Yesterday evening-updating my training for my tutoring job
Monday evening-meeting with a wedding DJ, lesson planning, plus the power was out so after that it was either read by weak candlelight or go to bed early
Sunday evening-breaking down the project I had been working on all summer, surviving freak thunderstorm that knocked out power to pretty much everyone in the region, going to bed early because the power was out and I was exhausted from my weekend
Sunday evening-breaking down the project I had been working on all summer, surviving freak thunderstorm that knocked out power to pretty much everyone in the region, going to bed early because the power was out and I was exhausted from my weekend
Saturday evening-Dad still in town; nice dinner at an Italian restaurant followed by many drinks here (Just to clarify, I am in no way complaining about this. Penn and I had so much fun hanging out with my dad, and I loved the bar at his hotel! It was beautiful; definitely one of the most picturesque bars I have ever sipped cocktails in, and you know me, I have been to a lot of bars!)
Friday-entertaining my dad, my aunt and uncle, Penn's mom, Penn's sister-in-law, and my dad's limo driver buddy who were all in town for the night [I promised to give you an update on that. Surprisingly, it went well! The limo driver is a very quiet guy so he mostly just sat back and took in all of the conversations going on around him. I still don't really get his sudden friendship with my dad, but it wasn't as awkward as it could have been.]
Friday-entertaining my dad, my aunt and uncle, Penn's mom, Penn's sister-in-law, and my dad's limo driver buddy who were all in town for the night [I promised to give you an update on that. Surprisingly, it went well! The limo driver is a very quiet guy so he mostly just sat back and took in all of the conversations going on around him. I still don't really get his sudden friendship with my dad, but it wasn't as awkward as it could have been.]
Thursday-finishing up my summer project
Wednesday-conducting a dissertation interview, hiking around town advertising my project, happy hour with a friend leaving town for a month
Tuesday-updating my training for my tutoring job, lesson planning
Repeat ad infinitum
Penn left today to go home for a funeral and won't be back until Saturday morning. One of his good friends was basically raised by his grandfather, and the grandfather was killed when his truck was hit by a drunk driver on Friday evening. It's very sad. Penn thought he should go home by himself (I didn't know the man who died at all, so I agreed; I feel like I would be in the way when Penn really just needs to focus on his friend and the rest of the guys) so now I have three nights to bum around my professor's house all alone. Well, all alone but for half a dozen dogs, which isn't really all alone at all. It's always a little bit weird when Penn is out of town. I don't feel lonely or bored--I really do enjoy my own company too much to ever really feel either of those emotions for long--but it just feels strange without him nearby. And I get mildly freaked out when I go to bed at night and rush through my bedtime routine so I can get under the covers, which is stupid because I spent three years of my life sleeping alone in an apartment every night and I never worried that somebody was going to come after me with a knife. Now, though, it feels creepy once I turn off the TV/radio/computer and head to bed. I guess I should feel safe while housesitting, though. I'm pretty sure nobody could creep up on me here with five yappy dogs and one deep-voiced one (mine is the deep-voiced one, of course).
Speaking of that, I have now been housesitting for almost three weeks. For the most part it hasn't been bad. First of all, I'm getting paid a good amount of money every day to basically carry on my usual routine from someone else's house. There is no television here, but I find that I don't actually miss it. In fact, this experience has made me realize that I would be completely content to give up cable entirely and just increase my Netflix subscription to 2 DVDs instead of one. All of the good TV series go to DVD eventually anyway, I can watch the Colbert Report on the internet, and I could live without House Hunters and Say Yes to the Dress and the other fluff I put on as background noise when I'm working during the day. Penn pointed out that we can't watch sports on DVD, though, so I guess we're going to have to keep cable just for that. Don't you wish cable channels were a la carte? It seems stupid to pay $90 a month to watch football and hockey, which I have realized is pretty much what we're doing.
Taking care of six dogs at once has made me realize something, though: six dogs is too many. I always thought I would love a pack of dogs, and to a certain extent I do. It really is fun when I sit on the couch and they all climb up around me and get cozy. The problem is that I feel like I can't devote enough time to any of them. I definitely haven't been able to spend much one-on-one time with my own dog, and I don't even make an effort to spend one-on-one time with all of the others. There's just not enough time in the day. Not that they need it, I guess, because they're dogs, but I feel like I don't know any of them that well. And I know that's stupid because they are dogs, but I still wish they weren't a constant pack so I could differentiate their personalities on a less superficial level. The other problem is that when there are six dogs in the house there's almost always one of them that is being obnoxious at any given moment. Actually, as I type this they are all asleep and it's peaceful, but 90% of the time one of them is doing something that is less than ideal. Someone's barking, someone's begging to go out or come in, someone's whining, two of them are wrestling loudly, one of them seems sick...there is hardly ever a time when they're all being good at the same time. Also, with this many it's impossible not to play favorites. Of the five dogs there is one I really like (so much so that I would take him home with me if I could), two that are sweet but not as special, and two that are just okay. It's all just so different from having my one dog whose personality I know through and through, whose color pattern I could draw from memory, who is a very good dog 90% of the time.
