Sad, Sad Situation

I got the email I was dreading. The position went to someone else. Nice news the day before I have to start teaching. My eyes should look like someone double punched me by tomorrow morning. I have to focus on the good points. It would have been a job full of abuse, all of which I could have handled. We would have had to move and put Millie in a new daycare. I get to be at home with her four days a week rather than two. I can hopefully concentrate on finishing my degree so my name tag at McDonald's will feature the letters "PhD". You know you'll be getting quality service, then. No average fries for you. There's a plan. God's got a plan. I just wish I knew what it was.

Poor Animal gets all squirrely when I cry. She actually tries to make me smile-she'll put her hand on my face and grin and touch my tears. Have I mentioned she's brilliant AND intuitive? Ha.

So, in the new vein of concentrating on the positive, we had a great day on Saturday. She started off by feeding herself yogurt with the spoon mostly by herself, with at least some success.

My aunt, who doubles as one of my best friends, came down. She's one of the only (okay, the ONLY) people Animal is not freaky with. My aunt has made an effort to visit very often and get to know her, THUS, Millie actually knows her. Unlike everyone else. The local children's museum was having a fundraiser that involved a local farm being open to the public. Millie was absolutely enthralled by the cows-

So enthralled, in fact, that she managed to keep her hat on. The general rule of thumb is I put it on her, she rips it off and attempts to throw it out the window/off the bridge/into a pile of manure/mud/garbage. We also took a rockin' hayride pulled by a 1949 tractor. She went nuts. It was all about pointing and "oooooooo"ing and jumping up and down.

Why does my husband looked pissed? I have no idea. Maybe because that was the 8,943rd picture I had taken that day. I have an addiction. So sue me.

After the free (Oh yes, I DID say free) ice cream and a feeble attempt not to ridicule the absurd and talentless, but I'm sure well-meaning old white man attempting to rap in an effort to entertain the crowd, we headed out. Animal fell asleep on the way home so we drove up to a duck pond in the next town, where she woke up and again, had more fun that one 11-month old should. A very nice woman offered us a piece of bread since we didn't have any with us. Millie didn't quite grasp that it wasn't for her to eat and got P-I-S-S-E-D when Iain took it away from her. My little one doesn't like it when she's told she can't put something in her mouth, especially a carbohydrate. She loved the ducks, nonetheless.

All in all, a very good day.

That's my aunt and I with Animal. Note the gigantic Scooby Doo head in the background. Those are the things my nightmares are made out of. Although, the clown face ones are worse. Straight out of It.

My Old School

Still waiting to hear on the job. "They" had to post it internally for two weeks. The end of that two weeks is Friday. "They" are supposed to be announcing their decision then. I have resigned myself to the high probability that it won't be me. There are reasons why that's okay and I have to focus on them.

School starts on Monday. I have two sections of Social Anthropology to teach, one of them an honors section. Too bad I'm not a social anthropologist, eh? Jeez. I have taught it before and have been blessed with fantastic, enthusiastic students. I hope I'm lucky again. We'll see. I teach it from an anthropology of yourselves point of view since most of them aren't anthropology majors and couldn't give a rat's arse about it. I force, er, teach them to think about how anthropology is relevant to their own lives. We're using blogs and podcasts for some of their assignments, so hopefully they won't find it to be a total snoozefest. I make, I mean, encourage them to talk about gender identity, "race" and ethnicity, social stratification, religion, all things that they should have an opinion on. Let's hope they are talkative.



My pumpkin is asleep for the moment. She was benched at school for diarrhea yesterday, which she has had since Sunday. It took until yesterday to have three strikes at school, thus the parent call to come pick our poop-filled child up. Her diaper region is the color of fresh strawberries, the poor thing. I wish I knew what was up. My husband picked her up from school yesterday, so today was my turn to stay home with her. Minus $100 from my meager paycheck, thank you very much. Oh well. All part of parenting. The plus is we get to goof off all day, all in the name of recuperation. Nice.

Work House Blues

I didn't get The Dream Job. Devastated doesn't even scratch the surface.

So, off I go this summer to The Museum. Not a bad option, but it leads to what I have to do today. We transition Millie into daycare this week. I get to stay with her today and tomorrow. Wednesday is the day I stay for an hour and then drop her off. To virtual strangers.

I have to go vomit. I'll let you know how it goes. The daycare, not the vomit.