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August 28, 2006
more on the collision
One of the great things about momming it through grad school is that invariably when you feel like a failure in one of those roles, something happens in the other half of your life that is somehow buoying*.
So tonight, after a first-day of teaching and running some conferences with students (from past semesters), I am faced with the fight of my life (as I am every night): brushing the Monster Toddler's teeth. Now let me be clear: I try my best to brush his teeth at least once a day. And when I am calm I can cajole him and we "brush together" and his teeth probably get semi-clean. But every once in a while I get a wild hair (normally when I remember that Hannah had a root canal at age 9) and decided that dang it, he needs his teeth BRUSHED. So I hold him down with one arm, and scrub his teeth. He HATES this, and it completely ruins him for bed time. He screams and hollers and then pouts and refuses to go pee or get his pajamas on and basically I'm screwed for the rest of the night.
This was tonight.
So then, I sit down to the ol' machine to do some email and class prep, and have this chick ping me. And she shows me her finished web site that she worked on during my digital writing course last spring. She finished the site, which is meant to be an online portfolio, after she graduated last spring. I am quite proud!!
So: bad mom, good teacher. :) Today anyway.
*This, of course, is not always true. Often the shit hits the fan on both accounts, and then you INVARIABLY want to throw yourself into the bushes. But it's nice when it happens this way.
Posted by mryonker at 10:32 PM | Comments (4)
August 27, 2006
today is Sunday
The title hopefully reveals my inability to, well, think. Today is Sunday; it is:
The day before classes begin.
The day before my two weeks off (granted--er, mandated--by the exam/diss committee) ends. Which means tomorrow, the dissertation project officially begins.
The day after we ran our first 20 to prepare for the Bath-to-Corning race on October 1.
The day that marks one full week of my two school-age kids' absence (they're with my mom until their classes start after Labor Day).
The day we decide whether or not to send the littlest to preschool this fall (open house and last-day-to register this afternoon).
The day I come back to the blog.
Posted by mryonker at 11:29 AM | Comments (0)
August 23, 2006
note to self
Nora Roberts is not Nora Ephron. Stop mistaking the two.
Posted by mryonker at 11:24 AM | Comments (3)
August 11, 2006
the funk stops here
I seem to have climbed from my funk. On the plate for tomorrow:
1. The garage sale that was supposed to happen last week. If you're looking for strangely configured bookshelves, strange books, old-as-crap computers, and odd furniture (like the toddler bed that Brian built for Jack--it's a pick-up truck and it's the coolest thing in the world, the hood opens into a toy box and the cab is a bookshelf), come on down.
2. An 18 miler*. Team Yonker is training for the Wineglass Marathon, a run from Bath to Corning here in NY. It's a little sooner than the originally planned for Harrisburg Marathon (6 whole weeks sooner!!) but we've easily slid back into our 30-40 mile weeks and so I'm thinking that we won't cripple ourselves. We didn't last time.
3. Some serious thinking about what my classes are going to look like this fall. In fact, by the end of this weekend I'd like to have syllabi and calendars ready. So many of those on the beloved 'roll are posting victorious after having finished their prep, and I'd like to add myself to those ranks.
*B is less than thrilled that he'll be left to man the garage sale for 3 hours. We're doing it in 6 mile loops, so I'll be back every hour to check in and make sure he's not too lonely.
Posted by mryonker at 09:05 PM | Comments (1)
August 06, 2006
a little silence
Some stuff going on right now. Things will probably be quiet around here for a while. Hope to get back to a bloggable place in a bit.
Posted by mryonker at 07:19 PM | Comments (1)