Baby

A girl I know has given birth to a baby boy. She named him Daniel. She is 19, unmarried, without a good job last I heard, and in college. I'm happy for her, because a birth is always a wonderful occasion; at the same time I am disappointed. I never thought that she would become a statistic: another unwed teenage mother.

You know, I'd love to be a mother. It's an important goal of mine - but not now. I know better than to risk my entire future and that of my child. I'm in college. I work (if I get the job) part time. I have classes to take and student teaching to do. I have grad school ahead of me. There is no sensible way for me to have a child right now without giving up my education and struggling to make a living. My whole life is ahead of me.

It always makes me wonder what goes through these girls' heads: why they're making decisions that will put another obstacle on the road to success. For that matter, what do they want out of life? Everyone should have a goal... and they don't seem to have very high ones. I guess it's just up to each person on his or her own to decide what's best and what will make them happy. I just wish that they wouldn't put themselves on the track to welfare so early in life.

That was the CliffNotes(tm) version of a rant I should probably elaborate on, but don't want to. My brain is overrun by various times and dates I'm supposed to remember. I already have a few assignments, and it's only the first day of classes.

I've had lots to do and think about lately and it looks as though my busy semester is going to get busier yet. KidsRead Tutoring is Monday nights, I'm ushering for six shows in the next two semesters, I may write for the campus newspaper again, TOST (the theatre group) is on my list, weekends are time to swordfight with my LARP group... the list goes on. I'm hoping to add a job to it, too. It looks overwhelming when I stop to think about it, and then I stop thinking and keep piling things on. The way I see it, I have three more years to do as much as humanly possible to make my resume look good and I plan to dive in headfirst.

Here's hoping the semester (indeed, the year) goes spectacularly. :)

Rain, Rain...

Yesterday was what some might call a Long Day (tm). It wasn't any longer than any other day I've had recently, but it was rather frustrating at times. Let's just say that city driving isn't my favorite pasttime. At any rate, it's over now and I'm sitting in one of my favorite places - The Apartment in Pittsburgh. I'm looking forward to a quiet weekend here and then it's off to school early Sunday morning. So. That's that.

Today, it's raining. At least, this afternoon it's raining. It doesn't bother me except I've discovered that by some horrible twist of fate, the sunroof (otherwise known as the hole in the top of my car) leaks on occasion. It leaks mostly into the passenger seat and the floor, but my computer monitor is currently in that seat - with the seatbelt on - and I'd rather it stayed dry. Luckily the rain is only a light misting, which is the sort I love second best (just behind the torrents-of-doom sort of rain that accompanies thunderstorms of great magnitude). I considered taking a walk in it, but there's a rather limited choice of places to walk in the area, and I'd rather have company.

The boy is at work for another six hours or so, which means I get to find new ways to amuse myself while he's out. There's the sewing I started, but pinning and cutting is rather tough to do without a clean, hard work area like a table, which the apartment distinctly lacks. Ah well.

And I've finished my book. Good Omens is absolutely the best book I've read in ages. It's on my list of Best Books. I think I'd put it above Watership Down for sheer hilarity but below Douglass Adams for Quotability. Or maybe above HHGTG because it's simply brilliant. At any rate it's god. I just typed "god" where I meant to type good. :D And Terry Pratchett goes on my Most-Worshipped Authors list, because he has proven that he is the God of Funny. Dust and fundamentalists, indeed. Go buy the book now. It's worth your money.

/update




So yes. It definitely feels like the end of summer now. There are apples ripening in the orchard at home, and the world has that intensely ready feeling to it as though it was an apple and it's just turned perfectly ripe. You know the kind of feeling... it hangs in the air. Things are being harvested, vacations are over, the storm clouds are just appearing on the horizon. Everything is ready for autumn. My favorite time of year is early autumn, when it's not too rainy or cold, but the sunlight comes in through the yellowing leaves with a certain slant that makes everything golden, and the leaves are crisp where they've fallen, and the hills light up with color in a way that takes one's breath away, especially in places where all you can see for miles around are hills. The apples are sweetest right from the trees, wild ones especially. It's a time when everything is getting ready for a respite from growth and activity, except the children, who we're sending off to school. School is nice, too. It's a new start at the end of the year, a return to the old patterns again. I like that.

