Summer

One downside of living on a student schedule (Sept-May) is that by around this time of year you have to start figuring out what to do with the summer. I had a reprieve from that last year, staying in one place for more than 9 months for the first time since 2001, but now I'm back to business as usual.
Summer has never been awesome for me. I've had some amazing opportunities for work and travel, but mostly I've spent the summer in varying degrees of loneliness and frustration waiting for the school year to start up again. The summer of 2010 is starting to take shape, and I plan to take the best of the past (work and travel) and diminish the loneliness. How, you may ask, can I do that? By being semi-nomadic of course!
My plan, which is extremely tentative and so dependent upon the whims and decisions of others that I'm probably jinxing it with this post, is as follows:
June: End nannying (Memorial Day?), a week in Washington visiting friends and their new babies in Seattle and Spokane, a few days in Waco finding an apartment, and perhaps some time in Indiana with friends. The house here in Kinnelon will be base camp in between these excursions.
July: Teach English in Lithuania. This is the one that is really up in the air. I had a good phone interview this morning, and the woman who runs the Summer Language Institute thinks they might have a place for me. I also accept that I am in no way qualified to teach English as a Foreign Language, so there is a good chance it won't work out.
August: Move to Texas via Colorado. I don't know how I or my stuff is getting there, but by mid-August I should be settling in to my first apartment. I plan to live alone and it will be glorious.
It's got travel, it's got about a dozen great people who I don't get to see often, it's got work (unpaid though it will be). Sounds like the perfect plan, and it sounds ripe for something to fall through. In which case I may be showing up at your door asking to crash on your couch.

Back in the day

I used to think. a lot. About important things.
I miss those days.

Combat Compensation

It's been a counting-down-to-grad-school kind of week. N got Swine Flu. Luckily if you catch it quickly enough there are antivirals that flush it out of the system. Unluckily, it's still best to be quarantined for about 5 days. That means I was home with 2 semi-sick (cough, runny nose) must mostly normal kids for 4 days this week. No playdates, minimal excursions. Yep, just me and the very energetic and defiant kiddoes. Friday morning when I went upstairs the dad informed me that the kids were a little stir crazy. I'd already figured that out from the running and yelling I'd already heard that morning. They were literally bouncing off the furniture and running around insane. We went to Build-a-Bear (they had gift cards) just to get them out of the house, and that went better than expected as far as behavior. During B's nap N had an epic meltdown. He completely lost control out of frustration over a video game. He nearly knocked me over a few times, was swinging his arms and screaming and ramming into me. It was the worst he's spun out with me in a long time. His dad eventually came downstairs and carried him away (he very rarely gets involved with discipline when I'm working, which is good, but I'm very glad he took this one over). I got off at 3 as an hours trade for babysitting tonight, but I felt like I'd put in the full 10 hours plus overtime. I went and got a massage, and have stayed away most of today. Needless to say, I'm not exactly looking forward to going upstairs to babysit in 10 minutes.
On the bright side, my boss acknowledges and appreciates what a difficult job this can be, and gave me a little bonus for "combat pay."
Here's hoping I can just let them eat dinner and watch a movie and go to bed early tonight.

Stir Crazy

I've been itching to travel and also very much in need of a reprieve from the kiddoes. I love them, but lets be honest they aren't my kids and I am at liberty to want to go away from them for more than two days at a time.
I'm going to visit Rachel (Seminary friend) in Bloomington, Indiana for Thanksgiving, which will be awesome and much needed. But when I bought those tickets it was still about 6 weeks away. In Seminary I got spoiled on reading weeks and holiday breaks and getting to travel to go somewhere and visit someone about every 2 months. Real life is not like that, I know, but I really want it to be. So I decided that I also need to plan a trip to the UK to visit Matt and Jeni and wee Hosea. I use the word "plan" loosely. There wasn't so much a plan as an expedia search and then a purchase and then a Skype conversation letting them know I'm coming.
The funny thing is I was telling my friend Jess (from church here) how much I needed a break and wanted to travel. I said, "I haven't been anywhere since . . . August." Yeah, that wasn't that long ago. I guess I really am spoiled.
Be that as it may, the nomadic life appeals to me, and since I can't have that right now I'll just seize the opportunities I do have and get the heck out of Dodge.

