Oh yeah, you know I'm talking about Peeps on Good Friday.
I looked online to see if anyone has made Jesus Peeps, but I didn't find any.
It's Easter weekend. This means most of nothing to me, since I'm Buddhist, but I do get the vibe of resurrection/renewal/rebirth (the Christians didn't invent that shit, y'know). This Sunday I plan to make our family's holiday staple: lasagna. I will also watch Mary Poppins on TV, and definitely I will watch Jesus Christ Superstar at some point.
I bet when I check the mailbox I'll have an Easter card from my brother and his wife. Funny how they think it's still appropriate to send me these religious cards on Christian holidays that I don't celebrate. I'm sure this Buddhism thing is just a phase I'm going through (at the age of 42, after 9 years), and eventually I'll find my way back to Mother Church. Not to be confused with Mother Russia.
As mentioned earlier, my birthday was this past week. I'm not a big birthday celebration kind of gal, though it's always nice to do something fun. I usually plan my own birthday celebrations. The way I see things, it ceased being someone else's responsibility to plan my birthday after I turned 21. I'm not so keen on b-day cards because quite honestly it's a waste of paper and I just end up recycling them. It's fine to receive them and I always appreciate the thought, but the main thing is, it's not what makes my birthday special. Spending it with cool people is what makes it special, without the absurdity of "it's my birthday therefore I am queen."
This year Bizarro and I went with a couple friends of ours on the Seneca Lake wine trail. We hit about 6 wineries but paced ourselves so we could actually enjoy the wines and soak up the wine knowledge dropped on us by the somaliers. We even hit up Hazlitt, which was to us the bottom of the barrel (get it?) when it came to class, wine, and atmosphere. Our fave was Castel Grisch, followed closely by Red Newt. Our friends also treated us to a lovely lunch at Glenora winery as a birthday/ upcoming 5th wedding anniversary celebration. The day was awesomesauce - sunny, funny & boozy.
Heading now into the last week before spring break. I expect it will be crazy busy in the writing center where I tutor, and I've already heard whining from students with work due before and after the break. Honestly, I'm just getting a little too old for that nonsense. I really want to tell them to cram it and deal with it because if they think THIS is bad, just wait until six months after graduation when the first student loan payment is due.
Spending spring break in Boston with my fam and friends. Excited to see folks and spend St. Patty's day with Rrrrache (we have a long history of St. Patty's Day together). My main concern, though, is spending some QT with JET, who is going through something of a hard time right now.
Once I get there (flying) I'm going to rent an car and will hit the beach for some writing time every day. If I had a few more bucks to spare, I'd stay overnight at the hotel on the beach where I stayed last summer, but this time around I'm spending more on travel. It's all good. My brother and his wife will just have to put up with me. Heh.
Time to wind down the night and get a good sleep in before the onslaught of the week.
Today's about catching up the last week lost to The Sickness. Housework, laundry, and also getting a reading picked out for Mom's interment this Friday. Big Bro and his Wiffen are arriving on Wednesday, so I want the place to be ready for them. Peege and Beck are here Thursday, staying in a hotel. I am really looking forward to having my family around me again.
And of course I'm chomping at the bit to get to Mass. We've decided not to waste over $700 on an eleven-year-old car that keeps cropping up new problems. If I get this job I'm waiting for, I will purchase a good pre-owned car and leave this one to Bizarro for in-town driving. It is more economical to rent a used car via the place we've done before and have a safe, solid car to drive out in. I had thought to ride with Peege and family and rent a wreck when I got to Mass, but I need the alone time that driving can offer me. Road-tripping with my bad self.
I am ready for adventure, new sights, new experiences, new thoughts, new feelings, new insights. Let the Games begin!
I have arranged to spend some time at a surf shop in Scituate to do some research for the TV pilot I'm still working up. Gotta get some real-life people to inspire this thing. Also going to take a stab at writing a rom com this summer, which is way out of my comfort zone, but I need to change things up from the artsy/fantasy stuff for a bit. My manager friend says my idea so far is pretty conventional, so I need to spice it up. And you know in rom com spice often = raunch. Not so sure how well I can write raunch. I'll get back to you on that.
