My Saturday Night

*Note* Charge will from here on out be called "Goober" and Charge's cousin-(my boss's nephew) with be called "Smiley."

As a college student, I don't fit the stereotypes. I don't fit the nerdy stereotype of studying all the time, always having things done way ahead of time, always setting the curve. Nor do I fit the partying stereotype of partying every weekend, sleeping in late, and rushing to get everything done. I'm somewhere between the 2. I rush to get assignments turned in on time, but it's not because I party. I rush because I procrastinate. But all of my stuff is always turned in on time and I set the curve in my classes more often than not. Which brings me to my Saturday night.

My Saturday night involved 5 drunk parents a 3 kids. Said parents were all going out for a night on the town. 3 kids were Goober-6, Smiley-3.5 months, and Other Kid-18 months. I get there and parents are all drinking. Kids are all up, at 9:30pm. Yay for fun times. Other Kid was laid down by his mom before they left, Goober was laying on the couch watching a movie, and Smiley was sitting on his mom's lap.

Smiley's mom started this conversation with me about psycho dog. "Check this out Jen." I watch as she yells at the dog. "See how she bows down to me?" I nod. "That's how you deal with her, she doesn't do that to you. You can't be all happy with her cause then she doesn't bow down to you." I nod again, and stop listening. This conversation came out of nowhere, I had just walked in and the dog greeted me in her usual psycho dog way. I just shrugged it off, petted her, and then pushed her out of the way so I could get through the doorway. I usually don't have a huge problem with psycho dog. She gets really excited for about 5 minutes after I get there and then she settles down and lays at my feet, or goes and finds a toy, or brings me her beloved neon green ball. I've just come to accept that she's gonna be psycho for the first few minutes. I let it pass and then all is good.

Commotion is abundant after this conversation. Goober climbs up in my lap, Other Kid is screaming upstairs, Smiley is spitting up, parents are all talking at once, but not to me of course. Heaven forbid anyone talk to the babysitter about the kids she's gonna be watching. My boss fixed that with "Just let them do whatever." Yeah, that helped. So glad you told me that, I might've like--forced them to scrub the floors or something without that piece of advice. I ask, 3 times, when Smiley last ate. Smiley's mom just keeps talking to me about the dog and how incompitent I am at dealing with her. Okay, whatever. Other Kid's mom actually gives me some useful info. How to get him back down if he wakes up.

Parents all leave. Other Kid is screaming upstairs, Smiley is spitting up, and Goober is wanting my full attention. Goober says something that gets my attention: "Smiley has a bad cold and he hasn't slept since lunch time." Oh, great. Thankfully Goober is there to tell me the info that apparently none of the other parents thought was important enough to tell me. She also tells me that there's 3 bottles in the fridge for Smiley and 2 sippy cups of juice for Other Kid. At this point I'm somewhere between thankful and frusrated. Thankful that Goober is sharing this information with me. Frustrated that a 6 year old is having to tell me this.

The rest of the night went on...chaotic...but I made it through. I got Other Kid up for a little bit because he was having a freak out, Smiley was T-I-R-E-D but wouldn't sleep, and Goober laid on the couch. After 30 minutes I took Other Kid back upstairs to lay him down with the promise to Goober that I would watch the movie with her when I got back downstairs. Up to that point, I really hadn't had a chance to spend any time with her due to the 2 under 2 thing. So I come back downstairs and she's passed out on the couch. So much for quality time. Smiley was lying on his blanket, sucking on his hand and psycho dog was, well...I wasn't really sure.

I took Goober upstairs and laid her down. Heated up a bottle for Smiley, which he didn't want, walked with him for an hour before he finally crashed at 11:30pm. 11 hours and 30 minutes since he last slept. Cripes, how does he do it???? Then it was off to find the dog. Apparently the 5 drunk parents had let her out in the yard when she left. Usually not a problem, except that she hopped the fence. Great. So there I was, at midnight, calling to a dog that wasn't even mine, not being able to leave the yard because of hte kids inside, and probably pissing off the neighbors. She came back, and was promptly yelled at and put in her kennel. Yeah, I have no idea how to handle a dog. *rolls eyes*

Smiley woke up at 1 for another bottle, sucked down 7 oz. and fell back asleep. Drunk parents came home at 3. Then I got to be a chauffer. I made it home by 3:30 for 2 reasons. 1: None of the parents wanted to know how the night went and 2: Nobody was talking to me. So, I got home at 3:30 after dropping Smiley and his mom off at their house.

