Serene of the Oakland Serenes

Last day of vacation, and I spent nearly the entire day either cooking or washing dishes. It was glorious.

Pics under the cuts (not great pics, but still).

( Breakfast was biscuits and gravy )

( Lunch was a Korean feast )

( Snack was the last of yesterday's apple pie, with some caramel gelato on top )

( Dinner was stuffed cheeseburger buns and mango pudding, at the kid's request )

Very good food day. I enjoyed it thoroughly.

Had a terrible day yesterday, and was considering dropping the most awful of my two awful Wednesday classes and graduating a quarter late, but I think I'm just going to tough it out. Only ten weeks; I can do this bullshit class with all its bullshit group work for ten weeks. Bleah.

In other, more important news, heading over to wtfpotatoes's place today to finish filling out out the papers to adopt her. It's pretty easy to adopt an adult in this state, and I would have done it sooner (like, say, when the kids were babies) if my sister had let me, so it feels good to be able to do it now.

Perspective. That's what I needed. Much better.

Me, to James: I'm having that cliche feeling of "oh, no, my baby's gone," even though I have been excited about this day for so long.

Him: Well, you can do both. Maybe you could call her when you get home and make sure she's okay, kinda "tuck her in."

Me: Maybe I'll text her.

Him: Ooh, look out. We got a badass here.

Me: *laughing* You do know I'm blogging this entire conversation, right?

Him: I rest my case.

Anyway, we took the kid to Ikea. Dropped a bundle on bed/mattress/boxspring, desk, desk chair, lamp, pillow, and sheet set. Then we spent something like four hours assembling the furniture. James did most of the work, and almost all the thinking. He really understands how things are put together, and I struggle to do so, but the cool thing is that we don't let it get to us when we hit a snag. At one point, we realized we had done a step wrong, about five big steps back in the process, and had to disassemble to that point and do it over again. We were slightly bummed, but we just said "oh, well" and went about fixing it. With other partners, that's been relationship-level drama. With James, it's just a minor glitch. I am very lucky.

But back to the kid: For those of you who asked what she needs, she has a queen-sized bed -- if you have extra sheets, duvets/covers, etc., that would be keen. She also needs one of those plastic mats you put under your desk chair so it doesn't mess up the wood floor, so if you have an extra, please let me know. I'm not sure she's going to have a housewarming party, but I bet she'd be up for having visitors. Let me know if you need her address, or if you want to make arrangements to go over there with me and see the cute new place.

Edited to add: Oh, and the kid took us out to dinner to thank us. She's like a grown-up or something.

Good, if unproductive weekend. Came home from work on Friday in a foul temper (I assume from relief at the end of both my own school quarter and our students' semester, which was especially hard for me this time around because I was finding people scribes for their finals. I think I just had a mini-meltdown from its being finally over), and it took me until yesterday morning to feel vaguely like myself again.

This week, I have to work Monday/Wednesday/Friday, but my boss is not here and my file clerk is, so I think I'll be able to get lots of work done. I hope so! It would be awesome to be able to greet my boss next month with the files in order; they've gotten so bad with all the work turmoil.

Got to go to Costco with wild_irises yesterday, which was fun, and have spent some time cooking and cleaning and exercising, but lots more time staring into space and playing computer games than usual. Which, of course, is okay. If my dad gets here on Saturday morning and my house is a wreck, hell, he lived with me for 14 years; it will not be news to him.

We are liking the Bowflex. It's easy to use and was fairly easy to put together. It takes up a HUGE amount of space, so it's good that we have a big living room and no sofa.

sogwife has to have surgery this week (I don't feel okay talking about the details; that's her story, but my story is...) and I'm worried for her, but also glad she's able to have it done. I wish I had the wherewithal to go up and hold her hand and stuff, but honestly, I'm standing

righthere

and the end of my rope is

                           rightoverthere

My dad and stepmom will only be here for one day, the 24th -- they leave the morning of the 25th -- and then when they're gone, I have one week off from EVERYTHING: school, work, and obligations. I will be broke, but that's okay. I will be in my house, with my family, recovering. I can hold out for one week until that happens. Pretty sure. Probably.