May is about closing a chapter, or rather a couple of chapters. It's the end of the semester, as you know, and I am now in charge of reading and grading 28 feature length script portfolios. I am sad and relieved at the same time to be getting ready to say goodbye to my students this semester, even more than usual. There were times over the last four months that teaching and seeing them and watching them work was the only thing that kept me going. I am grateful to them for that gift. But of course as always, it's time for them and me to move on. I am relieved because in other ways it was harder than ever to focus on my work and push through the times I just didn't want to move.
Another chapter feels like it's coming to a close at the end of this month, when we will bury Mom's cremains. My brother and I talked about this just a couple days ago, and how as that date comes nearer, we have both felt the reality of her loss more keenly. We've both been depressed and have both withdrawn from the world and from each other, but we agree that at this point it would be better for us to talk more regularly and share what we are each feeling. He said it perfectly the other night on the phone: I've lost my center.
This summer will be about getting back some of that centeredness. I am really looking forward to my time in Massachusetts in June for that very purpose.
This year's T'giving was a struggle, gentle readers. The week began with the usual B.S. at the chorch, me racing around cleaning house for my Bro and his Wife to arrive on Tuesday night, and also squeezing in an overdue haircut.
Got all that done, Bro and his Wife arrived Tuesday evening and we had a good visit with Mom. Stopped at the wine store on the way home, got back in the car and somehow (in some fashion that only I could manage) I brushed the lights/turn signal stalk on the steering wheel in such a way as to snap the fucker right off. Yep. No lights, no turn signals. Just an empty space where the arm should have been. It was the most aggravating thing to have happen the night before a 6-hour drive to Cleveland. I was sobbing, really ready to put my fist through the windshield. My brother did his best to somehow rig the thing so that I could at least turn on the lights, but no dice. Thankfully, the booze store is only a minute's drive though a parking lot and a relatively back road to my apartment. We got it back home with the flashers on, and my Bro had to disconnect the battery so the parking lights (which were stuck ON) wouldn't drain it overnight.
We proceeded to open the bottle of wine and try to make due with each other's company and that was actually more enjoyable than I would have imagined. Bizarro was wonderful - he came up with the plan to deliver the car to the dealership in the morning and then rent a car. I got on the horn first thing the next day and found a place that rents used cars (nice ones, though, not beaters like mine) so that we could drive to Cleveland. I bagged work for the morning and my Bro carted us to where we needed to go. We then took him and the Wife to our favorite greasy spoon for a historic diner experience.
The trip to Cleveland was actually more enjoyable in the rental, and we decided that until we get a better car, we'll rent any time we have to make a long trip. It was decidedly more comfortable, and the power of a V6 engine was wonderful going up and down the hills of our City on the Edge of Forever.
Of course I spent most of my time in Cleveland sick, but I pushed through and did some shopping and even made my first ever skateboard ride! Yes, Bizarro's sister took me to the skatepark and let me borrow her fab longboard. It was fun! Also, on T'giving Day, I sat on my butt and watched much of the House M.D. marathon on USA.
We took our time coming back today. My Bro and the Wife left our apartment (where they stayed to spend T'giving with mom) in better condition than when we left.
Speaking of Mom, though, things aren't looking as promising as a week ago. She's had a sharp pain in her hip these last few days which has really set her back. I really don't know what's going to happen. I have a feeling we'll be moving her into a permanent nursing home arrangement - but it WON'T be the place she is now. It's the usual horror story there and I won't subject Mom to that. But we haven't given up hope yet. The fact is that she's supposed to be in Rehab, even though her bed's on the nursing home floor, so if we can get her actually MOVED to the Rehab floor, she may do better with the attention she needs. For one thing they're not having her walking every day, which is fucking ludicrious. What do they think she's going to have to do when she goes back to the assisted living facility? Anyway, the saga continues to drag on and I am back to feeling like shit about the situation. Poor Mom. She's very discouraged and worried, and she's in a helluva lot of pain with the nursing staff not giving her the pain meds like she's supposed to be getting. I'm really ready to break my foot off in someone's ass over there. Believe me, they have no idea how much of a squeaky wheel I can be.
I gotta dump the church job sooner than the 12th. I need to be 100% engaged with Mom and this situation. I'm supposed to be training someone starting Monday, which means I won't be able to break away for the usual barrage of phone calls I deal with every day dealing with Mom.
So I've got one day before going back to work, so I can spend some Q-time with Mom, do some laundry, and write up lists of all the stuff I have to attend to. Welcome back. At least I did have a break, though, thanks to Bizarro, who was able to problem solve us out of a sticky situation, and who did the first lap of driving both ways, as well as all the driving while we were there. He's a keeper, that one.
It pours, as the saying goes, and right now it's pouring (figuratively and literally).
A quick recap of the last few days:
1. Had my observation at Out-of-Town-University on Thursday. It went something like this:
(thanks to B. for this vid)
The thing about my observation is that she didn't give me any positive feedback, other than a general acknowledgement that it didn't suck completely. "Overall it was fine and you were in control of the class, but I'd just like to point a couple things out." This statement was followed by 40 minutes of criticism and suggestions, not all of which were even helpful.
2. After that, I drove to Boston for a fun if hectic weekend. The main event was JEB's wedding, for which I did a reading (and did a fine job, I must say). JEB - or rather now I guess I need to call her JET - was resplendent. She was quite stressed out the night of the rehearsal and dinner, which she came to call The Freakshow. But I reminded her that a bad dress rehearsal portends a fabulous performance. The wedding was gorgeous and simple, a Catholic Mass, and the reception was perfect. JET looked like the happiest girl in the world, and so did her new husband. Only, you know, he's a boy. And stuff.
3. Also got to visit another childhood friend of mine and his family. They have done very well for themselves; their house is bigger than our apartment building and the parking lot together.
4. Got to videotape Owen taking a few wobbly steps, and also had some good 1:1 time with my nephew during my visit to their house. My niece is so sweet; she baked and frosted brownies and made us divine coffee for dessert.
5. A bit of sad news - my sister-in-law from my bro's first marriage has COPD (Chronic obstructive pulmonary disease). We were all supposed to have dinner together on Sunday, but she had to cancel because she wasn't feeling good. She's been a heavy smoker since her teenage years, and now she's in her 50s.
6. Raced back to NY yesterday and had to pull my head together to prep for this morning's class at Out-of-Town-University, which I was dreading. But it did go well; I'm trying a couple new things after my disappointing observation feedback.
I've decided for the remainder of the semester at OOTUniversity, I am focusing on two things and two things only: 1. How to help my students succeed and 2. What I can learn to make me a better teacher. I am not going to think about my supervisor, or the program, or the school, or the drive (although that will be difficult). This is about me and teaching, and nothing else.
And of course our beloved Red Sox are in the World Series, so there's hope for us all. It was exciting to watch those ALCS games with my brother. The night of the wedding, the DJ kept us up to date with the score, and the entire reception hall erupted in cheers every time the Sox scored another run. Good times! Whenever the Sox got a run and I'd call Bizarro to gloat, he'd answer his phone with either "Shut up, just shut up!" or "It's early, don't worry." So much for your little white towels, Cleveland!
Halloween is coming up; I have to figure out my costume. As if I don't have enough shit to do.
This weekend my Big Bro and his wife are visiting from Boston. They're staying with us for a few days. Yay! We've had a great time, hanging out, visiting with Momazoo and Aunt Stella. We ate SO MUCH FOOD at Aunt Stella's house. Good god. There was spaghetti with meatballs (of course), sausages with peppers and onions, roasted chicken, potato salad, green salad, and for dessert there was chocolate and cherry cake with chocolate frosting. Needless to say, we ate around 3:00 in the afternoon and didn't eat again for the rest of the night. I worked out last night because if I hadn't I would have felt like a total sack o'shite.
Today I'm taking them around town to see the sights and stuff.
This weekend, my big bro and his wife are coming to visit, so I've been house-kleening and grokkery-choppin in preparation. I'm really looking forward to this visit. Believe it or not, Bizarro hasn't yet met my brother. We eloped in Ohio and haven't seen them since that time (although I went out alone last October to meet my grand-nephew). So this will be a momentous occasion. Also, our mom is turning 80 this summer, so it's high time he gets his ass out here to see her.
Yesterday had coffee with my Korean producer friend and we had a good chat about the film I'm going to make this summer, for which he will lend me equipment and help me with editing. He's an amazing guy - so generous. I think I've gushed about him here before.
Okay, time to get crackin. Where's the "On The Lot" guy with the belt??
I looked online to see if anyone has made Jesus Peeps, but I didn't find any.