Colorado 1, Jersey 0

It is snowing today. That's not uncommon in my life. In Colorado it often snows before/on Halloween. The difference is now that it is snowing here it means buckle down for cold misery for the next 4-5 months, whereas in Colorado it could be in the 70s again next week. At least the kids are excited.

Reality Check

According to the parenting and child development e-mail my boss forwards to me, a 23 month old (which B is) might be putting together three word sentences.
Yesterday B said to me "I'm not swiping your headband, I'm just putting it in my princess purse." She also said after her bath toy fell off the side into the tub, "He's in the pool now. He's supposed to be exercising."
She sure is a cute little smarty pants.

An Unqualified Theory

N brought home a behavior form today from Kindergarten. Apparently he laughed at a kid and wasn't following directions. His mom got an email from his teacher that she wants to have a phone conference on Monday. This got me to thinking about child rearing. Clearly I have a whole heck of a lot of impact on how these kids are being raised. As nannies go I think I'm attentive and tracking with the parents as far as discipline and boundaries and all that. N basically just doesn't listen. He doesn't do REALLY bad or malicious things, he simply doesn't follow directions. I imagine his teacher thinking that the fact he spends more time with his nanny than his parents is a partial explanation for his behavior. I have an alternate (and highly unqualified theory):
Every kid is entirely unique, as is every parent. You put the parenting method spectrum (you know, discipline technique, how much chaos you can handle etc.) on the x axis. Put the kid-being spectrum (mischief, mayhem, ability to sit still for 30+ seconds) on the y axis. If by some miracle the points plot at 0, 0 you have perfect parenting/child-being combo. At any other point its more or less a crap shoot. After 18 or so years of some combination of tickles and time-outs and yelling and laughing and demanding and respecting the kid will inevitably either turn out somewhere between fantastic and dead-beat. The okay-ness of the adult will be partly because of and partly in spite of the parenting method. Clearly there are outliers, especially in the parenting methods, that are pretty much guaranteed to turn out badly. In general though, I think everyone just has to do the best they can with what comes naturally and pray for the best.
Maybe I'm just trying to clear myself of any possible culpability for N's behavior. If that's the case it would probably suffice remind everyone that he had 3 other nannies before me, not to mention two parents. I love him, but I'm not sad when the weekend comes around and I get to not be a "parent".

Good News from the world of philology!

The Cyrillic alphabet is basically the Greek alphabet with a few extra letters! I think I probably already knew that, but my "Beginner's Russian Script" book just confirmed it. And, there are no articles, and from that one bit of info I've decided to tell myself that the grammar with be a combo of Latin and Greek. The outlook for my PhD language requirements just got brighter.
I also have only one chapter left in my German grammar (that I should have been able to go through in half the time it took me), then I get to start translating short stories and other fun stuff.

On a different but related note, Vaclav Havel is brilliant and I can't believe I hadn't read any of his work until now. (He was a playwright and philosopher active in the protest group Charter 77, then became the first president of Czechoslovakia after the Velvet Revolution.)

27

I've been 27 for two days now. I remember one of my friends telling me they had a relative who got married in the tropics somewhere and on one of the forms they had to specify their marital status. 27+ and never married qualified as spinster. I'm cool with that. In honor of my 27 years here are 27 things I need/want/intend to do before the end of the next 27.
1. PhD
2. Become fluent in at least 2 languages (most likely German and Czech or Russian)
3. Live in Central Europe for several years
4. Ordination
5. Sky Dive
6. learn basic auto maintenance
7. successfully potty train B

I'm already having a hard time thinking of more. If I'd tried to make a list like that 10 years ago most of the things I've ended up doing wouldn't have been on it. If my reality were limited to events and adventures I could have foreseen it would be a very boring life. So I'll leave it to those 7 things, and wait to be surprised by the other 20.

