Why can't anything be simple?

We have had an incredibly exhilarating week. Do not let anything in the next few paragraphs make you forget that we are incredibly happy about the way things are working out. We are new homeowners and we are travelling to Russia next week to meet our future son.

Now for the whining.

The plan for the week was as follows:

• Sunday -- graduation.
• Monday -- pack moving truck.
• Tuesday -- closing on sale of old house, drive moving truck to New Hampshire.
• Wednesday -- do some errands.
• Thursday -- final walkthrough of new house, simultaneous homestudy.
• Friday -- close on new house, move in.

Some of these things (namely those on Sunday, Monday, and Thursday) happened. But the old house did not close on Tuesday. Then (after repeated reassurances and a few lies from a number of sources), it did not close on Wednesday or Thursday. We did not have final word until late Thursday. After much nailbiting, it closed this morning, and we were able to close on the new house just afterwards. But wait -- the paperwork never actually came through! Technically we are inhabiting a house owned by someone else. Not as if the former/current owner cares -- he has already been paid. But we have a moving truck in the driveway of a house we live in but don't yet legally own.

So why do I have the time to blog? Because I was tasked with handling adoption paperwork, but have been forgetting paperwork at whichever house I am not currently at. I need to have our visa applications overnighted by 5pm in order to have permission to enter Russia. I am at my parents' house because I forgot our visa applications here. I am waiting here because I forgot our passports (which need to be shipped to the Russian consulate) at the new house. My father is enroute with the passports and photos.

After eighteen moths of waiting and waiting, we got nine days notice to travel. Plane tickets have been purchased. Obnoxiously expensive hotel room booked for one night. Will work on finding a better option for the other days. Must get visa within next few days.

But we get to meet him! And then we will go back in a few short (!?!) weeks to adopt him. And all is good. All is very good.

For those who asked, the cat is recovering well from her motion sickness. She will be staying with my parents for a couple of weeks as we have doors open for moving boxes in and as we travel to Russia. She really seems to like it here. She likes the neighbors. She likes my dad. She likes the fluffy rugs. She likes the cozy nook on the desk. She may not want to move back in with us when the time comes.....

Love thee Notre Dame

Notre Dame, our Mother
Tender, strong and true
Proudly in the heavens,
Gleams thy gold and blue.
Glory's mantle cloaks thee
Golden is thy fame,
And our hearts forever,
Praise thee, Notre Dame.
And our hearts forever,
Love thee, Notre Dame.

I love Indiana

County Line Landfill
Originally uploaded by Reprehriestless.

...for the landforms!

Isn't this the cheerist little landfill you have ever seen? It is the only hill between South Bend and Indianapolis, and it sure is cute. If it weren't for the overpowering smell of garbage, it would be a perfect picnic spot.

I love South Bend

hydrant
Originally uploaded by Reprehriestless.

...and so does this hydrant!

We are busy packing and enertaining guests this week, so I will not be posting much. I do have a series of duck stalking pictures that I will post soon, though.

Interview (Part 3 of 5)

part 1 | part 2

If you could take a trip anywhere, where would you go?

I would drop everything at a moment's notice to meet our children in Russia. I have a packing list prepared for each person and could be ready in minutes flat.

That's kinda the answer to another question, though.

I have several adventures in mind, including a hike of the entire Appalachian Trail and the Western Way in Ireland. I'm also a big fan of car trips -- some of my greatest memories are from a cross-country trip with my husband the summer after we graduated from college. We'd like to drive through the Canadian Maritimes and accross the southern part of the US.

The only fru-fru coice on my list? Going to Pasadena, California for the Rose Bowl Parade. I wouldn't even have to see the game, although I might be convinced to go if say it was the BCS championship and Notre Dame was playing.....

Interview (Part 2 of 5)

part 1

What scares you most about moving to the East Coast?

Moving itself! Moving stinks. We'll spend days packing all of our stuff into boxes, attempting to do so in an organized fashion so that nothing gets lost. We'll have everything boxed up, labeled well, and lugged out to the moving truck. As we leave, we will do one last run-through of the house. Someone will notice that no one emptied the lower drawer in the bathroom. There will be no boxes left, and that stuff will be tossed into a garbage bag, and that bag will be thrown behind the passenger's seat of the car. It will be weeks before that bag makes it into the new house. By that time, I will have bought myself three new scrunchies to sleep in, because we have no idea where they got packed.

Even though the East Coast is home, there will be some culture shock. That is worrisome. But we'll deal.

Interview (Part 1 of 5)

What excites me most about moving to the East Coast?

Meeting my new niece. She is only eleven days old and even over the phone I can tell that she is a character. I want to see my oldest sister, the person who basically raised me, with her daughter. I want to drink tea with my mother, and hang out in the garage with my brothers.

I want to see landforms. I want to go for a walk where the scenery changes when I round a bend. I want to go for a run where my legs burn from going uphill for 20 minutes. I want a bikeride where I don't have to pedal because gravity carries me down the hill. I want to go up to my ankles in a rapidly rushing stream. I want to go to teh top of a hill and look out over miles and miles of trees.

Getting a decent cup of coffee that doesn't cost $3.

Having a meal with family that doesn't take three weeks to plan. Going to baptisms and first communions and birthday parties without killing half of my vacation allotment.

Working on our new house. Planning a garden from scratch. Setting up the home library. Decorating the kiddos' rooms.

Being home.

What a boring life!

I am not complaining. In fact, I am joyous about this. There is no horror, no comedy, no drama. Just a set of tasks with deadlines. I can handle that!

Cute Couple

Cute Couple
Originally uploaded by Reprehriestless.

The Odd Threesome

The Odd Threesome
Originally uploaded by Reprehriestless.

Where are you, Refman?

I wrote a post about washing my underwear.
I scheduled your life without asking.
And you did not comment at all.

I am beginning to think that you don't care.

I have not abandonded you

...but I have had little time for blogging over the past week. It looks like this week will be just as busy.

Despite my most valiant efforts, the image search essay is still not done, and we have yet to start formal planning for the presentation on Friday. Ialso still have to revise, reformat, and polish an essay on Fetal Alcohol Spectrum Disorder, as well as get permission to use images in it, if I can figure out where those images actually came from.

I am down to 4.5 days of work, and am expected to accomplish as much as I normally do in a month.

Additionally, it is still not clear whether or not our house will actually be sold when we need it to be. This means lots of frantic phone calls with real estate agents, mortgage people, insurance people, utilities, and others. And we need to buy a washing machine in the next 15 days. Oh. And packing. And lots of silly ceremonies. And a ton of visiting family.

This is not a stressed post; in fact I think that we are handling quite well. The post is just to explain why you haven't seen me around the blogosphere very much.

And I have a plan.

Monday	hand wash "necessaries" cook for the week (no shopping required) two nights pork-n-rice two nights salmon casserole one night leftover Chinese food (cook more rice) proof-read image retrieval essay & submit clean house for appraisal clean bathrooms swiffer all wood floors dust tidy study mop tile floors go to work
Tuesday	reformat citations in FASD article write my section of lesson plan go to work
Wednesday	revise FASD article update dated sections of FASD article make up props for lesson plan go to work early for farewell lunch
Thursday	Last day of work!!!!! rehearse lesson plan (depending on partner's sechedule) revise lesson plan as needed go to work further revisions to lesson plan
Friday	Last day of school!!!!!

I apologize for the excruciatingly boring post, but I figure that if I tell y'all about it, then I'll have to do it as stated. Procrastination would then be failing y'all. If you see me online, question my progress, because I need to get all of this done in the non-work hours of the next 6 days.

Then I can enjoy my one remaining week in the 'Bend.

The countdown

I apologize for the lack of posts, but there is a lot going on.

What I have left to do:

• 20 days in this house
• 7 days of work
• 3 classes
• 1 20-page paper
• 1 presentation
• 2 articles to edit
• copyright to obtain
• 1 house to pack, with
• 29 boxes of books, plus those we have acquired in the past 3 years
• 1 broken clothes washer
• assorted living room and dining room furniture
• a cat who hates to travel

Lists always make me feel better. Ahhhhhh.

