Long Time, No Blog...

Well, there's been a lot of craziness going on with Clan Kiladitis, but I'll try to give a quick update. The good news is that it's official - I'm a grad student! I was accepted into the San Jose State University Master's program for Library & Information Science! It's an online program and I will be a Spring 2009 frosh. I'm terrified, excited, and just want to start things off already. I'm going to speak to an advisor to get a basic idea of a plan down, but for the first semester, I'll just take one or two of the pre-req courses to start the show. My 'school store' will be through Amazon, so I'm wondering about the whole selling the textbooks back business - have to look that up. And I'm hoping that I'll be able to utilize the public libraries for some of the books, too.

I'll be a freshman again at the age of 38. Wow. Actually, it's kind of cool. I've put this off for so long now that to actually have it happen feels almost unreal. Talk to me around midterms, and I'm sure it won't feel that unreal after all.

Work has drained me beyond belief. Our company was bought by another megacorp - no surprise, the rumor mill has been alive for months - and I'm not really sure where my position will be in the grand scheme of things, or even if I'll have a position. On the one hand, I'm okay with that. I haven't been thrilled with this place for a while, but on the other, with the economy tanking and jobs going away by the thousand, I'm concerned - especially with my dream of grad school in hand now - that this is the only gig in town. So I'm trying to take things day by day and just see where things go. Not a great feeling to have hanging over my head, but that's what life is giving me right now so I have to go with it.

I started teaching last week, too. I'm teaching Catholic religious ed once a week for an hour to second-year kids (mostly second graders). Holy Moses. The first class hit me like a ton of bricks. The struggle to keep control overrode everything else, including the lesson plan I'd prepared. I got through the first unit, essentially having the kids read the pages out loud (they love that stuff) and I emphasized a few points ("God made the world, He made us to take care of it") and actually used one point of interest out of the 20 or 30 I was originally going to use. I was freaked out and not even sure I could go back for another class, but Mike and my Mom both reminded me that this is something so far out of my comfort zone that it was to be expected.

My sister-in-law, herself a second-grade teacher in the public school system, really put things in perspective when she told me, "You didn't give birth to them, you don't have to love them. It's important they like you." Believe it or not, that liberated me - I was so concerned with wondering how I was going to love these kids from day one, and being frustrated with them upset me because I was giving myself the Bad Mother treatment - for kids that aren't mine! Giving myself permission to NOT be the good mom, to be the teacher, I think will help me this week.

Much knitting happening, which is keeping my tenuous grip on sanity firm. I finished scarves for Ron's daughters' Christmas gifts, and I've gotten one sock done for Mike's grandmother. I cast the other one on this morning on the train - if you saw a woman in teal furiously knitting in a circle at the stairway on 42nd Street at Bryant Park, that was me. I hate when I get to my stop before my round is done.

I've got the knitted portion of baby gifts for this weekend's shower for Mike's cousin Jen all done - the Helena sweater is done and is absolutely adorable; the two hats are in, and I'm debating on a pair of booties. I started a pair of Saartje's Booties, but I have to seam them up and I'm concerned, after finishing one, about the seam running at the base of the foot and whether or not that will irritate the baby's delicate new tootsies. I'm not going to frog the one I've done already; I may just make another one, fill them with tulle and use them as a gift wrap accent.

Sorry for the lack of pictures in this post, but I just wanted to get caught up with everyone since I've been away for a while. More soon!