Announcements

• I just almost COMPLETELY finished a Friday NYT crossword all on my own. Yes, I worked on it for almost 24 hours and yes, it was relatively easy for a Friday, but it was by a long shot the farthest I've ever gotten on my two hardest NYTX days (Friday & Saturday).

• I met Carmen today! This baby is truly unreal, you guys. I mean...I do love me some babies (not having them, not having them), but this girl is the lowest-maintenance baby ever. She is always stretched out like a middle-aged man sleeping (or, I suspect, like her father), with one hand resting on her little belly and the other stretched straight above her head. This baby *kinda* fusses where others cry bloody murder. Amanda can't figure out if they should just appreciate her for what she is now because any sort of rule or regulation would have her be an impossible toddler later on, or have a jillion more kids because they might all be like this. And the kicker? She began sleeping through the night at five days old. I am absolutely amazed at this wee one. Good work, Braden and Algiers. Good work. (Oh, and she's also FREAKING PRECIOUS. Her nose is like a little pink ball with tiny nostril wings. Her toes are like....like.....No. Anything I come up with wouldn't be as small or round or smooth or perfect. Anyone who's seen Noah's toes knows what I mean. Seeeeriously. [Aside: "Noah's toes knows" sounds funny!])

• When we moved into our shiny new apartment, I appreciated how clean the surroundings were kept, after living in a building with cigarette-butt-paved decor outside. I am not snobby about living in a well-kept complex, but I do appreciate it. So it ticks me off that, slowly but surely, our neighbors have been constantly keeping their crap in the nice big once-empty breezeway, that we were told to keep clear. Just now, there are THREE strollers under the stairs, sticking out further and further out into the common area, and THREE bicycles leaning against the wall in front of another apartment--in a stack, so they poke out into the same area as the strollers. I don't want to be a bitch and complain about it, but how come we get fined for $100 if we leave a full trash bag outside for ten minutes before we can take it out and the apartment people happen upon it, but others get to permanently keep their muddy large transportation devices outside their doors and they don't get busted?

• I interviewed yesterday in Jeff City for a position at the State Library. I have no idea how it went, and I won't have an idea for awhile, since everyone has to go through all this red tape for every little thing there. Sarah and I went to Madison's afterward, and talked and talked and talked, catching up...it was a terrific ending to what could have been a purely stressful day. The drive back to Columbia was utterly gorgeous, with the sunset reflecting pink on a streaming clouds just above it, fading to gray the entire way home. I've commuted before, one hour coming and going no matter what time of day it was, from one suburb of Chicago to another...bottlenecking painfully through toll plazas, rolling up my window as I zoomed past particularly horrible-smelling emanations from ugly warehouses, and living ONLY for the weekends. I don't think this would be similar. Somewhat of a hassle, yes, but I'm so spoiled by ten-minute drives to work here in town...I know if I ever find myself in a larger city, a half hour commute would be the norm.

• It keeps re-occurring to me (not recurring, really...this isn't something that's recurring unpleasantly, like a nightmare or a rash--what 'recurs' that people look forward to, anyway?), with little thrills, that I'll be married in one month. It's kind of an unspeakable feeling...exciting for sure, but not the same excitement that I get when I'm about to see "Rent." This is more..."wow I have NO IDEA what this will be like, but I know I want it...and I know HE wants it...and WOW, I'm going to be tied to this man forever!" And probably, things won't change that much. I mean, we're living in sin, we have a joint checking account, I tell Barnes & Noble my 'husband' has a discount card with them so they'll let me use the account number. I don't think I've really ever thought of Neil as my 'boyfriend'...it's been far too deep a relationship to lump him in the same category as others he's head and shoulders above...and 'fiance' always seemed so natural. I never had to get used to it, because it was very soon after I knew him that it seemed extremely plausible that we'd get married one day. Plus, we're 31 and 34. 'Boyfriend-girlfriend' sounds kinda cutesy for two people who take out the trash regularly (okay...that's really just him).
  

• I don't understand why the refrigerator freezes our bottles of water when we put them to the back of the fridge. We have it set on 3, and the coldest is 9. It says so on the dial! I worry that the dial is wrong, like hot/cold taps get switched, and 1is actually the coldest. But I'm afraid to check. I dislike lukewarm pickles.
  

• It was depressing today when the kids on the Jeopardy Kids Reunion got so many more answers/questions than I knew. I think I'm getting dumber.

That is all for today. 8th graders, please turn in your permission forms for the orienteering field trip in April.