I write all of this because I wonder: do you think it's the same with families who have a lot of kids? I know people always say that there is enough love to go around and that you'll love all of your children the same amount, just for different reasons, and I probably shouldn't compare children to dogs. But I can't help but wondering if some of the problems would exist with big families, too. With six kids, wouldn't one of them always be pissing you off somehow? Would you ever all sit down to dinner together and have everyone in a good mood? I grew up with a brother and sister and there were plenty of times when everyone was having fun together, but even with just three kids one of us was often being a pain in the butt, so wouldn't it be way worse with twice that many? And wouldn't you play favorites? And feel like you could never have one-on-one time with your children? And like you didn't know all of the details, just the basic personality gloss? I feel like that when I watch the show about the Dugger family (another reason I don't need a TV!). The parents always claim they know their children as individuals, but then when they're interviewed about them they give the most basic personality gloss. "She's sweet." "He's always running around." "She's a helper." "He's shy." Maybe they genuinely do know them on a deep level, but I can't imagine how that's possible. Seems to me like with that many kids you spend time making them as similar as possible rather than trying to appreciate them all as individuals.
Anyway, after these three weeks I think I've realized that, as much as I love dogs, I really only need one or two of my own at a time. I can love two at once and feel like I'm treating them both fairly. And I imagine I'll feel the same way about children. Too many would just not be fun or fulfilling.
Well, that was ramble-y. I think I need to go for a bike ride and use some energy.
Repeat ad infinitum
Penn left today to go home for a funeral and won't be back until Saturday morning. One of his good friends was basically raised by his grandfather, and the grandfather was killed when his truck was hit by a drunk driver on Friday evening. It's very sad. Penn thought he should go home by himself (I didn't know the man who died at all, so I agreed; I feel like I would be in the way when Penn really just needs to focus on his friend and the rest of the guys) so now I have three nights to bum around my professor's house all alone. Well, all alone but for half a dozen dogs, which isn't really all alone at all. It's always a little bit weird when Penn is out of town. I don't feel lonely or bored--I really do enjoy my own company too much to ever really feel either of those emotions for long--but it just feels strange without him nearby. And I get mildly freaked out when I go to bed at night and rush through my bedtime routine so I can get under the covers, which is stupid because I spent three years of my life sleeping alone in an apartment every night and I never worried that somebody was going to come after me with a knife. Now, though, it feels creepy once I turn off the TV/radio/computer and head to bed. I guess I should feel safe while housesitting, though. I'm pretty sure nobody could creep up on me here with five yappy dogs and one deep-voiced one (mine is the deep-voiced one, of course).
Speaking of that, I have now been housesitting for almost three weeks. For the most part it hasn't been bad. First of all, I'm getting paid a good amount of money every day to basically carry on my usual routine from someone else's house. There is no television here, but I find that I don't actually miss it. In fact, this experience has made me realize that I would be completely content to give up cable entirely and just increase my Netflix subscription to 2 DVDs instead of one. All of the good TV series go to DVD eventually anyway, I can watch the Colbert Report on the internet, and I could live without House Hunters and Say Yes to the Dress and the other fluff I put on as background noise when I'm working during the day. Penn pointed out that we can't watch sports on DVD, though, so I guess we're going to have to keep cable just for that. Don't you wish cable channels were a la carte? It seems stupid to pay $90 a month to watch football and hockey, which I have realized is pretty much what we're doing.
Taking care of six dogs at once has made me realize something, though: six dogs is too many. I always thought I would love a pack of dogs, and to a certain extent I do. It really is fun when I sit on the couch and they all climb up around me and get cozy. The problem is that I feel like I can't devote enough time to any of them. I definitely haven't been able to spend much one-on-one time with my own dog, and I don't even make an effort to spend one-on-one time with all of the others. There's just not enough time in the day. Not that they need it, I guess, because they're dogs, but I feel like I don't know any of them that well. And I know that's stupid because they are dogs, but I still wish they weren't a constant pack so I could differentiate their personalities on a less superficial level. The other problem is that when there are six dogs in the house there's almost always one of them that is being obnoxious at any given moment. Actually, as I type this they are all asleep and it's peaceful, but 90% of the time one of them is doing something that is less than ideal. Someone's barking, someone's begging to go out or come in, someone's whining, two of them are wrestling loudly, one of them seems sick...there is hardly ever a time when they're all being good at the same time. Also, with this many it's impossible not to play favorites. Of the five dogs there is one I really like (so much so that I would take him home with me if I could), two that are sweet but not as special, and two that are just okay. It's all just so different from having my one dog whose personality I know through and through, whose color pattern I could draw from memory, who is a very good dog 90% of the time.
I write all of this because I wonder: do you think it's the same with families who have a lot of kids? I know people always say that there is enough love to go around and that you'll love all of your children the same amount, just for different reasons, and I probably shouldn't compare children to dogs. But I can't help but wondering if some of the problems would exist with big families, too. With six kids, wouldn't one of them always be pissing you off somehow? Would you ever all sit down to dinner together and have everyone in a good mood? I grew up with a brother and sister and there were plenty of times when everyone was having fun together, but even with just three kids one of us was often being a pain in the butt, so wouldn't it be way worse with twice that many? And wouldn't you play favorites? And feel like you could never have one-on-one time with your children? And like you didn't know all of the details, just the basic personality gloss? I feel like that when I watch the show about the Dugger family (another reason I don't need a TV!). The parents always claim they know their children as individuals, but then when they're interviewed about them they give the most basic personality gloss. "She's sweet." "He's always running around." "She's a helper." "He's shy." Maybe they genuinely do know them on a deep level, but I can't imagine how that's possible. Seems to me like with that many kids you spend time making them as similar as possible rather than trying to appreciate them all as individuals.
Anyway, after these three weeks I think I've realized that, as much as I love dogs, I really only need one or two of my own at a time. I can love two at once and feel like I'm treating them both fairly. And I imagine I'll feel the same way about children. Too many would just not be fun or fulfilling.
Well, that was ramble-y. I think I need to go for a bike ride and use some energy.
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