Back to Reality.....

There might be no sight more welcome than the yellow school bus after a two week family love in—that is by the parents. The kids seemed less enthusiastic. Jonathan collapsed into pathetic sobs because he hadn’t done homework. The homework was to read 15 minutes a day and he has blasted through Famous Men of the Middle Ages, Great Men of Greece, Arabian Knights, some book about myths and folk tales and a very gory Roman Mystery. Rebecca was far too stuck in cousin It mode to worry. She has not been up much before 8:30 in two weeks and she could barely get out two words without grunting. Her hair was something of federal cases since she has not let an adult near it in days. Even after the two rubber bands and four clips were removed it remained in a sort of beehive meets cheerleader contraption. By the time the yellow bus deposited them at the end of the day everyone was in better spirits and Rebecca was especially happy because she had earned 76 stars which in turn got her a purple beanie baby. It’s a bit unclear what prompted the stars. I’m hoping some of it had to do not just with her obsessively good behavior at school but with her uncanny mathematical ability—the kid can do crazy arithmetic in her head. Eli meanwhile goes back tomorrow and is worried about his homework too. He handled the anxiety by stomping around the house in cowboy boots and nothing else—it’s quite a look. The end of the day was especially sweet because their dog friend batman came over to borrow one of Eli’s sweaters. The explained to the other kids that batman belonged to “one of their grown up friends Melanie. They are ready to start dog-sitting just after they harvest the remainder of our Rosemary and Sage and sell it on the street—yes they really suggested that on this frigid day.

Meanwhile I spent about two and a half hours plowing through my email. If I owe you a professional email I apologize between various family traumas and snow storms I realized I’d answered hardly anything but immediate social needs in about three weeks. This was only slightly more exciting than the two hours of snail mail sorting that occurred yesterday. We had the first 2010 meeting of book boot camp but no one did their book. (this club involves female associate professors stuck on the second book going to a coffee shop and policing each others activities no chatting, no email, no teaching prep, no emailing students and colleagues, no zappos just the book…….) today it turned out support was needed just to open the laptops. Special dispensations on the book can be made during certain seasons of panic. We’re also going to need a new location. Cville coffee seems to have stopped turning on the heat. Also the selection of books I’d stacked on the table “A brief History of Castration” and “A Mind of It’s Own: A Cultural History of the Penis” did some damage to the retired gentlemen sitting beside us who were attempting to discuss their conversion experiences. Eli seems to have read the books.