Charlie I speaks

Notre Dame football coach Charile Weis was on Live this morning with Regis and Kelly. I was impressed with his poise in this type of environment. He answered all of the questions well, including Kelly'squestion about academic standards.

Yes, Notre Dame has tough admissions criteria, but that means that he has smarter players. And smarter players coached well are better players. Academic standards do not hurt Notre Dame.

He did not promise anything except that his players will always be prepared.

He compared coaching at the high school, college, and professional levels. As a championship coach at two of those levels (one Jersey state high school championship and four Super Bowl rings), he knows how to win. Now we just have to see if Notre Dame remembers how to win.

Yes, I watch Live. And yes, I planned my chores this morning so that I would be near the television for his interview. And yes, I am annoyed that I have been at Notre Dame while the New England Patriots have been the dominant force in professional football, and I'll be in New England as Notre Dame returns to dominance.

Go Irish!

A winter's walk in April

Snow Duck
Originally uploaded by Reprehriestless.

I took more pictures on campus this morning. The tulip trees were covered in a beautiful layer of snow.

The ducks and geese didn't seem to mind though.

"Let's see Pope Benedict XVI draw up the perfect play on thrd-and-long"

Now that Pope Benedict XVI has assumed the most important position in the Roman Catholic Church, attention can return to the occupant of the second.

Charlie I.

Jason Kelly of the South Bend Tribune wrote the funniest sports column I have ever read -- "Mitre by Adidas, doctrine by Charlie I." Writing about the fans' "faith that Notre Dame football will rise again," he somehow managed to tread the line between obnoxiousness and humor without ever once stepping over the line.

You can't lose with line like:

• "Maybe that explains the relative haste of the conclave in Rome. Pick a Pope before kickoff, before the first audience with Charlie Weis."
• "His sermons on offense and how to execute it have made believers of players and prayerful fans alike during this spring season of rebirth."
• "Rooted in the doctrine of moving the chains, the principles Weis espouses in his encyclicals satisfy both conservatives and liberals. As Rev. Michael Heintz noted in a Michiana Point of View column Wednesday, a good Catholic should aspire to defy such simplistic, superficial labels anyway."
• "While the College of Cardinals selected a man described as the "defender of the faith" from Germany, Notre Dame chose a man of offense from Jersey."
• "Like pilgrims to the stain that resembles the Virgin Mary on a Chicago underpass, devoted Irish followers also believe they see the reflection of that holy coaching trinity in Weis."

Man-o-man am I going to miss reading the Tribune sports page every morning.

The end of an era

With only three weeks left in my degree program, this is probably the last time that I will stay up all night writing a paper. There is something almost wistful about this moment; it is another of those many "lasts" I will experience over the next few weeks.

With a cat on my lap, tunes on my headphones, and a pot of coffe ready, I am looking forward to an exciting evening of paper-writing bliss. Oh yeah!

UPDATES

• 12:07 -- I have organized my notes and sources, written a detailed outline, and decided on relevant examples for the paper on image retrieval. The cat is a really good study-buddy. I have not moved from this spot because she is snuggled up so nicely on my lap. I wouldn't want to disturb her sleep....
• 12:35 -- So much for productivity. I got a little distracted and set this up. Don't expect any updates for the next few weeks, but I do have a lot of Grover pics to upload. Alrighty -- back to work!
• 1:36 -- Assessment Assignment complete and emailed to partners.
  Back to the image retrieval paper. The goal is to have a draft that I can submit for critiques.
• 2:49 -- I am starting to get sleepy and my shoulders are getting tight. The cat is still curled up on my lap (looking a lot like this). This paper has the potential to be really good.
• 3:36 -- I have a complete draft! It is really not worth going to sleep at this point, so I will start in on the presentation for my other class.
• 3:51 -- Blogging is taking the place of solitare in my paper-writing routine. It is pretty amazing that I have been sitting at a computer four straight hours (minus one tea-and-crackers break at 2:30) and have not played a single game nor read a single blog. LAUNCHcast has helped too. Jimmy Buffett's "A Pirate Looks at Forty" is on the 'phones right now. "My occupational hazard be, my occupation just not around. I feel like I've drowned, gonna head up town." [5:07 -- I guess I had hit a slightly hyper-point at 3:51]
  
• 4:41 -- I am done with schoolwork for the day (or at least until class starts). Thank you for sharing this experience with me. It has been fun!