/poetic daydreaming

Does anyone else notice that after reading a particularly good book, they imitate the style of the author(s) in their writing?

And yes, this is nearly the same post I put into my livejournal. Hehe...

All my bags are packed and I'm ready to go...

Yep, I'm all ready to head south again. The plan is to go to the boy's first, and stay there till the dorms open, then have him follow me up to school so I have someone to help me unload the Golf. I actually managed to fit everything (excluding the computer, obviously) into its tiny hatch, thanks to the back seat folding forward. The computer and the last few things I'm using today are going to fit, too. I'm excited about that; I like being (mostly) independent.

My cat is ill. Actually, it's my sister's cat, and I'm sure if you asked the cat, she'd say we all belonged to her, but that's beside the point. She had a seizure this morning and another this afternoon, something I've never heard of in a cat, and while I wasn't there to see the first one, apparently it scared my mother into thinking Princess was dying. The vet says she's fine, but a little underweight and has a bad ear infection (mom had thought it was just ear mites). Little sister is worried, middle sister cares but isn't praying too hard about it. I'm more or less unconcerned, as an ear infection isn't the worst that could happen by far, and there's nothing any of us can do for the seizures except make sure she's not going to hit her head on things. It won't do any good to worry about a situation that we can't change, even if it does seem callous not to.

I'm shopping for a mini fridge still. The school charges $30 a semester for a fridge and microwave set that are both tiny and if you add up the cost, it's cheaper to buy both than to rent them. The microwave was an easy find, but the fridges seem to be rare, because I couldn't find any acceptible ones in WalMart or elsewhere here. I've resorted to EBay, and dug one up that can be picked up from someone in PA, which is convenient, and it's also cheap. Three cheers for the internet. Now I hope I win the auction.

Signing off blogger till after I get to the apartment. Love to you all who read this, and I'll see some of you soon :)

By the way, raise your hand if my post title caused you to break into song. Thinking the lyrics counts.

When In Rome...

...is the first song on Nickel Creek's new album, Why Should the Fire Die?. I just picked up the CD from MediaPlay - on sale for $13, so I figured I'd be nice (to myself, that is) and buy it.

Sitting here at the boy's apartment with the kitten running around and acting very kitten-ish (which, in this case, means ADHD to the extreme). I'm finally home from camp and have less than two weeks now till I go back to school... so I figured I'd make the most of it and stay away from home for as long as possible :P Actually, coming down here for a few days stemmed from a few things. One was the idea that I'd be away from mom's smoking that much longer, because being away from a smoker's house eleven months out of the last 13 or so, I've managed to develop an even greater sensitivity to the stench and the incredible amounts of smoke in the atmosphere. It makes me naseous when I get into the car now, because it smells so strongly. And so the farther from my mother's horrible habit I am, the happier (and healthier) I'll feel. Sorry, mom; I know you don't want to hear it but deal. I dealt with your smoke for 18 years. The other big reason was that summer camp for me and year-round school for him meant I couldn't see the boy as often as either of us would have liked and so we've got a lot to catch up on. It'll be relaxing to just not deal with home for a little while longer, and have someone to cuddle. Yay, cuddles.

I miss my school life: friends, dorm rooms, classes, hot chai in the morning (It's best bought hot from the coffee stands on campus) and the film fests at the local theater. Especially the friends. I can't wait till I get back and can go hang out in the new apartment most of them have moved into, and get my room back (perhaps with a new, unannounced roommate, we'll see how that goes) and get the Great Hall and the Oak Grove and the Shakespeare Garden to meander in or curl up with a good book in a corner of.

And speaking of books, I've just bought one. So as soon as I read it, expect some babbling about it. It's co-authored by Terry Pratchett. Yay :)

Just to show...

A day in the life of Otter. It's the last week!