TGIF!

Wow! Two full, complete weeks since I first helped move you into your dorm room - hard to believe it's only been 14 days, in some ways it feels much longer than that ... we've all settled in to new routines, new physical settings, new ways of communicating. I'm so proud of you for handling all the "business" aspects of school in such a mature fashion: setting up a meeting with your advisor, changing your schedule with the registrar, finding and starting your new job, signing up for new clubs, handling the switch of meal plans -- that's an awful lot of details to cope with in a new setting, and you've come through with flying colors. Kudos!

Lydia's bee sting yesterday turned out not to be too bad after all. The gym class must have stirred up a bunch of ground wasps or something, because a couple other people in the class were stung too. By the time she took a bath last night, all the swelling had gone down, and it was just the puncture site that sort of burned and itched - those bee stings have a weird combination of burn/itch that is completely unlike a mosquito bite.

Oddly enough, Lydia seems to have moved into taking over your place as my evening companion. Instead of barricading herself in her room to incessantly text or update her MySpace page, she's taken to joining me in the bathroom to chat during my bath, snuggling with me on the couch to watch Gilligan, or ask me for homework help. It's very endearing, I enjoy her company.

She's very, very angry with dad these days: she foolishly attacked him before I came home, telling him that he was lazy for not getting a part time job to help out with the family finances since he didn't have as much work as in years past. Not a fun scene to walk into when I got home from work, I can assure you. Much as I do agree with Lydia about the job issue, I have to regret her timing and her approach. She certainly doesn't have a great sense of tact and timing about it. Made for a rather chilly evening all around.

We had "breakfast for dinner" last night: bacon, eggs, hash browns and toast. Very good, though it always takes longer to cook that I anticipate. Much to my annoyance, dad insisted on going out to buy two bottles of wine, even though I had told him that there wasn't going to be any more drinking in the house - he had to go out by himself if he wanted. Obviously, I might as well have spit into the wind for as much mind as he paid me. Ticked him off royally that I refused to join him in a glass, so he spent the night in the basement with the dog, polishing off an entire bottle by himself. Sorry, I'm not going to encourage his drinking habit any longer, he can drink by himself and argue with the poor dog.

Lydia's going to the OLG fall dance/festival tonight with Clara, so she won't be coming home after school. God, does that child love a party! I have to drop off the entrance fee ($7) at Clara's house on my way home from work, she forgot to remind me that she needed to PAY to get in, and I'm a bit ignorant of the details on these events. Her South View 8th grade mixer is next Friday, so she's just going to be a party girl!

My new lawyer boss got Vikings tickets for this weekend, and offered them to me (versus the Colts), but I had to decline because Kevin Cody and family are coming for work and dinner. So he got me tix for next Sunday (against Carolina): two prime seats in row 35, VIP tent passes for the pre-game party, and a parking pass. Dad refuses to come, because he's working at St. Bart's until 11:45, and we'd have to arrive after kick-off (so what?), so I might grab Lydia and take the light-rail to the game. I think we could have some serious fun....we'll see.

Hope you have lots of fun things on tap for this weekend (besides laundry!) Hope, too, that your sleeping arrangements are left undisturbed by a visit from The Gonad....
Love,
Mom