Only a few days until Christmas...

And I'm in a bad mood. Both David and the girls are driving me nuts, I have an 8 day trip to look forward to, most of which will be spent in the car with the three people who are driving me nuts.

And I was going to write a witty blog about one of my favorite past-Christmases, but I can't seem to get in the mood to do that--maybe tomorrow.

And my shoulder hurts!

And Betty, the Cat with Fireflies is a needlepoint that will be a wall-hanging when I get it framed--it's about 11x18 or so. I bought it when you bought your mermaid!

Cat with Fireflies

Needlepiont with wool yarn. Design by Chris Roberts-Antieu.

See #6 Below

16 things I love about being married to David

1. He supports and encourages me in any crazy idea I come up with.
2. He loves my art.
3. He reads books I like just so we can talk about them.
4. He drives me to work most days.
5. He leaves me notes in my lunch or on the computer where he knows I'll find them.
6. He sends me flowers.
7. He plays with my hair and give me goosebumps...
8. He is all about 100% cooperation with the kids.
9. He cooks.
10. He can't sing to save his life, but he sings anyway.
11. Everything he does, he does with verve.
12. He drives everywhere we go.
13. He listens to my music and even learns to like some of it.
14. He encourages me when I'm struggling.
15. He plays games with me and sometimes lets me win.
16. He loves me unconditionally.

Happy Anniversary David!

Last Night

Last night I was up until midnight finishing a paper that's due today. Never since my second semester in graduate school at TAMU (1994) have I waited so late to finish a paper. I kind of felt guilty about it, even...but it's not due until 5pm today, I have a very solid draft that I need to edit and e-mail in...so it's not really all that bad.

Except for the fact that I'm now 37 years old and staying up until midnight writing a paper leaves you with an "almost hangover" the next day. That's not fun.

BUT I can say I'll never do it again and mean it because this is the last class I'll ever take! yeah! Dissertation here I come!!!!!

Why is It?

Why is it that when you're good and rip-roaring mad at someone, they go and get sick so you can't yell at them?

On a lighter note...have paper due tomorrow and must go write it. Hopefully things will be better tomorrow.

Book Review: Abundance: A Novel of Marie Antoinette by Sena Jeter Naslund

Abundance is a first person account of Marie Antoinette's life and is so perfectly cast from inside her head that I almost believed her. The letters her mother wrote, the stories she was "fighting" against, and the horror of the revolution cast doubt on her veracity, but as a reader you still want to believer her. And even though I knew the ending of the story, I think I was as shocked as she was that she was executed.

The novel starts with Marie Antoinette leaving home and recreating herself as the Dauphine of France. Her youthful exuberance and her desire to be loved is enchanting, as she herself seems to be, but she fails to arouse her husband which almost dooms her new life from the beginning.

As Marie Antoinette tries to negotiate the foreign world she finds herself in, she grows more cynical and tries to find enjoyment from other areas of life—through gambling, lovers, friends, the arts, and finally her children. She is cast by the public in a horrible light and has to explain again and again to her mother that the stories about her are just rumors.

As Louis’s indecisiveness and her lack of awareness of the horrors going on around her continue to mount, Marie Antoinette’s life as royalty comes to an abrupt end with the storming of the Bastille. The way Naslund portrays Marie Antoinette’s life as an imprisoned monarch very convincingly demonstrates her attempts to maintain the fairy tale life she had created for herself. During these three years, or so, she never loses hope that she will get back home to Austria until the very end when she is sentenced to be executed.

for the love of old friends

My friend visited this weekend. We met in grad school in Kentucky but he's now teaching at a university in Washington state. We haven't seen each other in five years and have communicated with the scarcity of people who have ridiculously busy schedules. He is also a very good friend with David, so the three of us had quite a wonderful time.

One thing that I think is really neat about seeing old friends who you really connect with is that moment when you see each other and get past the "it's so good to see you how long has it been" moment to the moment where you are talking like you haven't been apart--just talking like you always did about things that are interesting and fun to you. If we had the "how long has it been moment" I don't remember it. It's like he walked in and we started talking about our observations on life and it was fun.

I'll miss him now that he's going home. I won't miss being so tired, but I'll miss seeing him and chatting! It's hard to keep in touch as much as would make me happy, but it makes me feel good knowing that when we get together again we'll start a conversation about the latest book we've read or make observations about our waiter that makes my eyes water I'm laughing so hard...fun, good times!

Christmas Cards

I'm one of those funny people who LOVE getting Christmas cards. I check through the mail every day looking for some, but so far, I've only gotten one Christmas card this year. And I know part of the reason is that I haven't sent mine out. I've been so busy and stressed that I haven't had the opportunity to enjoy the thought of writing everyone's address on an envelope and thinking about what they've been up to since I last heard from them. It's a nice reflection on the bounty of my life and my friends and colleagues. It makes me feel good and happy.

Until a few years ago, I would always send my cards out the day after Thanksgiving. Aunt Betty would always tell me that mine was the first she received, but then one of her friends started sending hers before me and I wasn't first anymore, and then I got crazy and didn't manage to get my cards out. I'm two weeks late this year, and I still don't have stamps.

I have always wondered, though, why some people don't send cards until they get them. I fear if I did that I wouldn't get any, and then I'd have all these boxes of cards that I bought to send to everyone I know and love, just waiting. Probably some anxiety born out of teenage misery (if I don't share my makeup, they won't like me).

The Birdie has left the nest

I resigned my position yesterday and will go fully independent beginning in January 2007. How scary and exciting and wonderful all at the same time. So, hopefully like the baby bird in my earlier post (August 2), I'll begin flitting and flying around now that I've been knocked off the fence!

One Happy Family

This is the photo that would have gone in my Christmas cards had all of my head been in it. Still it is a good picture of the family and one I wanted to share.

Where is the line?

I have a really great job. I get to do something I'm pretty good at (write grants) while working with really smart people as they do something they're really good at (research projects). I get paid well for this region, my boss is very nice and not even sort of a micro-manager...even so, I'm getting to the point where I'm about to say "this is enough."

When I started the job, I agreed to publish the college's newsletter. I collected ideas, wrote most of the stories, took pictures, talked with people and put together a fairly decent newsletter. I was expecting to continue to put this together until I got too busy to do so...what happened instead is that I got volunteered to put together articles for any other publication the university does and wants to spotlight our college or departments herein. I've also been volunteered to assist all the departments (there are 13 of them) in redesigning their brochures. When it became evident that I didn't have the least bit of sense about actually using any designing software, the departments went elsewhere. (and yes, I'm still coordinating the newsletter)

Then two years ago, my dean decided to put on an invention competition. Again, I was asked to coordinate. Was in fact, told that if I needed a student worker, that I could have one (never did come to fruition, my suspicion is that the finance person stopped it from going through the channels).

So, the first day of the week after the month where I spent my time writing, revising, and helping finalize 15 grants (not lying here), where I worked two weekends in a row and came back from Thanksgiving to an office in such a mess that I couldn't find most of the new things I need to start working on, I get a new directive from my dean: I will be assisting the finance person for the college by taking over the research grant accounts, etc., that she handles. We bring in over $40 million dollars, probably submit upwards of 1000 grants per year. I have no idea how I'm supposed to do this, the other three "non-job" related activities, PLUS my job.

The line may be here and I may be looking at it right in front of my toes...and I may be ready to cross it.

Sort of feels like I imagine it would before you take that step off of the bungee jumping platform. I say I would never ever in my whole entire life ever bungee jump...but crossing this line feels like something I would do. I'm just going to get over being mad before I do it!

A Red and Silver Christmas Tree