Week of Weirdness

• With my 20 year high school reunion looming (I’m not going), two former high school classmates emailed me. One I was very happy to hear from, but the other one really stumped me. Our friendship ended before high school even started—and it ended badly—and as far as I can recall, we didn’t exchange a single word during our high school years. Weird.
• Development Day was Tuesday. I left early because I thought I was coming down with something (after a three hour nap at home I felt much better), and when I talked to people the next day about what I missed, I found out that the one interesting item on the day’s agenda had never even been mentioned.
• A year or so ago, we paid $1200 to have some dental work done on Lily’s two front teeth, which have taken a beating since they first came in. When she was two, she fell in the tub and smashed one tooth loose and it was never quite the same after that, hence the $1200 repair work. A few months ago, Lily ran full speed into a wall and knocked the other front tooth loose. Last week, we found out that both front teeth had raging infections in the roots/gums and so we spent $1000 to have her $1200 teeth pulled out. Yikes. The good news is that she looks adorable without front teeth and she’s the class hero for being the first to lose her front teeth (apparently five year olds don’t care how the teeth come out). The bad news—aside from the expense of all this—is that during the pulling, Lily was in a lot of pain, with the dentist having to stop several times to give her more Novocaine.
• Amy and I finished revising our textbook’s sample chapter to send to our editor (yes, we have an editor!!) and somehow renamed the file prospectus, which caused all sorts of confusion the next day when I went to send the chapter to our editor. Like an hour of confusion.
• An assessment conference I was not at all looking forward to on Friday turned out to be really good. Maybe it was because I kept my expectations low, but I actually learned a few things. The two key noters, Ronald Baker and Marie Baehr, were both good speakers. What I learned about assessment can be best summed up in the quote, "You can make yourself miserable or you can make yourself stronger. The amount of work involved is the same."
• I managed to pull the door handle out of the door in our car for the second time this year. I guess I don’t know my own strength.

tags: academia  conference  health  lily  me  parenting  whining  work  

links: del.icio.us    technorati