If Huge Ships Are a Problem for You...

..then I recommend you read this NYT article to see where you can get information on avoiding them.  As well as other really odd books.  Although this year's winner is someone I've read about before, and I think his works shouldn't count!

Bipolar Weekend

Not in the clinical sense, just had lows and highs, though I believe the highs won out overall.  

Limelet was up for two hours in the middle of the night again on Saturday after having a pretty good night Friday, so Sunday I was exhausted and really looking forward to taking his nap with him midday.  We had a 2:30 app't to sign our lease, so I had to make sure that he got up in the morning early enough to be sleepy for an early-ish (or at least not late) nap, and I did get him up on time.  It worked--to a point.  He fell asleep on the porch in my arms pretty early (before I could even get his lunch in him), and I took him upstairs to bed.  However, he woke up as soon as he hit the bed, and despite nursie and everything did NOT go back to sleep.  I tried repeatedly, but he just was not doin' it.  Which is weird, because he usually takes his midday nap quite easily.  

So at that point I was miserable.  Not just the lack of sleep from the night before, but cumulatively.  I so desperately wanted to sleep.  Just a little!  I was so tired it hurt.  And we had that meeting to go to, that I had so carefully planned the day around. I was actually crying by two hours later.

Luckily, the lease meeting went well, though TheLimey showed great faith in my character by asking [for verity of storytelling read in mock-dopey voice] "You're not going to break down in front of them or something, are you?"  Now, has he not been at all watching me function under these conditions for the past three years?  Anyway.  The house was even better than we remembered it being, and the yard even larger.  The landlord & -lady both showed up for the signing.  Did I mention there's a peach tree and an apple tree?  And the supposedly double lot is more like a triple lot?  And the little fish pond actually still has some fish in it that apparently survived the winter?  And it has four bedrooms (!?), and is even closer to Limelet's favorite on-campus playground and to my current work? We were pinching ourselves (metaphorically, anyway) at having gotten this great place, for so much lower than most places in the area.  It was cheaper than a couple pretty crappy, tiny places we originally looked at.  We have been experiencing the opposite of buyer's remorse, if there's a name for that.  True, we will be paying two months' overlapping rent, but it's still a cheaper year, and definitely cheaper over two years or three.  The guy mentioned that there were a lot of disappointed people that day (apparently from his vast stack of applicants.)  

We lucked out with this one.  I wonder how much the "Dr." on my business card helped, though.  I bet my 22-year-old self wouldn't have been as much competition.

So anyway--we hung out there for a while letting Limelet play in the yard (overfeeding the fish, of course) and gawking at our various rooms.  It did improve my mood greatly.  I just start completely losing control of my emotions when I'm that tired, but outside events help.  We went home at 5 (still no sleepy Limelet) and TheLimey took Limelet to the back yard, directing me to take a nap.  

I thought if I could just get half an hour's sleep it would save me.  At first I had trouble falling asleep because I could hear Limelet crying for me, but then things quieted down.  When I woke up I was shocked to find it was already 7:30!  TheLimey brought a sleeping Limelet in to the bedroom.  We both thought he'd wake up when put down, but he stayed asleep.  Then we thought he'd wake up at 8 and be awake until 2 or 3.  In fact, he stayed asleep (with minimal help) until 6 this morning.  Amazing!  We actually watched 40 minutes or so of our Dr. Who Netflic that's been gathering dust for the past few weeks.  I was able to get about 6 hours of sleep in a row, which is not a record (he slept for 6 hours once before), but pretty close to it.

We'd like to think we could do this again, but I'm sure it was a one-off.  I still feel fried, but a lot better.

New'ome

As I may have mentioned, we have been looking for a new place to live.  We love the place we're in, but it's college-subsidized and we can't live in it after our lease is up because I will no longer be employed full-time with the college.  Boo.

I think we may have started looking too early, because all the places we have seen want someone to move in on April 1st.  Our lease is up on May 31st, so that means we'd be paying rent in two places for two months.  That's quite a bit of overlap.

We've had a couple places we were interested in, and today we just got word that the landlord of a place we were very interested in accepted our application (above the "pile" of apps he got).  I'm not surprised, because it was a really reasonable rent for the size of the place and the location--which incidentally is a really great location for us. It's right near the college, in close walking distance to TheLimey's work and to Limelet's favorite familiar on-campus playground and possible part-time work for me (if I play my cards right, I guess). The only bad thing that I can see about it is that it's one of the places that wants us to start our lease April 1, so now we have to hunker down and make a firm decision if we really want to do this.

