Insomniac's blog

I know. The title sounds like a soap opera but that has been my life these last two weeks. Uber-busy and, while some really shitty things have happened these last two weeks in academia, for the most part things have been going very well. I was invited by a professor friend to present on my immigration research at a conference this fall. Very fantabulous, very fantabulous indeed. Then, I have been working my way through a few difficult and mentally-draining adventures in academia in regards to a few influential people who I managed to piss-off. Not good, but I am attempting to mend those fences.

Darling Husband has discovered my blog (hello Dear!) and has offered me comments on it like "that doesn't sound like you" and "why do you cuss so much?". Well, my blog is like my diary in a way and I purge my mental frustrations on it so sometimes I cuss and sometimes I sound mean and vulgar. And, in defense of myself, sometimes I AM mean and vulgar. Anyhow, I refuse to censor myself here.

I received some wonderful news today! I got a letter in the mail from the one scholarship committee I applied to and I was one of five women in the area to receive a scholarship! I was awarded $800 for the fall semester! That is absolutely fantabulously wonderful! I am honored, shocked, and joyously happy! My parents are kicking in the rest of the tuition so I can finish up my BAs in English and History. I didn't want to ask them and I sought out every other option but nothing was coming through. My parents decided that since I have never asked them for any help with paying for school and that since I have made it thus far without breaking, they felt they should help out a bit. Even though they didn't ask, I will pay them every month until they have been re-embursed. After all, I am 31 and my parents shouldn't have to support my endeavors.

Not too much else going on. Myah has Swimmer's Ear and is recovering from that. Princess has a skin infection and is on antibiotics to get rid of it. Princess has a long list of allergies and this is becoming standard for her. She has been battling different things since she was about a year old. She's pretty tough about it all though. The Boy is fine. He fell on the side of the road while running with flip-flops on and skinned his forehead again. We're getting pretty used to head injuries with him. His head is somewhat bulbous and the rest of him is tall and skinny...like his dad. Well, with The Boy being so top heavy he just seems to land on his forehead a lot He hasn't learned to put his hands down to break his fall yet. Cornbread, my amazingly cute little chihuahua, is his usual boisterious self. He's a full eight pounds of ferocious cuteness.

Okay, enough of my blathering. All hasn't been sunshine and lollypops but the last two weeks haven't been miserable either.

Okay. It is official...I'm back to normal again! Yayyyyy! I was off of school from mid-April until the end of June and it made me freaking crazy with boredom and domesticity. I have realized that I, not unlike the great and mighty lion, can not be completely domesticated. There is only so much housework, kid-scrubbin', sidewalk-chalk, and laundry a woman like me can do before an attack of the crazies gets going. Seriously though, I am so glad to be back in school now. I have this absolutely wacko of a prof for literary criticism and theory, but in a way he is kind of growing on me...sorta like mold to a crusty bowl of ice-cream. Anyhow, the class is somewhat tolerable, just as long as I get an extra large cup of coffee from the Urban Mill before I go to class. But hey, it isn't home and hearth so I'm not going to complain!

I also have a fantabulous indy study with one of the best history profs at GVSU. It is on United States Immigration History and covers from about 1880-current day. Very interesting and fascinating schtuff that I am reading for that class. Plus, it coincides nicely with my summer research project on Post-World War II Dutch immigration. I know the prof that I have the indy study with quite well so we always have a good time with it. Very nice, very nice indeed.

On Tuesday this week I get the fantabulous pleasure of meeting up with my two friends. My one friend has recently left her husband over some personal problems and has moved back home to Michigan with her four kids. I am very happy that she is back. She called me on Saturday night to say that they were back and that she was planning on staying with her parents for a month or two while she found a job and a place to rent. So, on Tuesday, my other best friend and I are going to meet up with the back-in-town friend for coffee and some catching up on life. We all haven't been together as a group since last summer when she was up for a visit and we all went out for dinner.

On Wednesday I have to meet with my summer project mentor (a.k.a. Mr. Arrogant) to discuss the project and work on the material together. The mentor is a completely arrogant and self-righteous sort of man. The horrible thing is that I picked him for this project because he was supposed to have the educational background and he, at the beginning, seemed really interested in helping me. Now, he isn't giving me what I need to get this project done and he is pissing me off by giving me unsolicited advice both in my chosen career as a historian and in my personal life. Mr. Arrogant thinks my educational advisor in history isn't giving me the supposed "correct" information on graduate schools and Mr. Arrogant thinks he is the MAN to tell me, this poor, feeble-minded woman, how life is in the "real" world of academia. Whatever...

