After this week, only one full week of classes left.  Then finals.  Then 3 weeks of collaborative meetings.  Of those 3 weeks of meetings, I have found childcare coverage for 6 days.  It will have to do.

I understand how students could be having difficulty keeping up the momentum during the final weeks of the semester.  I know I am certainly ready to wind down.  H is also gearing up for the end of his school days at his first school.  We’re all ready to be done…we’re just marking days off the calendar at this point.

Today I am stuck at home.  My car is in the shop for some undefined problem it started having this week.  Crossing my fingers that it’s not going to be too expensive.  I’ve spent my day replying to e-mails, reserving rooms for student experiments, doing the reading for my class, previewing videos for my class, prepping for class, etc.  Also, doing laundry and tidying up.  Soon, I will set out with the stroller and walk to H’s school to pick him up.  Not a bad day, I guess.

But it will be nice to finally have summer days with H again.  I simply cannot wait!

A conversation over dinner—

Me:  What did you do at school today?

Holden:  Nothing.

I don’t remember whether I’ve blogged about this before, but earlier this winter, there were events at H’s school that led us to believe that the school would be shutting its doors in the not-too-distant future.  In December, many staff resigned and they were never replaced.  Students started leaving the center to go to other schools, and enrollment was never boosted in order to compensate for the attrition.  We wondered if the operation was being scaled back—we wondered if we should start looking for another school.  In the thick of winter, we decided to investigate other options just in case H’s school did end up closing.  We visited a preschool that is run at the local park, just a quick 10-minute walk from our house.  The preschool takes kids ages 3-5 (much better than the 2-5 age range at H’s current school).  We loved this new preschool and quickly got H put on the waiting list.  He has to be 3 AND potty-trained in order to attend, so we figured that being on the waiting list would buy H some time to eventually turn 3 and very eventually, potty train.

Yesterday, R picked H up from school, and there was a sign on the door saying that there was a mandatory meeting for all parents the following day at 5:30.  We sensed immediately that the school would be closing.  And then, this morning, this was all but confirmed when H happily announced over a bowl of soggy Cheerios “My school is closing!”  When I dropped H off this morning, the sign on the door was gone.  I asked one of the teachers if the meeting was still happening, and she said “You’d better talk to the owner.”  The owner told me that she made the tough decision to close the center; she had intended to tell all of the parents at the meeting later in the day, but rumors started flying and people were starting to hear second-hand.  I chuckled to myself, because I had heard second-hand about the school closing through Holden, and I enjoyed thinking about the part that he unwittingly played in spreading rumors about his preschool closing.  The center will be open through April 29th (and I am LUCKY because that is the last day of final exams I am giving).  After that, I have 3 weeks of collaborative meetings for which I must find childcare.  It’s not too big of a deal though, since I am leaving the position, and if I have to miss a few meetings, so be it.

So—Holden’s last day at his first school is April 29th.  He is moving onto his next school, his first academic migration of many.

Only 5 more weeks to go this semester.  Five.

I’m not one to wish my life away, but geez, I wish I could be done with it already.  Periodically, I have a twinge of “OMG, I can’t believe I just walked away from an administrative and teaching position that I totally had in the bag!!” But then I think of how my days have been going lately, and the twinge is quickly replaced with relief.  I have no regrets.

The biggest complaint I have about my job is the student and parent demographic.  Our institution (for whatever reason) enrolls primarily affluent, entitled kids, who actually aren’t all that bright.  The parents contact me routinely.  I think it’s shameful for the parent of a college student to contact a professor about grades or the perceived unfairness of a course.  I had one such situation that took up many hours of my week last week, until after my very blunt response to the parents fell upon deaf ears, when I was finally forced to kick the situation over to the Dean to handle.  The situation will likely get messy, and attorneys may get involved.  All because these parents can’t stand to let their child go through the valuable experience of failing at something.  It drives me crazy, and it’s a situation that I see repeated over and over again, every week I am at work.

Last week I had two other situations in which parents became uncomfortably involved.  In one, the student came to me after class to tell me that his mother didn’t think he could do the assignment.  What went through my head was “Honey, your mother might not believe in you—but I do!”  What came out was this:  “Do you think you can do the work?”  The student nodded yes.  I quipped, “Then what’s the problem?”  This question was followed by confused stammering.  All I could think about was how much more independent my little 2.5 year old Holden is compared to these college kids!

I have to say, I’m glad I took this job.  It was a valuable learning experience on so many levels.  But I am also glad to be leaving it.  In only 5 short weeks, the semester will be over.  I have 3 weeks of mandatory meetings after that, at which point Holden and I can commence our fun summer together.  We’re taking H out of his school at the end of May, and after that, the sky is the limit!  I don’t like to overschedule our summer, so we just have a 2-week period where H will have swim lessons at the pool each morning.  Other than that, we’re wide open.  Gardening, hiking, going to the park, visiting friends….that will be our awesome summer.  My neighbor and I have also made an agreement to swap babysitting one day a week.  I will take her 2 kids for 1 day, and she will take H for one day.  That way we get a break, can go to our own doctor’s appointments, or clean the house in peace, or whatever.  No money will change hands.  It’s a nice arrangement.  She too is going through a career metamorphosis, so it will be good to be able to support each other in this way.