The Thing About New Jersey

When I moved to Princeton almost four years ago my friend Matt warned me that people could be a little rude, especially in minor transactions like the grocery store or fast food. I didn't experience this very much my first three years in Jersey because Princeton is like an insulated biodome that protects its inhabitants, most of whom are not native to New Jersey, from the harsh reality of the outside world.
Now that I've lived in North Jersey for a little over a year I see this all the time. My friends Sara and Emily (both from Ohio) and I have explained to our small group (most of whom are from Jersey) that people here are, in fact, rude. I attribute part of it to a cultural phenomenon of simply having no filter. People basically say what they think without any attempt to sugar coat or be politically correct. If it comes across harsh, or over-reactionary, or just plain racist it doesn't matter. The other element of it is that this is a state where people are always in a hurry (usually to get to work in New York or Philadelphia), and in that cut throat environment you have a be a little mean to survive (or at least that's what people seem to think). I'm not a pushy person by nature, and I have not become one, but that means that I sometimes have to wait extra long for various things because just let the shovers go ahead of me. People also talk faster. Cashiers will also roll their eyes at you like you've burdened them greatly if you ask for some more of anything. The other day I was at Dunkin' Donuts (it's not sketchy here like in the West, and it is a mostly unavoidable part of everyday life) and I ordered a croissant sandwich. I probably don't have to tell you that those are warm with melty cheese goodness on egg and meat, but I just did anyway. The guy stared at the picture on the menu, then gave me a bag with a cold piece of ham, a cold egg patty, and a slice of cheese between two cold croissant slices. He looked confused when I asked him to warm it up. Luckily another employee was equally appalled and gave me a refund.
Here's the other thing about New Jersey. People are much more away of their ethnic heritage. If they are Italian or Dutch or Greek or whatever, they know and there are elements of their lifestyle that make their heritage obvious. That's not bad of course, it's just generally not the case anywhere else I've lived except for recent or first generation immigrants. Here it's people whose Italian great-great-grandfather came to New Jersey and settled in the same town as the current resident, who now runs the local pizzeria (which are also more numerous than any other type of restaurant). That's kind of a cool thing, but a little weird when people find it incredible strange that I would just pick up and move across the country multiple times.
End of rant.

Inconsistency (nerd alert!)

I am only writing this because I know that most of you my readers have read Harry Potter and are eagerly anticipating the release of Harry Potter and the Half-Blood Prince. I'm re-reading the book in preparation and noticed an inconsistency that I wonder whether any of you can reconcile. I'll give you a moment to retrieve your copy.
Dumbledore takes Harry into the memory of Bob Ogden in the chapter "The House of Gaunt". In it Morfin is speaking parseltongue, which Harry understands but Ogden doesn't. If it is Ogden's memory then how does the memory include the Parseltongue recreated accurately enough that Harry can understand it?
It's just been bugging me today. Nerd moment managed. 10 days to showtime!

