Early Birds, not Love Birds

We're on our way to the opera, but we're listening to hip-hop non stop. Wiz Khalifa is bragging about how his checks look like phone numbers.

Big A: Kinda like you, Puppy--except your checks be looking like just the area codes.

Oooh, burn :)!

The Daughter of the Regiment was the dopiest thing I've seen. Dopey--not dope.

We ditched our passes during intermission to go try out a new tapas bar and get some Thai food. And we were home by 6:45. P.M. That won't make sense until I say our opera tickets are always for the Sunday matinee. One day we'll be seniors and we'll already be champions of the early-bird specials.

_

Sad-U R day

Ha.

We were supposed to hole up last night at a Holiday Inn a few hours from here, so we could arrive at the Miami University Traithlon registration early. (Big A was supposed to triathlete, not me.) Didn't.

We were supposed to go to the YSKP fundraiser this evening--I had the perfect dress with a keyhole neckline and tattoo tights picked out. Three different babysitters bailed on us.

It's as though today were taking lessons in deportment from Baby A, whose favorite response to everything, including suggestions of timeouts is: But I don't want to!

_

Cute! (But where are the girls?)

At the nursery school established by Usha Gehlot in the Indian town of Jhajjar, there are toys, books, brightly-painted walls, and very few little girls. "In last year's intake, of a total of 59 pupils, 43 were boys," said the headteacher, running a pen down a column in the handwritten register book.

Read the rest and weep.

_

And so it starts...

Cuts to education = cuts to the Women's Studies Program at the local state university.

Don't know what it means for the course I'm supposed to be teaching in the fall yet.

 

Budgets

Came back after a mere three hours at work to write checks to S for the weekly deep house cleaning that keeps me sane (four hours @ $20 per hour) and emergency baby sitter L (three hours @ $15 per hour--Baby A is home sick again today; Big A had to go to work).

I literally did not make enough at work today (three hours at something like $30 per hour) to warrant the expense of hiring people.

Weird.

Still: keeping our environment clean, paying an ok wage, protecting the small and vulnerable (the toddler), minding public-health via not spreading viruses at preschool, providing jobs, saving lives via sending Big A to work ;), providing higher education for the next generation via me--the dollar standoff isn't ideal, but I think it's a good use of money.

_

Back

We're back.

Earlier today at 2 a.m. and still in the environs of L.A., came the realization that I had to fly three hours back to Columbus, OH, in our super cramped coach seats, retrieve the car from long-term parking, drive an hour back to Yellow Springs, pick up kids from grandparents, prep them for school, drop them off, and then go teach two classes. This doesn't even include attending to backlogged e-mail, project completion, vacation laundry, rescuing needy dying plants, catching up with school news and notices, or planning dinner. Blah, blah, blah. Gulp.

I passed out after that, getting all the sleep I could; my head resting on folded arms on the tray table like I was praying really hard in a pew.

And then the soft pressure of Big A's head resting on my back. His HEAD not his hand. 

He's totally using me for my body.

Or totally has my back?

_

Lost

Colleagues from two listservs that constantly continue to educate have passed away.

Jessica Nathanson from the women's studies list WMST-L and Sue Darlow from the South Asian literature list (SASIALIT).

They fought the good fight with grace and intelligence.

_