We had a taste of springtime this past weekend, and ever since, I’ve looked out my window at the subsequent snowfall with disdain.  On Saturday H and I had our usual yoga class, and on Sunday, we went to the maple sugaring open house at Shelburne Farms.  It was warm (40 degrees!) and sunny, with blue skies.  And it’s mud season.  Did I mention the mud?

But the mud is acceptable when the sky is this blue:

And when your son is this happy to be outside:

We visited the animals in the barn:

And listened to the “kaplink-kaplink-kaplink” of the sap as it started to run:

After our day in the sugarbush, we spent some quality time at the park (it was our first trip to the park in MONTHS), and we played in the driveway before dinner.  It was a delightful weekend, and (I hope) foreshadowing for good things to come!  Spring is here in Vermont!

Good:  We arrived at the Burlington International Airport last Saturday at 4:30AM, a full hour before our flight was set to leave.

Bad:  Our confirmation code was bogus, and (through some programming error on United’s end), it did not match our itinerary.  The gate agent told us too bad, and to call the 800 number to arrange alternative flight plans.

Good:  After nearly an hour on the phone, we were re-booked with a different airline.

Bad:  The single connection we had with our original itinerary turned into two connections with our new itinerary.

Good:  We arrived in Philly, boarded our connection that would be taking us to Washington DC, and dreamed about eventually having lunch in Washington DC before our third and final flight into Charleston, WV.

Bad:  We were 13th in line for take-off.  That should have been a sign right there.

Bad:  After 15 minutes and advancing to first in line for take-off, we had to return to the gate because the hydraulic pump was broken.

Bad:  After the hydraulic pump was fixed, we waited for 20 minutes for paperwork so we could take off again.  Then we waited another hour for a push crew.

Bad:  We realized at this point we’d have no time for lunch once we arrived in DC.

Good:  We made our DC connection with SECONDS to spare.

Bad:  My throat started feeling sore on the third leg of our trip.  I chalked it up to breathing airplane air for too long, because after all, I couldn’t be getting sick again, after only feeling better for 24 hours, right?

Good:  We landed in Charleston, WV, were greeted by my parents, got some dinner, and began the hour and a half long trek to their house.  Fourteen hours after our journey started, we got to my parents house.

Bad:  I lapsed into full-on sick mode.  Chills, fever, aches, pains, coughing, fatigue.

Good:  My brother showed up and surprised us with a visit—this was the highlight of the week!

Bad:  I spent the first 2 days of our trip almost exclusively in pajamas and on Nyquil.

Good:  Despite spending the better part of our 2nd night on the bathroom floor, I ended up *not* puking.

Bad:  Holden puked in my parents bed twice.

Good:  We visited my aunt and uncle briefly, and Holden got to see a baby cow.

Bad:  Three days into our visit, I went to the emergency clinic for a sinus and ear infection.

Good:  Amoxicillin works quickly–within 24 hours I was starting to feel better.

Bad:  As soon as I started to feel better, my parents started to feel sick.

Good:  Holden went to his first movie in the movie theater.  We saw Rango!  He loved it!

Bad:  We didn’t get to do anything else we had planned to do, since everyone was so sick.

Good:  The morning we were supposed to leave, our flight was only reporting a 15 minute delay.

Bad:  My mom said they were too sick to drive us to the airport.

Good:  My uncle volunteered to drive us to the airport if we could drive to his house first.

Bad:  Before my mom had a chance to write down driving directions to my uncle’s house, she fell and hurt herself, and started vomiting.

Good:  I don’t think she broke anything.

Bad:  I’m starting to feel a little panicked at this point.

Good:  My dad says he is feeling OK after all, and can take us to the airport.

Bad:  When we get to the airport, we find our flight has cancelled due to mechanical problems.

Good:  We get re-booked on a different airline, and our bag and carseat get tagged and sent off to go on that new flight.

Bad:  The airline realizes that they mistakenly booked us on an overbooked flight.

Good:  The airline finds us an alternative airline (literally:  United–>Delta–>UsAirways)

Bad:  Our bags are already en route on a flight we can’t go on.

Good:  Our connection in Washington DC goes smoothly, and we arrive in Burlington.

Bad:  Our luggage did not make it to Burlington.

Good:  The airline knows where our luggage is:  Savannah, GA.

Bad:  We’ve been home 24 hours, and we still don’t have our luggage.  No winter coats, snow boots, plus half of our wardrobes and our carseat are still missing.

Good:  We are home!  And we are recovering.

Pictures are here.