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Been a while...
Dec. 10th, 2013 08:19 amWe went out the day after Thanksgiving and bought a tree, and spent the evening beginning to decorate it. This is something I've never done and often scorned, because when I was a kid we put the tree up Christmas Eve (and left it up through February, but that's another story). But since we typically leave town the day after Christmas to visit with my family, it seemed to make more sense to decorate early and enjoy it, and then clean up when we come home from visiting. It does feel a little more festive, but it didn't magically make everyone keep the house neater.
Nutcracker is progressing more or less as usual. I'm only dancing in four shows, and I've already done two of them. Basically I'm involved enough to have fun and not involved enough to feel resentful and annoyed, so that's working out. Even the car thing doesn't seem to be too much of a problem, since a lot of the shows are close to home.
The weather has been snowy and sleety, so the last laundry we washed had to dry on the radiators. On a positive note, I spent a couple of hours on Saturday troubleshooting the dryer and I think I know what the problem is. I've ordered the part that I think will fix it; it should arrive tomorrow. If it doesn't work, I've spent $40 and a couple of hours (including the belt I replaced a few weeks ago). I don't want to spend money on a new dryer two weeks before Christmas, so I'm crossing my fingers. We can if we have to, but I'll feel better knowing I tried everything else first.
I do miss standing outside for half an hour in the sunshine, but the last few attempts nearly gave me frostbite, so it's past time to deal with this.
School is school, but I have about 45 minutes before I need to give a five-year-old my full attention for six hours, so I definitely do not want to get started on that subject right now.
And then there are the continuing Japanese studies. More "aha" moments, but so far no ability to construct a coherent sentence in Japanese. If I had to communicate at this point it would be a lot of nodding and smiling, interspersed with blank looks. I don't even know how to ask for clarification of what I don't understand. I suppose I should work on that before I risk spoken communication with a native speaker. However, with my friend Denshi Jisho and enough time, I can decipher a bunch of stuff! I feel moderately competent!
More importantly, probably, I haven't had that many days where I feel hopeless and sad.
Good enough.
Nutcracker is progressing more or less as usual. I'm only dancing in four shows, and I've already done two of them. Basically I'm involved enough to have fun and not involved enough to feel resentful and annoyed, so that's working out. Even the car thing doesn't seem to be too much of a problem, since a lot of the shows are close to home.
The weather has been snowy and sleety, so the last laundry we washed had to dry on the radiators. On a positive note, I spent a couple of hours on Saturday troubleshooting the dryer and I think I know what the problem is. I've ordered the part that I think will fix it; it should arrive tomorrow. If it doesn't work, I've spent $40 and a couple of hours (including the belt I replaced a few weeks ago). I don't want to spend money on a new dryer two weeks before Christmas, so I'm crossing my fingers. We can if we have to, but I'll feel better knowing I tried everything else first.
I do miss standing outside for half an hour in the sunshine, but the last few attempts nearly gave me frostbite, so it's past time to deal with this.
School is school, but I have about 45 minutes before I need to give a five-year-old my full attention for six hours, so I definitely do not want to get started on that subject right now.
And then there are the continuing Japanese studies. More "aha" moments, but so far no ability to construct a coherent sentence in Japanese. If I had to communicate at this point it would be a lot of nodding and smiling, interspersed with blank looks. I don't even know how to ask for clarification of what I don't understand. I suppose I should work on that before I risk spoken communication with a native speaker. However, with my friend Denshi Jisho and enough time, I can decipher a bunch of stuff! I feel moderately competent!
More importantly, probably, I haven't had that many days where I feel hopeless and sad.
Good enough.
