Updating Away

[charlottezweb]

I think this might call for bullet points.

School:

• Classes are going well. It's a lot of work. A lot. Well, mostly just because I've got other stuff (like everyone else in the program) so I'm trying to fit in the readings and essays and other assignments in between work and home. On average, we have about 200 pages of reading and a 3 page essay due every week, plus any other assignments. It's not undoable, but I feel like if I were to fall off the study train, it's be really hard to get caught up. 
• I have class from 7-10pm Mon and Weds. I really like the web interface--it's about like actually being in class, except I can't see anyone. There's space for the prof to write on the board or put up slides, we can talk, raise our hand, ask questions, say yes or no, etc in the main area and then there's a chat (im) area that the class uses during the lecture. We try to stay on topic, asking for clarification or giving back up examples from personal experience, but there's a lot of fast paced chit chat. A big argument broke out in chat last night over the canon vs. popular lit.
• You can also private chat someone during class, including the prof, which is cool, bc then you can talk sh*t abt things without anyone hearing. I have one classmate I talk to a lot during class--we've bonded over our feeling abt elitism in libraries. :)
• Grades are decent so far--I'm amused that I'm getting check pluses in a graduate class, but I will take them and the smiley faces.

Home:

• Things are decent at home--A is getting screwed at work, but there's nothing I can do about it. He has to work a double every Sat until further notice since the only other person in the barn got USC season tickets. Awesome. *sigh*
• I'm nesting like crazy, but the house is getting cleaner and cleaner. A is freaked out bc I've been cooking--although he likes having coffee made when he gets up with R in the am.
• I think I've figured out how to shoehorn the new baby into the house and the rearrangement is slowly taking shape. This last weekend was all about going through the back closet and separating old baby clothes--this week is about keeping the house frmo becoming a disaster area--and this weekend will be about finishing the closet and working on our closet and shelving. Woo-hoo!
• R has figured out the computer--he can play computer games now. There a homeschooling site called starfall.com which is all about the alphabet and he's been absorbed in manipulating letters. He's also started singing suddenly and coloring, neither of which he did until recently.
• R got the fisher price catalogue in the mail yesterday and has been reading it and showing us the toys. There was a Little People Mayflower playset so A spent some time telling R about cultural imperalism and his native american heritage.
• This weekend is supposed to be the Scottish Games--I've got to decide soon if I'm going. I probaby will, but taking the baby and my mom and all the stuff doesn't sound like as much fun without A to help. And when I say help, I mean that my plan was to sit around and be pregnant while he did all the work. Not load and unload the car, carry everything from the parking lot, chase the baby around, etc. But, meatpies...

New Baby:

• According to the unoffical u/s, I can go ahead and start calling him Alistair Charles Evans Fiveash. We have the official u/s on Fri but we do already have a pic labeled boy parts.
• He's coming a bit sooner than we thought--early Jan rather than late Jan, which means my first calculations were right. And since it's rare that someone in this family have a 40 week baby, I'm predicting late Dec, as I'd rather be prepared too early than late.
• I'll be six months next Tues. So far things seem normal, although I'll have my pee checked for protein and sugars at my appt next Fri. Hmm, I wonder if they can do it when I go in for my u/s? I need to stop by the drugstore and take my blood pressure but I did use my blood sugar monitor last week just to check and it was fine. I have to do the official gestational diabetes test soon and I'll be pissed if I fail it after having checked my sugars regularly (the test is notoriously inaccurate). I'm thinking abt doing a trial run by drinking a can of orange soda--it's about 52 grams of sugar and the glucola you have to drink for the test is 50, so I figure it's about the same result.
• I am starting to feel more pregnant, and look more pregnant for that matter. :) It hurts to turn over in bed, for ex, and I need a pillow between my knees since my hips are spreading. That kind of thing.
• I think we're going to sidecar a crib this time and I might've actually figured how to fit one in the room with our shelving and bed and desk. Lol.
• I need to sign us up for the childbirth refresher and the sibling prep class--time is getting away from me. I'd wanted to get away for the weekend one last time with just R but it's a balance between when we can go and me being too pregnant to enjoy anything. An indoor waterpark would be perfect. :) We thought abt Gatlinburg but it might be too much walking (which is why DC is out). If we had more funds, we would go to the campground at WDW but I think that's going to have to wait a year. There's always myrtle beach.

Comments

[lorres.livejournal.com]

we've bonded over our feeling abt elitism in libraries. :)

Ok I'll bite, what are your feelings abt elitism in libraries?

[charlottezweb.livejournal.com]

Hmm, well, I may have said that wrong. I don't have any experience with libraries as a whole but there is a sense of elitism and superiority in my class that makes me want to spit. Everyone is lazy but us, the masses are so unenlightened--all they want is badly written popular literature, etc. I called the canon deadwhitemale lit in the midst of arguing abt this which caused a firestorm among some of my classmates.

[lorres.livejournal.com]

Yes - I agree that it crops up, but it's not all-pervasive. There are also plenty of librarians that aren't snobs.

Librarians often want to be the center of the community so they feel like the way to accomplish that is to be better. heh.

Hee hee. I wish I woulda been there when you said deadwhitemale lit in clsss.

Good librarians argue for a tapestry of voices, the marketplace of ideas, etc. etc.

[hkbear.livejournal.com]

Not load and unload the car, carry everything from the parking lot,

Uh, what on earth were you bringing?

[charlottezweb.livejournal.com]

A chair for me and for my mom so we have somewhere to sit while we eat, etc, and because I need to rest periodically, the wagon or big stroller, a little cooler/soft pack w/drinks and snacks for the baby...

[hkbear.livejournal.com]

Good grief! Well tell A he sucks.

Cultural imperialism???

[pfunque.livejournal.com]

Okay- so A gave him the speech and THEN you went to the Scottish games? That is SO funny== does A forget that you are the whitest woman on the planet and when you look at him you should quote "and they were hungry"???

Laughing my ass off......

[selki.livejournal.com]

The web interface school stuff is interesting; I don't know anyone else who's doing that and writing about it. Yay on-topic private chats during class -- I liked doing that during remote meetings and phone conferences with my co-workers at my old job (strategizing who was going to respond to which part, etc.).

What if A had gotten season tickets first? Seems like a dumb policy to me.