Good Girl's mother kicked her out of the house. I did not give her that nickname for no reason - she is a great kid. Why, then? Because her mother is crazy. "She has some things to work out, so she kicked us out."
I just spent two hours returning things to REI, Big 5, Home Depot, and Target. I probably spent more money on gas than on the things returned - but I wouldn't be able to live with myself for throwing them away, so it's all good. No bad traffic. I just couldn't stand them sitting on my shelf any longer. I'm in clean-up mode, and everything must go. I'm recycling all my many binders full of articles from 2.5 years of a PhD program. I have most of them cited in my bibliographies of my papers, so if I need 'em I can find 'em again. It feels pretty damn good, clearing it all out. I went and put the lock on my storage unit today (no bodies there, Jenny - yet [I dare my obnoxious students to keep it up]), sizing up my 5' x 10' new home.
L'il Gangsta, my home instruction kid (not the lazy one), started off our class by throwing a tantrum when his mother told him to get to the table to work with me - he flung his body into the chair and pouted and sighed most exasperated. So I said, "You're acting like a 2-year-old. Is this going to be ok today?" Because honestly, I wanted to leave. I'm tired of teaching, I'm tired of gangstas, I'm tired of the extra 10 hours of work each week, I'm tired of it all.
So what did he have the gall to do? Actually be an enjoyable person to spend 2 hours with. He even told me that he's learning a lot, "not like school." He was so full of questions today, and we talked about everything from karma to beer to racial violence. All this while he worked his little fingers off. We both hate Bush. If that's all it takes to bond with somebody, then the world is full of my friends.
Latest plan? Go to Oregon mid-June, attend 4 weeks at the marine biology lab, then 4 weeks of regular classes at my alma mater. Spend five weeks in Senegal working on my French and an environmental project (which I've been promised, though details are not forthcoming - I want to learn that vocabulary, and I want a CV builder), then 10 weeks in Oregon for the next term, then 4 weeks in Ecuador working on my Spanish and an ecological project (maybe Galapagos, though the rainforest would be something new), then return for the final 10 weeks to earn a BS in biology, and then look for a job - hopefully in Africa or South America. All this will either make me tap into my new-home-someday-nest-egg or borrow $$ with student loans, but if I can get a job right away in March, that won't be so bad and I'll try not to work during school so that I can really focus on it and detoxing and taking the pups for many long walks.
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