Put Some Pants on for Cryin’ Out Loud
Well, I got called into the boss’s (math dept. chair) office yesterday. Evidently sneakers, shorts (cut off cargo pants), and a T-shirt displaying the musical theory of E( it’s equal to F flat instead of mc2) isn’t up to the department’s standard. Not that there is an official standard of course. Oh well, it probably had something to do with the fact that we had to take pictures for the yearbook that day. Oops.
Scout is upstairs cooing right now. I think she might be waking up soon. She still has a fairly regular routine at night. She gets up at midnight(ish) for a bottle, then again at 5:00(ish). With some convincing I’m usually able to get her back to sleep at 5:00 unless she wakes up Drake. Drake will go back to sleep, not Scout at that point. Melinda and Drake went to do some shopping and I got to stay home with Scout. We listened to music and danced a little. She likes to spin.
Drake has really taken to an old toy of mine recently. It’s a three wheel thing without pedals. I reckon it’s supposed to be an ATV. Drake calls it his motorcycle and like to ride it around in circles through the living room, kitchen, and hall announcing “motorcycle coming!” He’s a hoot. We watched a video with him tonight that we borrowed from a friend about trains. I found out something I didn’t know. If a train is trying to go up a steep incline and it loses traction, there is a pipe right behind the wheels on the engine that spits out sand to provide more friction. Neat. I think we’re going to watch another one tomorrow. The deal was that if Drake didn’t get upset when we turned off the video, we would watch another tomorrow night. He was a little fussy, but I think he did pretty well.
I think that there is a Renaissance Fair on Dauphin Island this weekend. We may try to go to that, but I’m afraid that it would be too crowded because of the holiday weekend. We’ll see. We had also talked aboout going on a camping trip next weekend. We’re waiting to see what the weather will be like. There is a state park (Blakely Park) less than 5 miles from our house that we were planning on going to. That way, if it’s a disaster we can always punt and go home.
My Tau Kappa Epsilon letter shirt came in today. I think it looks pretty nice. I think the students will get a kick out of me wearing it at school. Those folks are really a bunch of great guys. Turns out that Tau Kappa Epsilon is the largest frat in the country and the Spring Hill chapter (which is less than 10 years old I think) was voted the nations best chapter three or four times. I gotta admit, it’s kinda neat to know a secret handshake.
Now that I have given Will my unfiltered thoughts on the dress code incident, I will offer everyone my more restrained version. For anyone that cares to recall, I was once called into my boss’s office to get her two-cents worth on my attire. At the time I was holding down a rather cheap desk in the employment office of Georgia Tech. My job, in all of it’s glory, was to pass out applications for such empowering positions as janitor, groundskeeper, lunchroom staff, etc. I also answered the phone. Debbie, whose intelligence rivaled a cotton plant, informed me that I should dress more professionally. From her example, I assume that meant that I should turn in my dress slacks and sweaters for cheap polyester suits and fake jewlery. From that enlightening discussion, I learned a valuable lesson. I needed more education. A wise man (often known as DOD) once told me that getting more education doesn’t eliminate all the crap you have to put up with, but it does give you some choice in choosing the crap. As I left GT to go to grad school, Debbie asked me why I was leaving. I told her that she had convinced me to go back to school. She never did get this. (In case you remember the blond, competent Deborah that helped both you and DOD out a few times, this was NOT her.)
Will just reminded me that when he came out here to interview they told him to take off his tie and “the rest of that monkey suit.” Apparently the WSU mid-western dress standard differs considerably from the Spring Hill one. He even got to change a tire during the interview. Good thing he had lost the suit by then.
Did you explain to them that they should give you a raise and/or a clothing allowance if they want you to dress differently? That is so absurd.
In other news, I spent a great deal of today painting Grant’s room Sonic Green. Boy, howdy is it ever. Will just keeps shaking his head. I don’t think he’s worked up the courage to stick his head in there yet. Probably better that way. At the moment the whole room is glowing green. When you walk down the hall, there is even a green glow coming out of the door. However, once I get the furniture pushed back against the walls and the curtains back up, it should really look good. If it doesn’t, I’m going to have to eat a lot of crow. That, and do a lot of repainting.
We went to a marvelous show last night. Thursday afternoon one of the other faculty folks called and said that they were all getting together to see a show at Cabaret Old Town to celebrate our newest faculty woman’s 50th birthday. The boys were already scheduled to go to Kids Night Out at their school, so we went along. It was a whole show about 80s music and it was wonderful. They just did bits of a zillion 80s songs and spoofed most of it. Will and I knew all the words and had a ball singing along. The rest of the faculty kept staring at us like we had lost our minds. We had to leave at intermission to go get the boys. When we got up to leave, Les said, “You can’t leave—you’re the only ones who know the words to these songs.” I reminded him that these were the good ole high school days and he said, “Now I really feel old.” Will and I now need to get a babysitter so we can go back and watch the second half.
Believe it or not, I did know that trains can put sand on the tracks. That’s some of the miscellaneous trivia you pick up living with a train fan. What are these videos? They sound neat. I think I’m going to look for some of the Magic School Bus videos for Austin for Christmas. Will and I are getting sick of the Bob and Thomas ones. He only watches one a day, but we’ve had two years worth now. That’s a lot of Bob. And I don’t even like most of the Thomas ones.
There must be something wonderful about the old toys. Austin loves his “car” that is, in fact, a four-wheeled thing right-much like your old red one that used to be mine. It even still has the “Lisa” license plate on it. He has always liked that one better than the one we bought for him. He threw a fit the other day when he thought Grant was going to get to use “his car.” I pointed to the license plate at the back. He just stood there dumbfounded for a bit. Then he said, “Of course Grant can use it. We’ll share!” Right.
I just got my Wichita magazine yesterday and they listed about 4 cool Fall festivals that we are going to try and check out. The state fair starts next weekend and we always go. It’s a blast. Austin loves some of the rides and I love the funnel cakes and looking at all the fair stuff.
By the way, Chad’s right. I’m in Wichita. Still. Until next weekend. Then I’ll be in Hutchinson with the cows.