The kid's grades come out on January 3rd, according to her school's website. I'm actually kind of glad I don't have to deal with that conversation until after Christmas and her birthday. I'm not feeling anxious about it, but I still don't think it'll be easy. Unless somehow I'm completely wrong and she didn't actually drop out of school without telling me. Again. I mean, there are people who manage to get good grades without going to class, right?

1) Probably sick. Fortunately, also off work for a few days.

2) maevele speaks for me.

3) Listening to an album start to finish. I don't do that much. Really enjoying it.

4) The boyfiend and the kid cleaned the house yesterday, so when I got home from a late and frustrating day at work, there was clean and peace to come home to. I love them a very huge lot.

5) I keep looking at my financial aid offer letter and shaking my head with disbelief. It's a lot of money, and a lot of help in making my long-awaited dream come true. I am in awe.

6) That said, I really really really am feeling impatient for April 29th to come, so that I can know where I'll be going to school!

The kid is safely with my mom. She says "USA! USA!" (She's been stuck at her parents' place in Mexico for a couple days.)

Work was good, but not so good that I wanted to stay late, so I bailed a little early. Yay, flexible working hours!

The kid and I had a stupid fight last night (I was stupid; she was mostly just forgetful), but we made up briefly last night, and then went to lunch today and really talked out how much we both appreciate that we can argue without being assholes to each other. (We get snotty and draw back from each other, but we always cool down and apologize. As she said, "Sometimes, I even know I'm wrong, but I'm pissed, and there's no way I'm admitting it until I'm not so pissed any more." Yeah, me, too.)

Tomorrow is the first meeting for the new project I'm working on at work. (The one that means more hours for me, helping to write a curriculum to teach employees at the University about working with students with disabilities.) I'm very excited. Plus, I get to have lunch and stuff with stonebender, which is an extra, added bonus.

Pic of the day:

1) Can't decide if the injured ankle is a blessing or a curse. Well, it's both, I guess. I'm getting LOTS of rest, but I'm also getting cabin fever. First world problems.

2) Having a ton of fun building a new project. It will get its own post today, under access lock, because even though mom rarely reads my journals, I don't want her to see what her birthday present is.

3) Anything I planned to do today (really, just housework) is officially cancelled in favor of the MythBusters marathon! Well, maybe I'll do a little housework on the commercials. Or not.

4) I used to like to sleep. I used to do it a lot. Nowadays, though, I sleep maybe 5 hours, wake up at ungodly hours of the morning (today, it was 3am) and just stay up. I get so much done while everyone else is sleeping that I actually don't mind this, but it does mean I'm wasted by 9pm.

5) Made my first rib roast last night. Called mom for instructions. Came out GREAT.

6) Little things that brought me joy yesterday, even though I wasn't feeling all that hot:

• the new water bottle someotherguy bought me
• playing games with the kid, who is always really pleasant for a few days after we have an argument and the world doesn't collapse (she's afraid of parental anger, and who can blame her, but we actually argue well, without being very mean to each other)
• dinner: the aforementioned roast, mashed potatoes/carrots/cauliflower, gravy, and steamed green beans. Yum.
• a phone call from stonebender while he was out and about, just because
• honeydew from the farm box: sweet and ripe and delicious

...in her quest to be better at marketing herself as an artist, wtfpotatoes has asked me to point y'all to her new DeviantArt account, to which she will be adding even more new stuff (there are 15 things there right now). She does commissions for her fellow WOW people, so some of these are to other people's specs, but they give a decent cross-section of her general styles. If you know of anyone who might want to buy art from her, or if you know of any art-related internships or training programs, or anyone she should hook up with to find out about something related to a career in which she can exercise her love of drawing, please let me know, or email her: joan at the same domain my email address is at.

http://wetpaperbag.deviantart.com/gallery/

Back to work with me now, but my kid stopped by at lunch and brought me this. Her art class went on a field trip to the Botanical Gardens. She said the fog was so thick and they were up so high that she had trouble drawing and breathing, but she did bring me this flower, which she said she picked because it was so delicate: