sure I could as easily appear on a bad girlfriend list.

However, I was a single woman for so many years, that my natural allegiance still lies with them. Life does get better when you are no longer in your twenties, when you know yourself enough to know what you want. It's easier to weed out the truly suitable as well as the ones you're just not into. But the twenties are still hard. I think there is so much pressure to succeed and make a splash early. I like to think about Ira Glass, and something he said at a presentation one time. After playing a clip from the beginning of his career that he described "as having absolutely no evidence that I had any talent at all." he stated that in your twenties you have to practice, you have to feed your creative nature, and simply have faith in your innate talent, because it probably won't all come together until later. So I guess you just gotta have faith, faith, faith.

Now go listen to some George Michael to try to get that song out of your head.

Prepping

As I left the house today, I bid my husband farewell. Instead of the usual, "I love you have a good day," coming from the bathroom, I heard, "Stay. Stay!"

No he wasn't anxious about me leaving. He was talking to the dog, Toby, as he attempted to bathe the dog before work today. Tom is back on the night shift, so as we prepare for Mom to arrive from Oklahoma, we are alternating taking care of tasks. I work on a room in the evening, he takes care of tasks during the morning.

There is some irony in cleaning the house for my mother's visit. She obviously has known me all my life and thus my housekeeping habits. i have been messy from birth despite my mother, college roommate and now my husband. I care about the person I live with, so I try to keep my natural tendencies towards clutter in check. I am a more organized person now living with Tom, the the house now, only midway through the cleaning process is probably neater than when mom would visit when I was single.

But Tom is a new son-in-law, and an excellent husband, so he feels that urge to de-clutter and clean that takes much longer to activate in me. Thus he was washing hte dog this morning. For those that haven't met Toby, he is a wonderful Golden Retriever. Toby loves people, more than going outside and more than his food. He loves to swim, wallow in mud puddles, walk in the rain or through water any chance he gets. He however hates baths, despite the fact that he gets extra attention after the bath, because his fur is so soft, you just have to pet him. (We use Plum Silky shampoo on Toby. He smells so good and feels so soft that Tom has been tempted to use it on his hair.)

Thank goodness the cat is self-cleaning. We have a lot of work before Mom arrives on Friday in Baltimore.