Friday 5 on Saturday: The big to-do

1) What home fix-it project is on your Big To-Do?

~Actually none. I live in church housing, and since I will be moving out sometime this year, the church has postponed any more projects on the rectory for now. (Last summer, if you recall, we had the great-new-floors-leads-to-new-plumbing job.)

2) What event (fun or work) is on your Big To-Do?

~Find a new position; pack and move. That pretty much says it all for now.

3) What trip is on your Big To-Do?

~My vacation plans are on hold (see #2 above) but it would be great if we could make it to Maine (although there are lots of what-if factors in that this year) like we've done the past few summers. I'd also love to spend some time in Vermont.

4) What do you wish was on someone ELSE's (partner, family member, celebrity, etc...) Big To-Do?

~Offer me a position?
~And the Kid must sort through all of his stuff as we prepare to both move and send him off to college.

5) Getting inspired? What may end this summer having moved from the Big To-Do to the Big Ta-da?

~Who knows? Everything seems to be up in the air at this point!

The times, they are a'changing

Way back in January I wrote that this would be a year of changes, and those changes are in full swing. The Kid took the big yellow school bus for the last time today, took his last exam, and finished his high school career. Tomorrow night is the Senior Prom, and a week from Saturday he officially graduates. I am feeling a bit dazed by it all, even though I've been thinking about it for months. It seems like just yesterday that we were going to kindergarten orientation, and he was talking about riding the bus for the first time.

This also marks the first time in something like 28 years that I won't have a child in public school. Does that make me officially old? It just feels weird. Of course, having my kids spread out over a 16 year period meant that I was parent to a school age kid for longer than most. But I have to say, it's hard to imagine not having a kid to get off to school in the morning, not buying school supplies in the fall, not doing all those school related things.

But that's not all the change, oh, no. In addition to the ones I expected, there's more: I'm going to be a grandmother again. NO, NSLS isn't pregnant again; it's WW. I've actually known this for several months, but between not posting much lately, and waiting to see if she'd blog about it, I haven't said anything about it. But now I will tell the story. It seems that last year when WW spent some time in Nepal before returning to the states she met someone. I don't know all the story but apparently their attachment grew and that is one of the reasons she went back to Nepal for the winter, where she fell in love and they decided to get married. Her quick trip home earlier this year was to do all the visa paperwork so that he could come to the states with her, which is no simple matter. And they are having a baby in September! If you know me on FB you probably know that WW returned to the states a couple of weeks ago, and hopefully her beloved (who needs a pseudonym) will join her by the end of the summer. Very exciting.

Meanwhile, I'm still in limbo, with only 2 months left in my current position. The job search is agonizingly slow, but I am hopeful that something will work out sooner rather than later.

True confessions

~Y'all know (at least if you 've read here for a while) that I haven't had a TV since...oh, 1996 or so. There are whole TV series that came and went and played a huge role in pop culture that I never saw, and really never minded not seeing.

~Two years ago now, the Kid borrowed the first season of Grey's Anatomy on dvd from a friend I was hooked. I bought the 2nd season when I found it on sale one day, and the 3rd season I got on iTunes. Then last year I discovered abc.com and it became my Friday routine to watch Grey's while I ate lunch--my day off treat.

~Every once in a while I would start watching something else, but nothing really caught my fancy unitl last fall and I watched an episode of Dancing with the Stars and loved it. It is a pure feel-good show for me--makes me smile. So it was added to my routine.

~One of the reasons I was glad not to have a TV is because it is soooooo addictive. I was pretty picky when I had a TV but I still watched too much. And over the last couple of months, as my stress levels have gone up, so has my TV watching--Grey's, DWTS, Castle, Private Practice, Brothers and Sisters. The last two are really cheesey and I can't believe I've been watching them, but there you go. Keeps my mind off other things.

~I've always been a sucker for a sappy love story--I remember in high school reading Love Story ("Love means never having to say you're sorry....") and crying so hard my mother came upstairs to see what was wrong. Grey's Anatomy has had that effect on my this season...I cry just about every episode, and never more than this week, which I watched twice tonight. What a dweeb I am!

~I'm still glad I don't have a TV....I guess I'd be a total junkie if I did.