we did it for the photo op

We almost didn't go to graduation. Reasons?

• We technically graduated 4 months ago, before Christmas break, when there were no graduation ceremonies.
  
• Cap and gown rental fees seem like a racket after you've already paid your four years' tuition.
• My husband often scoffs at pomp and authority (and so also, possibly, at "Pomp and Circumstance"). He initially didn't look forward to the fancy hats, color-coded tassles, and terrible parking.
  

But one of my favorite pictures of myself as a little girl was taken on my dad's graduation day. I wanted a picture like that for our baby girl. Possibly for tradition's sake. Or possibly to have proof to show her when she's a teenager (and thinks she knows everything) that she has smart parents. Caps and gowns make us look like we know something.
















Which is probably why I didn't take some of the other, non-smarty-pants pictures that I should have that afternoon:

• The mess I made when I didn't put the lid on the bottle correctly so all the milk we brought spilled in the diaper bag
  
• The spot where I would have gotten lost (on a campus I've known for years) if other people hadn't insisted I was going the wrong way
• Or the moment we had to break into the car because I'd locked the keys inside

I opted for the photo that makes us look smart, that we'll put in a baby book—which might be an unfair representation of everything we did that day, but reason enough to go to graduation.

Throw your yard away

I always think about this, but didn't know that other people do too:

"Tree roots draw minerals from deep in the soil in order to grow leaves and branches. If you throw away leaves instead of recycling them, you are literally making your soil poorer and poorer every year." From Organic Gardening's Cheryl Long, as quoted in Great Garden Formulas.
I thought that mowing your lawn and throwing away the clippings was the ultimate in waste. We cover our yards with these things that are able to convert solar energy better than any technology we've come up with yet, and we just throw that solar energy away. What a dumb thing to do.

I think I'm going to get a goat.

Thanks R&M B. for lending me this book.

a backward view of our garden

There's something awkward about positioning a laptop low to the ground to take a picture of a patch of dirt—especially since everything is backwards, which makes the computer trickier to aim than a normal camera. (We really need to get our camera fixed.) But I don't care how ridiculous I looked to the upstairs neighbors, because I am so excited about the work we finished that I have to say this:

Ta da! We have a garden.

It's a little one, with a few strawberries and tomatoes, and with my luck, its production from the entire summer will only yield a single salad. But I'm delighted anyway. And it's not just because the plants are in the ground.

On my other blog, I mentioned that I'm horrible at asking for help. I think I have a weird, genetic mutation that makes me think that I'm not interesting or charming enough to be helped. I also mentioned that a certain friend gave me some advice on my thesis. That dear friend decided to give me some more advice that sounded like this: you should let me help you plant your vegetables and clean your house.

Her advice is usually sound, so I took it. We planted the little garden together and then tackled the disaster in my kitchen and family room. Now I have a clean, pretty place to live. And so do my plants. You can see it in this backward, oddly lit, poorly composed picture that I looked like a moron to take.

spring cleaning

I have been aching to do some spring cleaning for about a month now. I have daydreamed about throwing unnecessary clutter in the trash. I have picked out a new area rug to buy and made a list of summer sewing and painting projects. Sometimes, when I close my eyes to sleep at night, I can picture what it would be like to go through drawers, closets, and shelves.

And, of course, now that the end of the semester has come, my classes' grades are submitted, and I have no set schedule, I keep putting it off. For the next day, I can blame it on my thesis revisions. But after that, I have no excuses. I think that because I've set up this idea in my mind that everything must be rummaged through and reorganized, the enormity of the task daunts me.

My husband is helping me realize I can start small. He fixed up the fancy header at the top of our blog and says that it's probably time to sleep now, even though our blog reformatting isn't completely finished. We'll clean up around here for the next day or so. And then I'll actually have to get out the broom and the vacuum and get to work.

Why'd the Chicken . . .

We had an Easter miracle on Saturday morning. I came home from the store to find a baby chick in our yard.
I ran inside to tell Kathy, and the chick ran after me. When Kathy came out it ran up to us and started chirping. We fed it soggy oatmeal and put it in a box to protect it from the cat that lives in our garage.
We asked our neighbor if she had chickens. She said she wished she did, and came over to see it. She named it Lucky, because it was lucky to find Kathy and I.

We called our farmer, Julie, at the Clifford family farm. She said her chickens had just had chicks and that lucky would fit right in with them.
She just sent this email:
christopher,
just wanted to let you know lucky is doing fine. if you want to see lucky or look around, feel free. my phone is ___-____ if you call then I can show you lucky. he's in the outside brooder with the other "big boys" He's probably a leghorn and a little older than we thought -I'd say about 3 weeks. thanks- julie
Happy Easter. Make sure to watch this soon.

happy on the first day

The first day of spring today means that the last day of winter happened yesterday. But that's not the only reason I feel cheery:

• I slept well, despite my allergies.
  
• A good writer read beautiful stories at school, and I got to hear them.
  
• The fabulous people who take my creative writing class said fabulous things.
• A nurse surprised me with pleasant news.
• I ran into a delightful person on my walk home.
• My mom has good advice.
• Someone mailed me a letter—not just a coupon or a bill.
• I sat in the sun and finished reading a book.
• My cousin and her baby came on a walk to visit me.
• I saw this; you wouldn't believe how important it made this English teacher feel:

Happy spring!

spring burnout

The combination of warmer weather and non-stop school since August 2007 is burning us out a little bit. A spring break sounds nice about now. But, alas, capital-S-Spring, capital-B-Break does not exist at our institution of higher learning. We have heard unreliable theories about why this is:

• We finish school a week earlier than other schools, so we get to the good jobs first.
• A shorter winter semester lets the university squeeze two terms into summer instead of one.
• The school can earn more money during the summer by having an extra week to host hundreds of teenagers for efy.
• The school board worries that an official Spring Break would encourage their good, christian students to use that week for binge drinking, recreational drug use, and casual sex.

We think that number 4 is not true. We would also be happy to whine about it if it were—because we don't need a week of excessive drinking (or maybe we do). We just need a second to breathe, to finish reading the 6 (7? 8?) more books we have yet to finish before April, and to clean up our cluttery little apartment so we can see the couch again.

We wouldn't even need a whole week.