In Latest Wackness
James and I caught a triple act at Box Awesome Saturday night, including the terrific Denver band The Hollyfelds (great pipes, gals! and great slide guitar), but we were kinda low because our baby, Grey, had just flown out that morning for his third year of college. Oberlin's gain is our loss, and our nest was feeling way, way empty.
At the club, we sat with parents who were leaving their two-year-old with her grandmother overnight for the first time so the husband could play in one of the acts, and I don't know which set of parents was feeling more ambivalent about a night out. Let's just say we talked about our respective kids a lot.
But then yesterday, thanks to Gustav, we got a call from James's folks, who live in Mandeville, just across Lake Pontchartrain from New Orleans, and they're arriving here in two hours. So much for an empty nest! We're driving to Omaha here in a minute to pick them up.
Ah, chaos. Welcome.
Here's hoping that the other 2 million U.S. evacuees on their way north have places where they'll be as safe, and that the damage to people, homes, and land down on the Gulf Coast will be minimal. This is no small storm. Eighty people have already lost their lives due to Gustav in Haiti, the DR, and Jamaica, and Cuba got hit hard. I think that McCain is making the only decent, humane call in scaling back the GOP convention, but I sure wish his fellow Republican had been as alert three years ago.
Between watching the weather, preparing for in-laws, and missing our kiddo (and catching up on Mad Men in yesterday's watch-a-thon--it's a sick, sick addiction), I'm trying to read 100 pages of Mexican Enough for class tomorrow, and I have to tell you, the students (the vocal ones, at least) have been loving this book. Stephanie Elizondo Griest is so frank, so funny, so no-holds-barred. Her eager curiosity about and nonjudgmental observation of both herself and Mexico have endeared her book to us. Students love her candor, humor, and gutsiness. Where other travelers might fear to tread, she leaps in. It's a fun read and a painless way to absorb some of the history, culture, and politics that will ground our other readings this semester.
Thanks, Stephanie! You've got some fans up in Nebraska!
At the club, we sat with parents who were leaving their two-year-old with her grandmother overnight for the first time so the husband could play in one of the acts, and I don't know which set of parents was feeling more ambivalent about a night out. Let's just say we talked about our respective kids a lot.
But then yesterday, thanks to Gustav, we got a call from James's folks, who live in Mandeville, just across Lake Pontchartrain from New Orleans, and they're arriving here in two hours. So much for an empty nest! We're driving to Omaha here in a minute to pick them up.
Ah, chaos. Welcome.
Here's hoping that the other 2 million U.S. evacuees on their way north have places where they'll be as safe, and that the damage to people, homes, and land down on the Gulf Coast will be minimal. This is no small storm. Eighty people have already lost their lives due to Gustav in Haiti, the DR, and Jamaica, and Cuba got hit hard. I think that McCain is making the only decent, humane call in scaling back the GOP convention, but I sure wish his fellow Republican had been as alert three years ago.
Between watching the weather, preparing for in-laws, and missing our kiddo (and catching up on Mad Men in yesterday's watch-a-thon--it's a sick, sick addiction), I'm trying to read 100 pages of Mexican Enough for class tomorrow, and I have to tell you, the students (the vocal ones, at least) have been loving this book. Stephanie Elizondo Griest is so frank, so funny, so no-holds-barred. Her eager curiosity about and nonjudgmental observation of both herself and Mexico have endeared her book to us. Students love her candor, humor, and gutsiness. Where other travelers might fear to tread, she leaps in. It's a fun read and a painless way to absorb some of the history, culture, and politics that will ground our other readings this semester.
Thanks, Stephanie! You've got some fans up in Nebraska!
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