Power to the Slicker People!

So it was a cold and soggy Oysterfest, but what a resilient bunch we were! If the Casuals had the decency to come out and play, the least we could do was dance in the rain. And while I was mostly appropriately dressed, I am not, in fact, a fisherman so I was not one of the folks really appropriately dressed in rain slickers, nor did I fall onto the pavement and wriggle in excitement and joy of Oysterfest and the Casuals.

And Jeff ate his first Oyster (which was shucked by one of the finalists in the Oyster Shucking Contest) and it didn't come back up!

All in all, a successful day.

Note To The Universe

That's it - we've had it. Job loss, my car repair, Jeff's car repair (for the third time), can't get my paper written. Now the house (almost) blew up. Where does it all end?

By the end of last week, we were still able to chuckle - appreciating the life lessons that come from adversity and all. Of course when things go bad, they always get worse! Hahahahahah - yep, really funny. But when Jeff got home today just in time to meet the electrician (who, BTW, returned our call on a Sunday!) AND THE CIRCUIT BREAKER BOX CAUGHT FIRE, I stopped laughing. Jeff, to his credit, was laughing uproariously as he told me how exciting it all was. Fortunately I stayed a little longer on the Cape and have missed all the fun.

So, Universe, enough already. We're making the most of all the adversity, but we have limits. You could send us a little something good, just to keep us hopeful, o.k.? A little lottery windfall or some brilliant inspiration for my paper that I can't get written - we're not greedy. Just a little something good, couldja?

We'd appreciate it very much.

Gratitude

So I admit I've spent just a little bit of time feeling sorry for myself in the last couple of weeks - having my job "eliminated" actually means I was "eliminated" and that's a little hard on the ego.

Until today, when I spent some time with a classmate, who has become a dear friend, from Indonesia. He lives in Padang, right where the earthquake happened. Frans is a lovely man who I expect will be a delegate to the United Nations or win the Nobel Prize or something as soon as he finishes his degree and goes back home. It's really difficult for him to be here and he is trying study while he knows that his neighborhood has been reduced to rubble and his friends and neighbors are missing. Kinda puts things in perspective doesn't it?

I was going to say more, but I think that's enough for now.

Where Have I Been?

O.K. - so remember back in May when I expressed lofty goals like keeping up my blog and becoming a poet? Once again, I set myself up for failure. Not that I haven't had anything to do, mind you ~ there have really been quite a lot of events leading up to today.

Let's see - June was o.k. except I got a new boss that was completely without integrity, talked about his wife while showing his girlfriend around the office and it took much too long, months even, for the powers that be to realize he probably wasn't a good hire. Ultimately he was fired, but not without a great deal of heartache inflicted on everyone.

Which brings us to July, when I got to get back to my beloved Cape refuge, then got Lyme Disease (but found a really nice doctor in Harwich who took good care of me). Here are the lessons from that experience: I hit my drives high and right with a fever; it's still fun seeing Chandler, especially outdoors at The Juice; lobster egg rolls at The Juice still taste wonderful, even when the antibiotic make you nauseous, as long as you have enough wine with them; the new Harry Potter movie wasn't that good at the drive-in (or maybe it was the antibiotic and the fever and too much Advil); you shouldn't come home from vacation with Lyme Disease and then think it's a good idea to install ceramic tile in the bathroom (or even select tile at Home Depot), even though we're really happy with the floor; going back to work while on antibiotics makes me really super nauseous.

August relatively uneventful, except for Jeff who took kayak lessons and won his division in club championship. He's an overachiever.

Then September, when school started up again, my job got eliminated (but I got severance), I added classes two weeks into the semester and still haven't caught up and, right up until today in October, my ass is getting kicked by professors that I really respect. On the upside, the Casuals have been held over at Woody's and are playing Oysterfest, the leaves are starting to look beautiful up here in the Berkshires and I have enough time in my schedule to act like a real grad student.

How have you been?