Now, this is more like it

It's raining. It's been raining for days now. We've had to squeeze lawn mowing in between rainstorms, which translates into very long, very wet grass that has to be bagged instead of mulched. Ugh. Bagging makes the 3 hour job more like a 4 hour ordeal. It also usually means the lawn doesn't look so hot and has to be recut just to even up all those strands of grass that refuse to stand up and be whacked the first time around. On the up side, the lawn is incredibly green and lush, the flowers are growing like mad, and we don't have to wash the cars - my least favorite chore in the world.

Rain in May is normal for this part of the country. After an abnormally dry and hot April, the rain is welcome and much needed. It's been mostly raining at night and just sprinkling off and on during the day - about the best way for rain to happen. It does make for dark skies throughout the day, but when you're stuck inside working, that's not so bad. As long as it's sunny on the weekend.... which is rarely the case, of course, so why even hope for that? I can dream, can't I?

Friday I go to Whitworth to move Jonathan back home for the summer. As sad as it was having him gone in the fall, it's going to be so weird having him back home. Last September I couldn't go an hour without crying because I missed him so much. And contrary to what I thought back then, I did get used to him not living here eventually - about a month or so ago - just in time for him to move back home. Mind you, I wouldn't have it any other way, but it will be different to have to make dinner for him again, to have his hulking figure stretched out on the couch watching TV with us, and to have him eat us out of house and home again. On the other hand, it does mean I will have some help unloading the dishwasher and mowing the lawn again for a while. And about the time I get used to having him home, he'll be off to college again and I'll cry buckets for weeks and weeks. Weird.

Jonathan's college roommate won't be his roommate next year and that makes me sad. Nathan is going off to study in the British Isles in August and won't return to Whitworth until Jan Term. That's so awesome for Nathan, but so not awesome for Jonathan. Though they didn't exactly hang out this year, they coexisted quite peacefully as roommates. They never really fought about anything, they played a lot of World of Warcraft together, and they actually did some stuff together. I think, if they had remained roommates, they might have started doing more and more together eventually. But maybe that's just wishful thinking on my part. Nathan has been a great, calming influence on Jonathan, who has a tendency toward impulsivity at times. I think they were very compatible roommates.

Next year Jonathan will live in the basement in a huge room with two other guys. One is a pretty stable guy who goes to bed early and gets up early. The other has been Jonathan's partner in crime during most of his "escapades" this year - they are both bad influences on each other - so I'm a bit concerned about them actually living together. On the other hand, they spent all their free time in Steve's room so maybe it won't be so different. Having Nathan and his calming influence as a roommate didn't stop Jonathan from shaving his head last week on an impulse. Yeah, shaved his head! Happy Mother's Day, Mom! He looks like a cancer patient. He's always wanted to "Bic" his head, but we've managed to talk him out of it in the past. After his pal and future roommate, Steve, dumped crushed up Kix in his hair, he decided it was the perfect excuse to shave it off as opposed to just washing it. He has way too big and round a head... it does not look good. Thankfully, it grows quickly, so in a month he should look like he does most summers. That sort of impulsivity is what worries me about next year's living arrangements, though. I'm hoping both Steve and Jonathan learned their lessons when they got in trouble earlier this semester for their pranks and breaking of the rules, and will have matured a bit more by next fall. I can hope, can't I? Steve does, at least, seem to study hard and do well in his classes, so that's a plus.

Well, today is staff meeting day and I have to make a presentation for which I'm unprepared because I forgot we had this special meeting scheduled. I have to go in early to prepare for the meeting so I have to get into the shower NOW. I also am the notetaker at the meetings. After years of very poorly written notes from the meetings taken by hand by one of our staffers, I volunteered to take notes on the laptop, typing what everyone says as close to verbatim as I can. I've been doing this for the past three months or so and the staff is thrilled. I email the notes to everyone within a day. They used to have to go to the staff bulletin board and read a xeroxed copy of the handwritten notes, which were usually 1-2 pages in length. They now get the notes in their email and they are generally 6-8 pages in length - much more comprehensive. My goal is to try to capture the flavor of the discussions in our meetings by recording what each person says in detail as opposed to just summarizing the topic discussed. So far, everyone is really happy with the new approach. Thankfully, I type fast (about 100-110 wpm) but I wish I had trained as a court reporter and had one of those cool court reporter machines. Wouldn't that be amazing for taking notes verbatim? Usually I type in "shorthand" and then expand the "shorthand" later into whole words and sentences. Crazy.

I'm looking forward to Friday. I get to see the Harrisons (Nathan's folks). We're going to move our boys out and clean their room together. I really like them and will miss them at Parent's Weekend next year. I'm glad I get to see them this week. I'm hoping maybe they'll come up to Sandpoint and go camping this summer! It would be so cool!

Well, it's 7AM... shower time...So.... off I go.