Anyhow, that's about it for now. Glad to see you are back on the ole internets again Raye! And, for heaven's sake, what are you doing with your lives Beck and Jon? How am I supposed to snoop on you two if you don't post blog entries anymore?

Okay, so I know it has been awhile since I updated this blog thingie. I do, however, have good excuses for my waywardness. Since I am too damn busy (once again) to type out some long and heart-felt post, y'all will have to do with a simple list. In the last week all of the following has taken place in my life:

1. Princess's birthday party fiasco. Yep, it was a horrendous experience and I am beginning to think that Princess's birthday parties are cursed. Princess was born on the fifth anniversary of my Darling Husband's mother's second marriage to Mr. Loser Man. Darling's parents have been divorced for over ten years now. Anyhow, on Princess's third birthday, she fell on a toy and got the nice present of seven stiches just under her chin bone. To find out what happened on Princess's fifth birthday party read below...

2. My wonderful, kind-hearted and easy-going father-in-law had a massive heart attack just as Princess's birthday party got underway. He told me earlier that he wasn't feeling "all that good" and I asked if he would be okay. He assured me that it was just some indigestion and he would be better soon, since it happened the night before too. Anyhow, he did have a massive heart attack and the paramedics had to use the shock paddles on him even. He went to the Big Hospital with the Important Heart Clinic and had an emergency angioplasty. One blood vessel in the lower part of his heart was 99% blocked and there had been significant damage to his lower heart. The doctors are hopeful that it will get better now that the vessel is open again. He is recovering remarkably well, until item number three.

3. Four days after the heart attack, the day after Darling's father went home, he was puttering around in the garden and pulled a muscle in his back. He now has to use a cane until that heals up. Boy, my father-in-law is looking pretty damn old lately to just be 56. I worry about him a lot and I pray that his heart problems will not return.

4. Classes started on Monday night. Ohhh my gawd. The prof I have is THE WORST I have ever had in my entire academic career! He speaks too softly, mumbles on about cognitive psychology, and doesn't let students answer any questions, no small groups whatsoever, and he just rambles on and on and on... It is my final English class at GVSU and I was hoping to finish with a bang. Well, that ain't gonna happen.

5. After my Wednesday class (same class as the one above, we meet twice a week), I had to wait for 20 minutes to catch the back-to-main-campus bus where I was parked. Not cool. Especially in a larger city, late at night, under an overpass, with only two other people waiting with you. Not fun at all. I miss Becky and our entertaining talks on the bus back to main campus after Shakespeare class...sigh.

6. I had to meet with my so-called mentor on Thursday to discuss the progress of my summer research project. He is the type of prof who sometimes is perfectly decent and likeable. Other times he is an arrogant, self-serving asshole. Well, I got a little taste of both on Thursday. First he was fine. He bought me a Dutch almond roll and coffee and we had a nice chat about the progress of my summer research. He seemed slightly impressed and was glad that I had gotten as far as I have (which I don't think is nearly as far as I should be by now). He then proceeded to give me advice on everything from my personal interactions with other profs to my involvement in activities outside of historical research, to my decision to maintain English as a second major, to my career goals, to me being too old to start graduate school...arghhhh!!! What was so frustrating about it was that I didn't ASK for this advice and yet he felt somehwo compelled to offer it up like he was some sort of expert on my life, which he isn't because he barely knows me. I grinned and beared some of it until it got to be too much then I politely told him to basically leave me be on stuff outside of my research on the Dutch immigrants.

7. Had to take the progeny to my dreaded brother and sister-in-law's house for their son's 3rd birthday party. I won't go into details, but let me just say that going there is a little like volunteering for the Spanish Inquisition, being part of a Jerry Springer show, and learning so-called proper parenting techniques from a defunct Dr. Spock. Arghhh, again.

8. Now I am on a mad race to read two chapter of my book on literary theory and then read an entire book on United States immigration history. Wish me luck!