So, that was my Saturday night. Not quite what one would expect for a college student. But it is my life, and I wouldn't trade my night with 3 beautiful-(albeit cranky) children for the world. :)

1/2 Days

I don't know if this is true for schools in other areas, but here November seems to be the month for 1/2 days at the local elementary, middle, and high schools. The kids didn't have any half days in October and only 1 "no-school" day. In November however, they have 4 half days and 2 "no-school" days. What gives? I'm now dealing with panicky parents who are just realizing that they need to find care for their kids on those days. It's nice to be needed, but not cool when parents get angry with me for not being able to do it.

September Update

Just a few things going on in my life:

Foot: The bone in my foot has completely healed. The sprain is almost healed, it aches from time to time but overall it's back to normal.

School: School starts for me in 2 days, and I am more than ready. Case in point, my backpack is already packed with my books, pencils, pens, calculator, highlighters, & notebooks for day one.

Friends: I've seen a number of my friends over the past few weeks. 2 of them came up to visit and I went to see 2 others who live an hour and a half away. The 2 I went to see are expecting a baby in 3 weeks. It's a girl and they are very excited! Her name is going to be Marina Lorraine. I will post pictures when she's born.

Work: Work is going well. My charge goes back to school tomorrow. I have a rant about the public school system around here and their lack of organization. I will save the entire rant for another day. Papers were recieved by parents-(emergency contact papers, health papers, what teacher the children have been assigned too, lunch menues, etc.) on Friday. School starts on Tuesday. The school isn't having a "Meet & Greet Your Teacher!" until September 11th. It really doesn't make sense to me considering school starts on the 4th! It should be an interesting week, if nothing else. I'm picking up my charge from school on Tuesday, yet I have no idea where her classroom is.

That's about all I can think of. Have a great week everybody, and Happy Labor Day!

Snow, Snow, Everywhere

*Note* I wrote this yesterday and just forgot to post it. Sorry!!!

And yet I still have school. The only school that is open today is the university I attend. All of the other schools in the county were closed yesterday and today. The university was closed yesterday because they couldn't get the parking lots cleared on time. Seriously, the only reason this university has EVER closed is when they can't get the parking lots cleared.

In other news, my step-grandfather is in the hospital with accute pancreatitis. The last update I got was at 8am this morning so I am vigilantly holding my cell phone at all times awaiting another update. My grandmother is having trouble with her chemo and radiation, so they've been tweeking that all week. My mom sounds extremely tired and I wish I could go down and help her out but the roads are so bad that I don't want to risk an accident by trying to drive down there. Of course, my family that lives an hour away from my grandparents is "too busy to help" and my dad insists on working even though he can take time off whenever he wants. Gotta love the priorities in my family!

Let The Homework Begin!

I'll be honest, I hate homework. I hate it when I get it, I hate it when I'm working on it, and I hate it when I'm done. But I always do it, I'm a stickler for doing all assignments on time, even if it means I end up running on 4 hours of sleep and 2 pots of coffee the next day. Professor's here don't ease you into homework, they just pile it on the first day and then add to the pile every day thereafter until the end of the semester, 15 weeks away. It's like your brain is running a 16 week marathon, taking a 3 week break to rejuvenate, then another 16 week marathon.
Anyways, after only 3 days of class, I have lots of reading to do:

2 Chapters to read for Astronomy
3 Chapters, an essay, and familiarize myself with the APA publication manual for Pyschology
2 sections of math and 1 section of holiday seasons for Spanish
4 sections & the prelude for Music

And my parents wonder why I only read one "leisure reading" book a month!

While I have been writing this post I have come to one conclusion....My brain is in better shape than my body is.

First Day of School...

Well the first day of school has passed without flaw. I went to the right classes, had the right books, and didn't fall asleep in any of them. :)

So far I like all of my classes. Music history is going to be interesting, the professor tells a lot of really bad jokes...but hey, it beats the monotone "blah blah blah" that many professors seem to love. Spanish should be pretty easy. The teacher takes in nice and slow, 3 weeks per chapter. So it shouldn't be too hard and she seems really nice. Psychology is going to kick my butt. But I kind of expected that because it's a 300 level class. We get to do psychology experiments in that class. The first experiment is making each other drool on command. Think Pavlov and the dog's :) Should be interesting! The only class I haven't had yet is Astronomy. I have that today. So I'll let ya'll know how that is.

K, I guess that's about it. My boyfriend and I are still working out this 'living together' thing. No major fights, but definately a bit of tension between us at times. He got a job, so now we both have income--which relieves a lot of the stress.

My parents are coming up today. That in itself should be interesting. They're staying in the same room at a hotel, even though they live in seperate houses that are 400 miles away. Oh well, I'll just avoid the hotel.

Have a great Thursday! The week is almost over :)