Sunday, April 26, 2009

More updates without pictures

I'm not exactly sure where my camera is at this point in time—suffice to say somewhere in the house. I am typing this with a very loudly purring cat curled up on my arm. Greymalkin has been making herself known a lot lately. When Eddie died, she decided to get on our bed for the first time. Now that Rocky has died, she has to be on one of us almost all the time. We probably won't get another cat for awhile, because each time we lose one, Greymalkin changes her behavior.

There is really not a whole lot to report. You know if anyone actually reads this blog. The remodel hasn't had anything new happen for a few weeks. Jeff is finished with the spring semester on Friday, so maybe things will start to happen. BUT, softball starts really soon, so nothing might happen. D and I have another four weeks of school. We both finish on May 22, just in time for Memorial Day weekend. The people around here have a major problem if students have to continue into June. I've grown used to it—you know that 17 years being here thing, but it still seems strange to not go until June.

I finish at the U this week. I have classes on Wed., and Thurs., and my term paper for one class is due by 5 on Friday and everything for the other class is due on Saturday. I don't know how to go to school and not work full time, but this semester has been hard. I won (earned) a scholarship for next year, so I have to take three classes a semester. I haven't decided if I will take the summer off or not. I registered for a class for the summer, but can always drop it. The class I would take in the summer is one I could take in the fall, but I found a class to take in the fall to replace it. I don't know whether to work on the house and lesson plans for next year over the summer or do those things and take a class. So many decisions. Jeff and I have to talk it over, plus I need to talk with my adviser at the U. The department I am earning my degree in is a part Ed. Psych., Education, and Linguistics. With all the budget cuts, it is being absorbed by the College of Ed. No one in the department is happy. I, however, need to find out how this absorption affects my degree program.

My mother remains in a care facility receiving physical therapy twice a day to help her nerves regrow. I am clearly not the best daughter in the world. My sister would be calling my mother everyday to chat. I just don't have that in me. My aunt calls my mom and visits too. Obviously I can't visit, but I just don't have that much to say. In my mind (and I have thought this for a long time—three years) the wrong daughter died. The one who called everyday and checked in was not me. I will go to my grave believing that my sister should not have died and if anyone was going to, it should have been me.

I did get the book my mother wanted and will try to ship it off this week along with the Girl Scout cookies she ordered before her surgery from hell. I also need to round up the scrapbooking mysteries I have been reading lately and send her those as well. They are pretty lighthearted and entertaining to boot. I wanted to send her a cd player, but she was afraid it would be stolen. My parents have learned, from Jane's long stays in nursing homes, that if it is something valuable it will probably be stolen by a nurse. Actually we have know this since my grandfather died back in 1979. His wedding ring was stolen in the one week he was in a nursing home. Hard to believe that in June it will be thirty years since I graduated from junior high and he died (one week later).

Well more later. This will be a hectic week, with finishing school, soccer games, Scouts, and all the other activities that are part of our lives.

Thursday, April 2, 2009

Wow!!

Ballet Russes—
what can I say. Ballet West's performance last week was phenomenal. D was late getting home last Friday, so I wasn't sure what time we would arrive in SLC. Turns out we got there about 6:30. enough time for diner, but not enough time for dinner and going to Warm UPs. We went to the Olive Garden which happens to be right across the street from Capital Theater.

As we made our way down the aisle to our seats, D said "I wonder if we will see Chris Rudd in the audience tonight?" I looked up and there he was walking toward us. I stopped him and commented on how he was out of the boot from his surgery. He demonstrated that he could do jumps and plies. He headed toward the lobby and we headed toward our seats.

What can I say about last Friday's performances? I had never seen "Les Biches" by Nijinska, sister to the famed Nijinski. It was different and clearly showed her disdain for males. It also was a clear precursure to Balanchine's many works. I had seen "Prodigal Son" before with Mikhail Baryshnikovas the Prodigal Son. Chris Sellars did a phenomenal job in place of Chris Rudd. As I told D, the strength it takes to pretend you have no strength is just amazing. Chris Rudd's wife Chistiana Bennett was the Siren in "Prodigal Son". I wish my husband looked the way Chris did when I commented on how wonderful Christiana was as the Siren.

Let me explain. After the performance, we headed for the elevator that takes us to our cars. Chris Rudd just happened to be right behind D and myself. He recognized me from the comments before the performance. I had to comment on how well his wife had done as the Siren. The look on his face as he strove to put his feelings in words was priceless. A look of strong, deep love came over his face and then the look of someone who is deeply loved and did a magical thing also crossed his face. Maybe 20 years ago someone could have caught Jeff with that same look, but certainly not lately. WOW to be loved so deeply and passionately.

Moving on to other things—Deirdre saw "Ballet Russes" by Ballet West on Friday, March 27. She will see The Moody Blues in Reno on Saturday, April 4, and Wicked at the Capital Theater on Wednesday, April 8. Lots of different types of "culture" in less than two weeks. Starting at age 3 3/4, Jeff and I have been dragging her to various cultural events. The first one that I remember was a Moody Blues concert in Las Vegas. She did well there, so I took at age 3 and 3/4 to see La Sylphdia at Ballet West. We haven't looked back since. Rock concerts, baleets, movies, symphonies, and who knwows. I fell asleep while tyring to update.

The emotional ups and downs of an over-stressed life

Well, March is over. Did anyone tell Mother Nature? It has been snowing and raining this week and cold. I thought this was April. Oh wait I live 5000 feet up and this is April weather.

The re-model is in its sixth month and unfortunately nothing is really happening. Jeff is busy teaching and grading papers, so he can only accomplish so much on the weekends. For him, school is out in a month. Of course softball starts at that point or maybe earlier, but eventually we will no longer have drywall dust everywhere. Let's not go toward the clothes that line all the floors. No closet upstairs at the moment. However, that is not the only problem with the clothes situation, but I won't go into that right now.

I have been an emotional wreck this week. It all started on Monday. I hate ants. I loath, despise, hate, abhor, etc. ants. Well I got to school and there were ants all over my desk. I had left an open package of Thin Mints on my desk. The ants crawled in a diagonal from the corner of the room, under my printer stand and up my desk to reach this package. I have never had this problem. I found a custodian pdq and let him take care of the problem. All classes were held in the library that day.

Tuesday—lunchtime. There are ants all over my microwave and refrigerator. I have a microwave and refrigerator in my classroom for 15 years no problem. That was the week. I don't even know if I can go back on Monday.

No one wants to see me when I have a melt-down from ants. Today driving home from the U in rain a cat decided to race in front of my car in Moroni. I tried to stop in time, but I don't think that I did. There was no way I was getting out of the car to check. By the time I got home, emotional basket-case.

My mother is in a nursing home because her right leg is paralyzed. She walked into the hospital to have back surgery and now she can use her right leg. My father, bless his soul, is of course, considering suing the surgeon. My poor mother has been there for a month. They won't let her go home to a mutli-storied house until she can walk and she can't walk!!! Pain management has changed in the last decade or so. Instead of managing pain, it seems that doctors allow pain until the patient screams and the he or she does something about the pain.

I follow several blogs and one of them had the distressing news of five month old little boy who is trying to stay alive. Some how or other I have become caught up in this Minnesota family's problems.

Prayers for Stellan
Somehow it has become important to follow this family through their problems. I have no idea why.