If we stay two years or more, which is our plan anyway, we would end up saving money because of the low rent ($300 less per month than most similar places, or even smaller places!), but there's that initial outlay of paying double rent for two months.

The place has a front porch, and a great back yard, especially for the area, which has mostly those long, thin little yards.  This one has that, but then at the back of it, it has a huge yard joining onto our little thin one, like a mini-park.  With trees and presumably squirrels. Ooh--I'm envisioning toddler splash parties already, now that I think of it...  And the back is South-facing, so the kitchen (with gas range!!) would be facing the sun all day long (though there is a covered patio behind it).  There are about twice as many rooms as we need, certainly more than most places we looked at, partly because the attic is finished.  The only lackluster aspect is probably the bathroom, which is small and unprepossessing.

So--decision time then.  I think we are, or at least I am, leaning towards a yes. But we are supposed to sign a lease Sunday, so that'll be the deadline.

Opening Time on Procrastination Street

I have tons (tons!) of clinical notes to write over this week, as we don't get time to actually write them during the semester.  No, really, that's how it works here.  Too bad that the 5 days of paperwork time I was expecting over break are down to 1.5, due to a college-closed day as well as Limelet's getting yet another illness this week.  So here I am procrastinating instead of working! 

But we did have a record two weekends in a row with no sickness!!  Really, that is a record since we got here and started all getting sick, all the time. (In fact, I'm sick again now, but hardly even count it since it's just a cold.)  We took advantage of it by having our next-door neighbors over for dinner.  They have a three-month-old little girl, which is another reason why we have been avoiding them.  When we're constantly sick over here, we don't want to pass it on to the little tiny one.  The mother is on an allergy-restricted diet (for the baby), so I think she was discouraged about the possibility of coming over to eat.  But I took down her list of allowed items (about 20 of them) and came up with some experimental things.  I know it is really hard to be inspired to eat when you can't have milk, wheat, corn, soy--in fact any grains at all besides rice, tomatoes, citrus, yeast, fish, onions, meat (besides chicken), spices (even pepper)...the list went on.  It really was easier to get the list of items she could eat.  I made a lot of stuff with rice milk and rice flour, chicken, and a couple of fruits she was allowed, olive oil--and I assumed olives were therefore also allowed (meaning I could make tapenade).  I think this was the first time we've had people over for dinner in about two years.

We are in the midst of a (rental) house search, but I think we may have actually started too early, as a common conflict has ended up being that they want someone to move in April 1st, while our current lease isn't over until May 31st.  That's a big overlap to pay rent at two places for two months.

I keep thinking of stuff to write but am currently experiencing great fuzzyheadedness.

'50s Lady?

...where are you? The dangers of sharing too many items on Google Reader. I can't remember when I shared it, but it was sometime since September. This was a little video featuring how our lives would soon be better through consumerism (plastic perhaps?) and it had elevator music under (or over?) a montage of wifely type duties. There was also a curiously quiet baby in a cage. Er, playpen. If you remember this or still have the link, let me know. People are asking.

Update: here it is!

Da*@#light Savings

Here comes my twice-yearly ranting about Daylight Saving.  Made worse this year by having a toddler who is now already behind an hour due to weeks and weeks of illness.  Here, I'll let someone else rant for a change .  

My idea?  Just make sunrise in each time zone the new 6:00 am every day.  That's right; reset all clocks every single day.  Now, we'd still have time zones so it'd be a little arbitrary, but, whatever.  At least it'd make sense biologically.  There's be lots of retail and manufacturing activity as people rushed to create and sell "one-push-reset" clocks and whatever paraphernalia would link us all to some service or other, for those who can't or won't see the sunrise themselves.

My other idea is to have "Fall Back" every week.  So you'd reset your clock back one hour every Saturday night.  Yeah, we'd be awake in the dark sometimes and sleeping in the day some times, but whatever.  At least it would follow our circadian clocks (generally speaking.)

Job Opportunities!

Boy, if that won't get me spammed, I don't know what will.  (Nevertheless, I still don't need that blasted "prove you're human" password thing, >a-HEM<, all-yall.)

Anyway.  According to my RSS feed jobs section, if only I were a bilingual, pediatric, alcohol-and-drug residential counselor for prison/V.A./schools, I'd be able to find a full-time job every minute of every day.