Some of you may be wondering why I would go entirely without sleep on Thursday instead of spreading the work more evenly accross the week. There are several reasons for this, all of which have been learned through experience.

I gain efficiency by working in long chunks of time because I am able to focus my energy. I am able to complete a thought before getting up and less time is wasted reminding myself of what I did during my last work session. My schedule during the rest of the week is so split up by work, errands, and other commitments that I rarely get the chance to set aside two consecutive hours anytime before 11pm.

Additionally, I have learned that I am less affected by one sleepless night than I am by the accumulation of nights with very little sleep. Take for instance, two weeks in which I get 50 hours of sleep.

	Sunday	Monday	Tuesday	Wednesday	Thursday	Friday	Saturday
Week 1	7	7	7	7	0	12	10
Week 2	5	5	5	5	3	9	8

I get the same amount of sleep in both weeks, but will be a happier and more productive warillever in Week 1. In Week 2, the compounded lack of sleep would leave me grumpy and utterly unproductive by Wednesday. Granted, the Week 1 senario leaves me utterly wiped on Friday, but as I have previously mentioned, when I am exhausted I find a long sleep very refreshing.

• 9:04 -- I have no idea why there is all of that space before the table. Probably some sort of HTML issue, because I hand-coded the table. Sorry :(
• 9:11 -- I fixed it. Blogger interprets "enter" as a linebreak even though it does not display that way in HTML view. This blog is testing the limits of my HTML and CSS knowledge!

Football as religion and religion as football

Much has been written about the religious nature of football at Notre Dame. Football weekends are rife with ritual and ceremony. The very excitement lays in the predictability of events. Meredith Foley describes this aspect of Irish football in a 2001 essay:

At Notre Dame the religious ritual aspects of the football game are somewhat muted, but they can still be discerned by the careful observer. Prayers are typically said before, after and during the game. For example, the team attends Mass before the game, fans join hands and pray at crucial moments during the game, and Masses are said at multiple locations on campus immediately after the contest. Very often after the games one of my friends who is a Eucharistic Minister will dash out of the stadium to serve in the Stepan Center service 45 minutes after the game. She tells me that these Masses are also always filled with football fans and the presiding priest rarely fails to mention the day's game in either his homily or opening and concluding remarks.

It is also significant that touchdowns and point-after kicks are made into the open arms of the Jesus mural on the library. The religious message of the mural is that spiritually Jesus draws humanity to salvation with His outstretched arms just as He guides the Domers to success in the stadium. This undercurrent of meaning is what makes the sport such serious business for Domers. Heads may not literally roll after a losing contest, but certainly the faces of innumerable fans will be either raised or downcast for the following week depending on the outcome of the contest.

The combination of football and religion is not limited to Domers' feeling toward football; they often treat religion like a sporting event. People get genuinely 'fired up' about their team, and the recent selection of a new pope was no different. At each whiff of smoke during the conclave, people ran to televisions as if to watch the score. Brendan Loy describes the scene at ND Law Scool on Tuesday, and I can assure you that the rest of campus was doing the same thing.

There is a tradition of hanging signs out of dorm windows in the week preceding a home football game. These signs are usually made of bed sheets with painted messages. Some of these signs are ornate (like Zahm's "Here come the Irish" or Carroll's "Go Irish"). Others are crude or rude, or funny.

Campus Ministry still managed to surprise me, though, with their pro-pope sign.

A Spring walk

Spring!

garden
Originally uploaded by Reprehriestless.

Not only are my daffodils and tulips in bloom, but I have spent the morning putting winter clothes away.

I'll miss my flower garden, but am excited to start in on a new one. What are your favorite spring flowers?