Busy weekend times

So.

Thursday afternoon, I poked my head in my gen bio lab class, told them what they were doing, told them I was leaving them in the capable hands of the TA, and then hit the road for Broken Arrow.

The Tulsa area is a lot farther away than it feels like it should be.

I wound up driving up 69 to Muskogee, taking the turnpike from there into Broken Arrow. (I came back on the Indian Nation turnpike, even though it meant driving through midday Friday mid-Tulsa traffic to get there - 69 is in sorry shape in some places, and has lots of construction in others).

At first I couldn't find the motel; unlike many chain motels it didn't have a 50 foot high sign advertising itself. I pulled into a shopping area where I thought it would be, figured, "I'll stop at one of the stores and ask," but then saw it.

The meetings were on a small satellite campus of one of the regional schools. It was very nice, well-kept-up, the food they served us was good. But a lot of those satellite campuses that are designed to be largely commuter schools make me a little sad: there's nothing at all near them. I guess the campus must have had a cafeteria (there was nowhere within a couple miles to eat). I'm just used to places that have more of a campus-town. (My own campus really doesn't have that, but downtown really isn't that far from us - maybe 2 miles).

The night-before meeting, which was sort of Academy business, was long, as always. I'm not a night person and people were speaking with delight of how it was "only" 10 pm when we finished up - and I was about dead on my feet and not relishing the 20 minute drive back to the motel.

The actual meetings went smoothly. I had one no-show but that was okay. (I assume something came up, though I admit I would have appreciated a "Hey, I'm not going to make it" e-mail - I was session moderator).

(I took a simple sock along with me but I think I only knit about 5 stitches on it, during the time between setting up for my session and its beginning)

I left fairly early - I wanted to get home and a 3 1/2 hour drive is still a 3 1/2 hour drive, no matter when you leave.

Saturday was a women's retreat at church. It was not well attended, which was kind of sad, but I know people are busy. (I will say, like a lot of retreats, it seemed largely designed for "healing" of people who have had more dysfunction in their lives than I have. I guess I really am kind of unusual, having come from a family where my parents were married, had been married for a long time before I was born, and who still continue to love each other and get along. And the fact that I never really had any sorts of bad trouble in my life...

I was a bit taken aback - I mean, I know and understand it intellectually, but it still surprises me, emotionally, to hear it - when one person said she had no good memories of her father. Because for me, pretty much all the memories I bring up are good ones: the silly jokes and gags he played when my brother and I were kids (and he still likes bad puns and silly jokes), his building a playhouse out in the backyard for my brother and me when we were kids, his attempts (not always successful but at least he tried) to fix toys that broke, his teaching me to read USGS topographic maps and soils maps so I could help him with some of his research, his having be "official navigator" on family trips (mainly, I think, because he knew I could figure out how many miles we were from the destination from the map, and I then wouldn't ask how much farther it was), his generosity both in small things (sometimes even now, if I'm up there and I want to go out shopping, he tells me he'll pay for whatever it is) and large things (he essentially invested what was his inheritance from his parents, and sent my brother and me to college on it - and there was enough of "my" share left at the end to help me buy my house). So it makes me sad to think of someone who has no good memories of a parent. (oh, there are some not-entirely-happy memories: having to wait for him to get home, because he had to teach night classes, when I had a math problem that my mother felt unprepared to help me with, the fact that he tended to be a bit of a workaholic and a perfectionist (and I see that in myself, too). But by and large, when I think of him, I think of positive things.)

Then, when I got home at the end of the day, I cleaned house. It's good to have a clean house. I guess I can be reassured that I really don't have hoarder tendencies, because disposing of things that I know I won't use (piles and piles of catalogs, ugh, that had piled up when I got busy), I feel good about it - lighter.

So now I have a clean house, which is nice, and maybe it will only require a bit of spiffing up in another week or two when I decide to decorate for Christmas. (It's coming up fast. 2 1/2 weeks until Thanksgiving...)


I'm hoping to finish the second set of fingerless gloves today. The next pair I start will be the "Maine Morning Mitts" and will be worsted-weight, so they go pretty fast. (That pair will be for a family friend with whom my mother and I exchange small gifts - my brother and I know her as "Mrs. D." Her given name is Marion, and her last name is (I am pretty sure) Polish and is a little hard to pronounce. She always wanted us to call her some kind of affectionate nickname when we were kids - she suggested "Aunt Marion," but I think as a kid I was uncomfortable with calling a non-actual-relative "Aunt" (heh. A rule-follower even then). The problem was solved when my little brother had too much trouble pronouncing her name and just called her "Mrs. D" and that's how she's been since...)

I actually have most of my Christmas gifts either planned or in-progress at this point; I have to place the big Vermont Country Store order that will contain a lot of gift items, and also order the tea. I really do prefer to do my gift shopping either from catalogs, or from the little "downtown type" businesses (I plan to take a trip downtown here sometime soon just to see if there's anything for the people I haven't got stuff for yet). Malls aren't as much fun as they were when I was a teen (and even then, I wasn't really a mall-rat) and especially at Christmas, I find the crowded places destroy my cherished illusion of "It's the time of year when the world falls in love" pretty fast. So I'd rather hang on to the illusion, shop downtown or via catalog, and leave the malls to the people who really like the crowds.