Father's Day and Gender Stereotypes

Yesterday I was in Target looking for a card for my dad and I had an epiphane about the very sexist nature of this holiday, or at least the greeting cards it was created to sell. I have no problem with setting aside a day to celebrate Fathers (or Mothers or any other group worth celebrating), but think about the Mother's Day cards versus the Father's Day cards. On Mother's day it's all about "you do it all mom": bake cookies, work full time, clean the house, set the example, raise the kids, drive the mini van,etc. etc. There's no disputing that image of motherhood. Believe me, my mom could be the poster mother for the do-it-all type. But then there are the Father's Day cards. They assume that Dad's don't do-it-all. In fact they do a few very specific things: mow the lawn, grill, play golf or baseball, watch tv, drink beer, and fart. My dad always hated mowing the lawn, I have no memory of him ever grilling anything, he doesn't play golf or baseball or any other sport, and while he does watch his share of tv he doesn't do so incessantly with a beer in one hand and a remote in the other while emitting unnatural odors. In addition, all the cards in the "from daughter" category either assume the daughter is Daddy's little princess or some adult version of that sentiment. I do not now nor have I ever been a little princess, so those would only work if I was going for irony. Therefore I ended up choosing a nice but somewhat generic card. Hallmark doesn't have a little poem and stock photo for dad's who teach their daughters about profit margins, world history, current politics and economics, literature, Broadway showtunes, useless Hollywood trivia, rhetoric, or Shakespeare. I mean no offense to those of you whose dad's do fit the greeting card stereotype or still do think of yourself as Daddy's Little Princess. But I'm happy to be the bibliophilic feminist intellectual my dad contributed to me becoming.

Objectivity

I am a very rational person, sometimes to a fault. I try to look at things as objectively as possible. Few things drive me insane more than subjective or ad hominem arguments or decision making processes.
Keep that in mind and imagine my reaction to the American Idol finale.
I know it is not at all important. It's not even that important to me personally. I'm not going to rush out and buy an album or a poster or whatever. But Adam is simply the more talented vocalist and overall performer so it just bugs me that he didn't win.
It also bugs me that apparently I was annoyed enough about American Idol, of all things, to come home and blog about it.
At least now the season is over and two more week nights are freed up to do productive things like learn German and read the great Russians.

Simply Divine (mostly)

Easter drives me to get my liturgy on. I love the church I go to here, Emergence, but it is decidedly non-traditional. Every now and then I need a little Nicene Creed and a responsive Great Thanksgiving, and if some or all of it is cantored then all the better. Ergo, Andrew and Bianca and I attended mass at The Cathedral Church of Saint John the Divine in Manhattan. It was a beautiful, very high church, Episcopalian service. There was beautiful music, an inspiring setting, all the pomp and circumstance that the reformation hated and that part of me deeply appreciates. The incense is a big downside (I'm wicked allergic), but the liturgy, parts of which date back 1500 years or more, just fills an oft-neglected part of my spirit.
And then the soloist stood up. It wasn't in the program at all. She started singing a song I didn't recognize but it struck me as a little odd and cheesy that it had rainbows in it. Then she got to the chorus. That's right, Somewhere Over the Rainbow. And she had the congregation join in, which of course everyone did with gusto. And I sat there confused and bewildered and trying hard not to laugh.
At least the sermon was good and we sang Jesus Christ is Risen Today. I'll just try to scrub that medial guffaw from my memory.

CIA Huntdown: a meme

If the CIA ever needs to hunt you down they assume you'll return to someplace familiar. With that in mind they attempt to discover where you've slept for the past 6 years. Here's an opportunity to make it easier for them.

Where I've slept August 2003-August 2009:

Ballard Hall Dorm Room (Whitworth College, Spokane, WA)
Stephanie's RV (near Billings, MT)
Lung Family's House (Parker, CO)
DePoy Family's House (Parker, CO)
Durango UMC (Durango, CO)
UM Church (Navajo Rez, Arizona)
Parent's House (Littleton, CO)
Granny's Apt (Wheat Ridge, CO)
Tiki RA Apt (Whitworth College, Spokane, WA)
Fishy's Parents' House (near Olympia, WA)
Meagan's Parents' House (near Portland, OR)
U of I Dorm Room (Urbana-Champagne, IL)
Kyna's Theme House (Whitworth College, Spokane, WA)
Jeni & Lacey's Apt (Spokane, WA)
Liz's Apt (Tacoma, WA)
Kristin's Apt (Chicago, IL)
Guest House (Osu-Accra, Ghana)
Guest House (Tamale, Ghana)
Nkrumah Family's House (Tamale, Ghana)
Guest House (Lingbinsi, Ghana)
Guest House (Kumasi, Ghana)
Hostel (London, UK)
Bianca's Dad's House (near Folsom, CA)
Bianca's Mom's House (Mountain View, CA)
Andrew's Parents' House (Walnut Creek, CA)
Kayla's House (Grenada Hills, CA)
Kristin's House (West Seattle, WA)
Boppell Dorm Room (Whitworth College, Spokane, WA)
Shelly's Parents' House (Yakima, WA)
Claire's Parents' House (Oak Ridge, TN)
Jugendherberge (Berlin, Germany)
Augustinerkloster (Erfurt, Germany)
Monastery (Augsburg, Germany)
Charles University (Prague, Czech Republic)
Hostel (Budapest, Hungary)
Airport floor (Atlanta, GA)
Hotel (Butte, MT)
Parents' Apt (Lakewood, CO)
Motel (near Ogden, UT)
Motel (Seattle, WA)
Church (Vancouver, BC)
Church member's house (near Boise, ID)
Anna's Parents' House (Juneau, AK)
Kaemingks' Apt (West Windsor, NJ)
Alexander Hall Dorm Room (Princeton Seminary, Princeton, NJ)
Shelly's House (Minneapolis, MN)
Fishy's Apt (Chicago, IL)
Claire's Apt (Colorado Springs, CO)
Anna's House (Spokane, WA)
Erika's Apt (Spokane, WA)
Dave's House (Colorado Springs, CO)
Hotel (Billings, MT)
Hotel (Spokane, WA)
Prof's House (Princeton, NJ)
Hodge Hall Dorm Room (Princeton Seminary, NJ)
Jamie's Parents' House (near Olympia, WA)
Claire and Dave's Apt (Colorado Springs, CO)
University Medical Center (Princeton, NJ)
Chris and Jenelle's House (Colorado Springs, CO)
Andrew and Bianca's Apt (San Francisco, CA)
Bianca's Mom's House (Palo Alto(?), CA)
Hotel (tiny gambling town, NV)
Dogbe Home (Nima-Accra, Ghana)
Boarding School (Dodowa, Ghana)
Geila's Apt (West Windsor/Princeton, NJ)
Matt and Jeni's Apt (Edinburgh, UK)
Hotel (Ann Arbor, MI)
Jess' Parents' House (tiny town, Iowa)
Hotel (Cheyenne, WY)
Employer's House (Kinnelon, NJ)
"Granny's Castle" (Beach Haven, LBI, NJ)
Sarah's Apt (Trenton, NJ)
Erik's Apt (Philadelphia, PA)
Hostel (Harlem, NY, NY)
Jen's Dorm Room (Princeton Seminary, NJ)
Sean's Apt (Boston, MA)
Jaime and Caitlin's Apt (Spokane, WA)
Hotel (Philadelphia, PA)
Rachel's Apt (Bloomington, IN)
Atlantis Resort (Paradise Island, Bahamas)
Chris and Jenelle's Apt (West Windsor/Princeton, NJ)
Andrew and Bianca's Apt (Inwood, NY, NY)
Hotel (Paoli, PA)

I think if the CIA was ever actually trying to hunt me down I could change my name, learn an accent, and pretend to be an au pair who never left. I'd make a nice living in the city, and be invaluable to my employers so they would never want to ask for any real form of ID. Oh shoot, there goes my cover.

