The students bring a breath of life into a town. They keep the town youthful and forward thinking. They make sure we have a plethora of good eats, their tuition (and future alumni dollars) keep money coming into the town and all is well.

What I am not so fond of is move in weekend. Move in weekend is the time when the amount of traffic in town doubles over night. The stores closest to the University are busier than Macy’s on Black Friday. I am pretty sure that the parents of all the incoming freshmen fear their child will starve to death if they don’t fully stock the shelves upon move in. (I will not throw stones, as I am sure I will be equally as neurotic when it is my turn).

Today, I had an appointment about 10 minutes away. I forgot today was the first day of classes, so I took my normal route. THAT was a mistake. It took a nice 10 minute ride and added an extra 20 minutes. I don’t think it takes this long normally. Maybe it is the new students wanting to make a good impression on their prof’s on the first day. They ALL have to go to the local coffee shop and get hopped up on caffeine while crossing the street in random spots (not the designated and already crowded cross walks.)

Now, for the next few months, all the college places are off-limits for lunch (at least those I plan on parking somewhere close to). I will have a new class of people to educate about what “No trespassing” means. We get to listen to the football games (this is a good thing) and then… fall is coming.

All is well in Hoo-ville!

After a nice date with hubby and picking up the Bean, a huge thunderstorm landed on the town. This is not unusual for an August afternoon, but thunderstorms only mean the threat of a loss of power (and water) and the threat of trees falling.

When I grew up, it was in the desert. We had huge thunderstorms and we would lose power from time to time. I don’t recall having power quite so flaky as the power here. Not having power is kind of a pain, but we do OK – except we need power to run the pump so we have water. I can’t live happily very long without water. I can wait on a shower, I can even hold off on washing dishes… but the toilet must flush. It just has to in order for me to be happy. Maybe I am too much of a “city girl”, but I like to do my deeds, then flush them away quickly.

A problem I have never had to deal with is trees randomly falling down. In the desert there are a few trees (we even had one of the worlds largest pecan orchards in my hometown). In order for trees to survive, they have to send their roots down to the water. Water isn’t a problem here. In fact, there are so many trees that unless the tree falls on something or across the road, it is a good possibility, I may not even notice it fell (insert joke about falling tree in the forest with no one around).

Last night, when coming home from a grand afternoon – there was a tree down and the power was out. Today, the power is back on (as is the water) and we have calls out to make the tree go away. Thankfully we have another way out, so we are not totally stuck – but I am having to remember all the good things about living here. Waking up to see the haze over the city and a beautiful sunrise is a great start.

Enjoy.

The problem is, I lost my glasses. I know they are in that safe place I put them before vacation, but since my vacation has been over for about two weeks, I am starting to wonder if they were stolen by the trolls in the basement who also took my rechargeable batteries, various single socks and my motivation for exercise.  I hate those little trolls!

Now that it has been two weeks, I am debating on if I should keep looking for my glasses or if I go get a new pair. That would involve a doctor appointment and I hate those. This one is not nearly as invasive as the OB/GYN, but that thing they blow in your eye-ball to check for glaucoma or insert GPS for the government, or whatever, that thing is horrible!

What would you do? Keep looking? (it isn’t really all that bad) 0r do you go to get new glasses?

- Friday, left work and drove to DC area for hubby’s birthday party.

- Saw a friend I hadn’t seen in well over 10 years, had a good time catching up.

- Had a couple yummy margaritas, but forgot that even if I go to bed way later than normal, my Bean will wake up at 6 am anyway.

- Woke up to go to a winery. Drinking before noon is OK if you do it at a winery, right?

- Went wedding dress shopping with my friend.

- Afternoon tea! (You really should do this sometime… it was very nice and a lot of fun) When I asked about what had nuts because of my allergy, the pastry chef made me a new plate with the best little desserts on it – all without nuts. I was also a big fan of the scones with lemon curd and crème.

- Birthday party for my friend.

- Drive home with a minor detour with an exploding baby. We stopped on the side of the road to clean the vomit. It was not fun.

- When we did get home, decided to go to the beach with visiting friend. (I love the fact that a random desire to go to the beach doesn’t require a 12 hour drive. OK… it is a 3 hour drive. But I would do it either way and 3 is way better.) Ate dinner on the beach and drove home (again, way too late at night – forgetting again that my Bean will wake up at 6 with our without my late night schedule.

