Ketchup

The spring cleaning bug has bit me and I'm spending my day in full Clean-a-palooza mode, so the following is a blog-brief-update on what's going on:

** I'm still waiting to hear from the Boston seminary's admissions woman regarding the likelihood of me receiving any additional funds for school. I believe in God. I believe in miracles. But I think admissions committees operate on an entirely separate plane. Especially seminary admissions committees. Somehow I don't think claiming that "God has led me to this seminary and He will provide the funds - Make it so" has much sway with them.

** My college classes are officially OVER!!!!!!! I went to clase de espanol on lunes (Monday) fully expecting to have to drag myself through 3 more classes and the final exam, only to find out that our Profesora had to fly back to Columbia the next day for a family emergency. She cancelled the last 3 classes AND the final! What was more amazing, she told us to take out a piece of paper and write down the final grade WE THOUGHT we should get for the class, and after collecting the papers she said they looked fair and we would each get the grade that we wrote down. It saved her from having to do the work, and the kid sitting behind me who missed the only test we had and hadn't shown up for class in 6 weeks got the B+ he requested. Who said life wasn't fair?

** My 80 year-old mother can't make it up for my graduation on May 13th - I didn't really expect her to - sitting in the sun for 3 hours on a football field is hard enough when you're 40 let alone 80. My mom did tell me that she's organizing a family get-to-together for me the day before which is a nice surprise.

** My mother-in-law is flying out from California to attend the graduation and she'll be staying at our house for six days (thus the Clean-a-palooza). We'll take her down to NY for the get-to-together that my Mom is planning, and she wants to use one day to take a trip out to the Mystic CT aquarium. That will take care of 3 days, and my SO has to work on the other 3, so it will be just me and her mom. Her mom is a putterer. When we visit her in CA she never sits still - gardening, laundry, cooking, cleaning the patio/pool, walking the dog, general putzing around. How am I going to keep this woman occupied and entertained for 2 days? Help.

** We've had roofers at our house for two days - clamoring up and down ladders, throwing huge chunks of wood into dumpsters, running saws, hammering nails, and generally making a lot of noise. I'm just glad they're getting it done so we'll no longer have Niagara Falls running from our living room ceiling. Of course, I just heard one of them yell "F**K! I f**cked up! I really, really f**king f**cked up!" - that can't be good - perhaps he failed to follow the old adage: "Measure twice, cut once."

** ...and the most important update of all - the Forsythia have finally bloomed! It was 85 degrees on Monday, I drove to school in the morning in a brown world, and drove home in the afternoon in a world with splashes of golden yellow.
Life is good.