When Worlds Collide

On the whole, I like Mike's parents. They're caring, always willing to help people in need, and have a strong sense of family bond. However, they are older and more old-fashioned than my parents, and I have a hunch that in a few years that's going to become a problem.

On Thanksgiving Mike's mom requested that we make out our Christmas lists so she can start shopping, so we made them out on the long drive to and from my parents' house, where we went for Thanksgiving lunch. My list consisted of:

a punch bowl
cookie cutters
Christmas ornaments
season 2 of "House" on DVD
a cardigan sweater

Not very inspired. In my defense, we got tons of stuff for the wedding, and there's only so much stuff you need to recieve in one year.

Mike's list was much more ambitious and was divided up according to price range. His gift ideas ranged from $4.99 (new tube socks) to $200,000 (an RV). His $10,000 item was a down payment for a house. Next to that request he wrote, "This will result in one grandchild for you, possibly two," and drew a small picture of the potential offspring with the notation, "Isn't he or she cute?"

"Mike," I said, glancing at his list as I drove, "that is not a bluff you want your parents to call."

"It's a joke," he said. "They'll know that."

"Still, don't stay things like that when we aren't prepared to make good," I said. I was hoping to have kids around the age of 30. So he made a small notation that said, "Christine may or may not have agreed to this plan."

When Mike's mom got the list she had a good laugh over both the tube socks and the RV, but grew thoughtful about the request for a house payment. She started asking questions about where we'd like to live and what kind of house we'd look for. I think this was also spurred on by the fact that before dinner I'd told them that the apartment upstairs from us is vacant, which is bad because whenever it rains the ceiling caves in a little, and it would be nice to have someone up there monitoring it.

When Mike realized that his mom was getting serious about us searching for a house he began to back-pedal, saying that it was a joke, we weren't ready for home ownership, and that we also weren't ready to deliver on the promise of grandchildren.

"Well, that's fine," his dad said. "I'm in no hurry to become a grandfather."

"Besides," his mom said, "you'd have to make sure to have a job where you get paid as much as you and Christine combined now, so when the baby's born she can quit her job."

Wait...what?

Me quitting my job was not an option. In the few conversations Mike and I have had about how things would work if we had a kid it was always understood that I'd keep working. I could cut down to four days a week, perhaps, and let my mom pick up the babysitting slack, or maybe Mike could work his job from home or start freelancing somehow. But never did we consider me being a full-time homemaker. This summer when I wasn't working I hated being at home and doing all the cooking, cleaning, and laundry...I can't imagine it would be any more pleasant when you throw a baby into the mix.

After we left I asked Mike if his mom really expected me to stay home full-time. He said she'd adjust once we broke the news to her that I wouldn't.

Good thing we aren't having kids anytime soon.

Happy Thanksgiving!

It’s the day before Thanksgiving, so you know what’s coming – the obligatory WHAT I’M THANKFUL FOR post!

First off, I’m thankful for my lovely husband Mike. I’m also thankful for our little “family,” our cats. In order of acquisition: Rusty, Cider, Lucky, Edison, and Juneau. I’m thankful for my immediate and extended families and all my friends.

I’m thankful for my job, and for the fact that I have a car reliable enough to survive a 500-mile-a-week commute.

I’m thankful for our apartment, which hasn’t fallen apart yet (the lead paint is doing a good job of holding it together).

I’m thankful for the new season of “House,” which is awesome, and if “Workout” comes back for another season I’ll be thankful for that too.

I’m thankful for Quizno’s because that place is delicious.

I’m thankful for furries because I’m still strangely fascinated by them.

I’m thankful for our church and our two parish priests because they make me actually look forward to showing up every Sunday.

I’m thankful for my blog, and for all the other blogs that I read on a daily basis which offer a little window into the lives of some really great people.

Happy Thanksgiving!

Spanglish

On Tuesdays I work with a nice woman from Mexico who acts as my translator. She repeats everything I say to the kids in Spanish so they can understand what's going on. When we don't have students I help her with her English and recently she's been helping me with my Spanish. She's quite a bit farther along than I am. This afternoon we were writing so we could exchange papers and critique each other's prose. She was writing an essay about how an individual can change the world. I wrote the following gem:

El perro brinca sobre la mesa. El dice, "Bow wow," y brinca mas. El perro es muy bonito y tiene pelo moreno. Me gusta el perro. Ana se gusta el perro tambien. Quiere tocar el perro. El perro se gusta Ana. Ellos brincan con el otro.

For those of you who aren't bilingual, here's the translation:

The dog jumps over the table. He says, "Bow wow," and jumps more. The dog is very pretty and has brown hair. I like the dog. Ana likes the dog too. She wants to touch the dog. The dog likes Ana. They jump with each other.

In case you can't tell, pretty much the only verbs I could remember were "like" and "jump."

It's terrible Spanish, but I did it all on my own. Next week she's going to write about how to fund our public schools. I'm going to write about a horse that eats flowers. Oh yeah.

Just One More

Today I spoke with my boss about a particularly sticky student situation. One of the kids that I'm responsible for is failing and is in danger of being thrown out of school, and I'm trying to get him into different programs to help him. But, at every turn, I've met roadblocks. I finally requested a meeting with my supervisor to get some ideas.

She was stymied too. Finally she said, "You know, you can't save them all."

"I know," I reply, "I'm only interested in saving this one."

She chuckled. "Well, really, you've tried. You've tried a lot. And the situation is just so tough. I think that eventually you just have to say, 'Well, I did what I could.'"

I blinked. "Well, that's not much consolation to him."

"But really, what more can you do?" she asked. "The circumstances are just rough. You have to know when to walk away and know that you tried your hardest."

I could feel myself getting stubborn. "But that's not much help to this kid," I said, tapping the file folder full of documents I've collected.

"But like I said," she said gently, "You can't save them all."

"And I'm not interested in saving them all," I said quietly. "Only this one."

She sighed. She rubbed her eyes. "Well, just keep doing what you're doing and let me know," she said. "I'll be interested to see what happens." I just nodded and saw her out of my office.

Really, I know there are hopeless cases. People don't like to hear it, but it's true. I just hope that I always have it in me to save just one more.

Scrabble

Last night Mike was having some trouble beating me at Scrabble, so he called in the reinforcements.



Sorry Edison, “mrow” isn’t allowed in Scrabble.



Oh man, “catnip” on a triple word score?



Yeah, yeah, check the score. You’re winning.