It was a little random, but was a brief reminder of “the old days” and had a GREAT time. The only problem – I am not as young as I used to be and I am TIRED!

- I hadn’t been skiing in over 15 years.

- I enjoy having all my parts where they go and generally discourage moving body parts into places they don’t belong (i.e. my knee bending the wrong way, etc.)

- VA isn’t known for good skiing and where I went was almost all man-made snow (translation in my brain was ice)

- Skiing is physically difficult and I am (to put it kindly) out of shape.

- Skiing requires a lot of equipment that I haven’t had in about 10 years.

Even though I was nervous, I did it. I did it with a lesson. My lesson was much easier than I thought it would be, so my confidence was good when I got on the ski lift. I then proceeded to fall on the slope leaving the ski lift.

I hate that slope!

I got up and the rest of the day went well. I even got enough confidence to go to the intermediate slope when the easy slope got crowded.

For those of you who haven’t been skiing and have thought about getting back into it, the beginner skis are awesome! They are short and wide. I remember my first time skis were about as tall as I was. The skis I had on yesterday were about 3.5 feet tall and were much wider than I remember skis being. This really really really helped with the whole crossing skis problem!

I think I will have to go again this season. Maybe even go twice.

What did you do in your past that you’d like to do again?

The first article is talking about how women are slowly (but surely) taking over the workplace. This is paving the way for women to have “it all”. One of the things the article talks about is having to deal with “the juggle”. Now that I have a kiddo – I feel that more than I thought I would. I really envy the stay at home moms, but not sure I would give up working if I had the option. Part of the reason I would struggle is my job makes it as easy as possible to both work and have a family. This is only possible because of all the hard work all the women before me did. I tip my hat to you, and hope you are proud of where we are so far.

The second article just asks “What three women over 40 have wowed you?” Narrowing to three is the tough part – so I will categorize:

My historical three would be Susan B. Anthony, Clara Barton, Rosa Parks.

My historical, but still living list would be Jane Goodall, Maya Angelou, Sandra Day O’Connor

My “last decade” list would include J.K. Rowling (she made the world read about a wizard), Oprah (not for being rich, but for giving back), Condoleezza Rice (for having the hardest job on the planet at one of the hardest times, and still kept her grace)

My mother was a great inspiration in my feminism, and I hope I can do the same for the Bean.

What three women have wowed you?

• Packing for trip back home (and fretting about crying baby on plane)
• Finalizing work projects before vacation
• Not forgetting something really important for the trip (like a car seat)
• Getting the house ready for 6 bedrooms full of over night guests when we get back from vacation

I am really looking forward to all the things coming, but I am having a hard time listing everything that needs to be done so I can just do it. Thankfully, C is on the case. He has been very helpful over the last few days.

Here we go… I am making a plan, checking it twice. All people who could be naughty or nice better be nice, or I will be naughty. Don’t make me do that. This means you store clerk. Oh, you too person who cuts me off in traffic. You didn’t think I’d let you off the hook, airline industry, did you? Finally – weather man – be nice will ya? Thanks!

Today there are 29 days left in 2009. This year has been a whirl wind of changes in my world. I had a baby, moved, then moved again (because moving with an infant is SO much fun!). Hubby and I the workmen survived a renovation of two houses (one of which I was living in at the time). I’ve learned how to deal with tourists who come to visit the house. I met Spiderman and made him cry (does that make me the villan?) and met a few new friends.

In these next 29 days, I hope to finish what I set out for the year… I will have to go back and look at what that was and plan how I can incorporate those goals into next year.

Did you fulfill your resolutions for 2009? Do you have time to finish now?

After college, I tried again. This time it lasted for about two weeks. (Not all that bad, since it looked stupid)

In my 30s, I noticed my hair texture was really changing. Not all that abnormal. Finally, if I curled my hair, it stayed as directed. I wasn’t dying to get a perm, but still like the way that curly hair looks on others.

In the last year, my hair (when wet) has shown a lot more curl. Finally – I decided to embrace this. I got some hair products to encourage the curl… I scrunch my hair, instead of comb it straight… and poof… i have curly hair.

I am on the fence about how I like it, but I am struck how I’ve gone from so straight chemicals can’t curl it – to naturally curly.