Wednesday, April 9, 2008

It's been awhile...

And I apologize for that. It's been a busy few weeks. Let me give you the highlights.
The week after Easter I spent "babysitting" for a friend. She and her husband spent the week in Peru, and I was stand-in mom for the week (the four kids range from first grade to eighth). She made it as easy as possible for me (the housecleaner came and cooked every day, even the days she isn't usually there), so all I really had to do was make sure they did their homework, got to bed on time, and drove them around--to school, to soccer practice, to gymnastics. All that kind of stuff. Luckily my school work load was relatively light that week, because I couldn't do much work until after the kids went to bed, and I then I had to get up in the morning before them so I'd be ready first so I could help them. Needless to say, I was pretty tired. I got the smallest taste of what it's like to be a single parent, and I've gotta say, my hat's off to those people. It's not easy. In fact, I was seriously considering renting a husband for the week. :o)
There was one funny anecdote that happened (besides me running around the house like a crazy lady trying to keep their dog out of trashcans or from chewing things up) on Thursday, my last day there. Apparently Thursday is chocolate chip cookie night, so I went ahead and made chocolate chip cookies. Once the batter was all mixed, I turned to the oven. Immediately I realized I had a problem. Their beast of an oven is gas powered and old. So there's no such thing as a pilot light or a lighting button. I had to turn on the gas and then hold a match up to a menacing-looking hole. And, as I came to find out, the oven is very temperamental. After several attempts and several phone calls to more experienced gas oven turner-oners, I was at my wits end. Well, then once as I stuck the match in, the gas lit! Finally! Except it lit in a wave of fire that spewed out of the oven and past me, blowing my hair in the process. This was quite shocking. I sat there, assessing to see if I was ablaze anywhere. Upon determining that I was NOT, I shut the oven, put the cookie dough in the fridge, and gave up. Somewhere in this process I felt something odd on my arm and brushed it off, thinking it was some cookie dough stuck there. In fact, it was burnt hair. Nice, huh? I had successfully singed the hair from three separate places of my arm. I have vowed since to never live in a house with such an oven if at all possible.
The next week, back at my house with fewer responsibilities, I was buried in work and got little rest. Towards the end of the week I started to feel a cold coming on. But being so busy, my body fought it off relatively successfully. Friday was Melissa's 16th birthday, and we had planned a surprise birthday party for her with her school friends. It was a complete success, and a very interesting time for me. I was caught between being the kids' friend and wanting them to have fun, and still being a responsible adult and wanting to stop them from doing stupid things that teenagers tend to do at parties. They didn't try much, and I was able to lightheartedly prevent things so I didn't look like an ogre trying to ruin their party. All in all, I think it went well. :o) Melissa and I didn't get home until 1:30, and being girls, we had to stay up a little to talk over the events of the evening.
I got to sleep around 2, then had to get up at 7 for an ABWE meeting. It was an enjoyable meeting, but a long one. After we all went out to lunch, I finally got home around 4pm. I tried to get as much work done as my fatigued brain could handle, then had to leave again at 5:30. It was the first Saturday of the young adults meetings after the summer break. I was very excited to see how much more I would understand, and was very encouraged for the first 2o minutes. Then my comprehension of the discussion plummeted as did my self esteem, and I had to fight tears at some point. This, of course, was made worse by the fact that I was exhausted. Afterwards, my friends tried their best to comfort me, saying I had learned a lot in the 9 months I had been there, giving me tips on how to learn more, and doing silly things to make me laugh. It helped, but what I really needed was sleep. I didn't get that until around midnight because Joel and Melissa were discussing her party in our room. After falling asleep on my bed with my glasses askew, I woke up enough to kick Joel out and went to bed.
Church was the next morning, of course, and I was still pretty tired. Right after church was a party at our house for all her church friends. So I went home and helped get ready. Most of the youth group was there, as was a few of my friends that Melissa hangs out with at times. It was fun, but it was difficult to have a whole day of Spanish when I was so tired. People finally left around 7:30, we trudged around the house cleaning up, and then I crashed on my bed. I was worthless as far as school work goes (I hardly got anything done over the weekend), but it was a little to early for sleep. So I watched Mr. Bean's newest movie, which was funny enough to make me laugh and give me enough energy to get ready for bed. :o)
Melissa stayed home on Monday, and I was HIGHLY jealous. So I planned a day off for Wednesday to relax, sleep, and catch up on grading. I even booked a hotel for Tuesday night so it would be like a mini vacation. However, at school yesterday morning I got sick. Much more than a cold. I caught a stomach bug that has been going around. After torturing myself by teaching two classes that I couldn't cover (and the kids making all sorts of comments about me looking dead...nice), I crashed in one of the apartments for awhile, set things up for the rest of the day, and came home.
Pretty much all I've done since then is sit (or rather lay) on my bed, sleeping, reading, and watching movies. Interspersed among all that I've eaten a little, taken a bath, and done some laundry (only because I'm really low on clothes). It's been relaxing, although not how I anticipated. I DID leave all my work at school, so I couldn't even tempt myself with work. So I still have a lot to catch up on, and hopefully I'll be well enough to do it!
I'm feeling better, and hopefully tomorrow will be well enough to go back to school. I think I should.
SO. That's been my life for the past several weeks. Hectic? Yes, definitely. But that's ok. I love my job and where God has me, so I don't mind being a headless chicken for awhile. :o)