Spring Solstice

After spending time at Target and the Mall yesterday, with their overabundance of "Easter" paraphernalia, I've decided that we should just call this what it is: Spring Solstice. All the bunnies and eggs and Spring time stuff. Like the corresponding Christmas kitsch, I enjoy it to an extent. I'm excited that it is finally Spring after a long, dark New Jersey Winter. I like Cadbury creme eggs and have a soft addiction to Starburst jelly beans. So let's keep all that junk and just somehow remove it from Easter. It's basically become just another excuse to buy kids presents anyway, so what they remember about Easter is the candy and the baskets and bunnies, and if they go to church they are more likely to remember the Easter egg hunt and having to dress nicer than usual. (Incidentally, I also advocate keeping all the Christmasy kitsch but celebrating Jesus' birth on Jan 6, like the Orthodox church.)
These thoughts led to me putting the Dora the Explorer and Batman tin pails, the Spiderman eggs, the Disney Princess candy containers, and the Hello Kitty galoshes back on the shelf at Target yesterday. The kids are going to get more than plenty of that stuff, without me adding to it. Not to mention that I am the one stuff with the sugar rushed pre-schooler. So I got B a Bible board book and N an illustrated copy of The Lion, The Witch, and the Wardrobe. I'm thankful that N does know what Easter is about, and I'd like to do my part to keep it that way.

Beef!

Claire and Dave have been here visiting me this week. They have now experienced first-hand the joys and tribulations of nannydom. I talked about them to N a lot, so he was way excited, especially about Dave the "real live artist". When I came up to start work on Monday morning N's first word to me was "DAVE!" and he repeated the refrain when I went to pick him up at school, but Dave was in Philly for the day so he had to wait until Tuesday to meet him. He pretty much flipped out when he finally did. So they painted together, and he was basically kept delightfully occupied. B also fell in love with Dave. I think it might be partly because he bears a slight resemblance to her pop-pop. She wanted to give him all her toys and food and said hi to him over and over and over at the table. What a flirt! She also couldn't say "Dave" so his new name is "Beef." Haha.
Today we are driving to Manhattan to spend the next few days hanging out with Bianca and Andrew. Yes, it's a rough life we live. The only thing missing is Shelly, our fourth Cloister sister. It won't be quite right going to The Cloisters without her.

The BIG One!

Nothing is in writing yet, but the director of the Institute said "Congratulations! You are our first choice." [Actually, as of a few minutes ago it is in writing!]
I don't think it ever fully sunk in how important my application and visit to Baylor were, like course-of-life-determining important. Neither has the fantasticness of my admission, but I did celebrate by eating three Kolaches on the way to the airport and getting myself a "Don't Mess With Texas" t-shirt.

All the clothing issues worked out fine, of course. I took pictures of myself in bathroom mirrors.

Today I Learned . . .

. . . that it is going to be made legal to shoot wild hogs from helicopters in Texas. Seriously. This came up during the comparative sociology lecture I sat in on today. I also learned that, according to some tv special, women in Texas need to carry guns both for protection and because it is hott. I also noticed that most of the news on the radio is a thinly veiled attempt to undermine Obama, but I sort of expected that. Yep, Texas is it's own animal.
Today I had an interview, a tour of the totally drool-worthy Keston archive that is all stuff on religious persecution under Communism, lunch with current students, and the aforementioned sociology class. Tomorrow I have two more interviews and two more classes before I head back to Jersey, another decidedly insane state but for very different reasons. If y'all are lucky maybe I'll even take some pictures to post.

A Series of Unfortunate Events

The hour between picking N up from preschool and getting the kids down for nap tends to be the most stressful of the day. Today it was so bad it was comical.
A few minutes after N gets in bed, I hear a crash. I go upstairs to discover that he has knocked over his tall halogen lamp. I smell burning, but there is no sign of danger, so I open the window, take the lamp out of the room, and tell N that he has to stay in his bed for nap today (usually he's allowed to just be in his room playing quietly).
I go downstairs and start refilling the tanks on the humidifiers, when I hear N out of his room and something like glass clinking. I go upstairs and he has brought the bulb and the glass cover to the lamp into the hallway. He then shows me where the carpet is singed which explains the smell. Apparently we came very close to having a fire. Oh, and B was crying the whole time not wanting to nap.
I go back downstairs, where I have left the water running in the humidifier tank, which has now flooded the counter top and is dripping copiously onto the floor. I mopped that up with just about every towel in the place. Then I ate an ice cream sandwich and read a chapter of Wuthering Heights, and let N's nap go a little longer than usual.