It happens, I guess...

Though not often.

Yesterday UDub closed at 1 pm due to inclement weather.   

First time since we’ve been here and who knows when it last happened—if ever

With below freezing temps—again, nothing unusual—and snow falling all day long, UDub shuttered its doors and let everyone go home.

I guess even the “hardy state” has it breaking point.

Midnight Musings...

[Written—but not posted—Monday, December 20]

It’s snowing tonight.

Not anything unusual for up here on the high windswept plains of Laramie, Wyoming.

The snow is “of easy wind and downy flake” a la Robert Frost’s “Stopping by Woods on a Snowy Evening.”

The soft and downy flakes are falling gently against the dark and empty night. 

Stepping outside, with the Medicine Bow National Forest to the East and the Snowies to the West, one can almost hear the snowflakes gently falling. 

Laramie is deserted about now.

Everyone is gone—or soon will be—to points elsewhere around the lower 48.

I would love to be in Yellowstone, or the Tetons, “to watch the woods fill up with snow.”

Then again, this past spring I wrote about feeling “almost” lost up in the Medicine Bow National Forest on a May day. 

It was gorgeous and I had that “if a tree falls in the woods” sense of isolation.

I’m hoping to have more “adventures” this coming year.

Tonight is the last lunar eclipse until 2014. 

Alas, I missed it. 

With the snow and cloud cover, I don’t know if it was even visible from Laramie. 

Hope someone out there got to see it. 

FINI, FINITO, FIN

Yep. 

That’s right. 

The semester is over and I am done—done—done—until January 10 that is.

Friday was my last day. 

I didn’t have finals per se, rather several intense projects due during finals week.

I wish I could say that I was totally organized, got an early start and completed all tasks ahead of time.

Alas, I was boring down on the keyboard until the very last minute Friday evening.

In my defense I had been living assignment to assignment.

Four separate units would open 8 am Monday morning and when they closed, and all assignments completed and submitted, it would begin all anew. 

A never ending cycle that, literally, kept me busy 24/7.

One course in particular kept me buzzing and up into the wee hours of the morn.  

But it’s all over and I can now relax, sort of. 

I’m still waiting on two grades—I'm a little nervous about one and hugely nervous about the other.

I managed to maintain solid A’s in all classes.

I’m worried, however, that my perfect GPA will be tarnished by a less than stellar grade in one course, which is sad, because I loved that class, the Prof, the readings, etc., etc.

It’s a lesson learned though: I’ll be taking as many citation and bibliography sessions as I can this next semester.

As one of the Legal Dude’s colleagues recently queried—“Isn’t being a full-time student such a luxury?”

Yep, it truly is and I am so profoundly grateful, and immensely enjoying the luxury of it all.   

Therefore, it makes no sense to do anything less than my absolute and personal best.      

Hope all has been well with everyone out there...

Parlez Vous & the Pink Beret

The teenager is taking French this year. 

His classroom is a hoot—everything is pink. 

There’s even a little café area with pink chairs and a little pinkish awning.

I really must take photos one day.

Anyway, the kids have to wear berets every day, which the teacher sewed for them, or else they have points deducted.

The kids got to choose the color fabric they wanted and the teenager, of course, picked the fabric closest to him, which happened to be—pink!

So every day, until yesterday, he’s sat in his morning French class wearing this…

His Pink Beret

Yesterday, a ninth grader gave him her old beret from last year, which happens to be navy.

His now discarded, pink beret

I can’t believe he sat in class every morning wearing a pink beret—and never once complained!

Sometimes I wonder—which alien planet abducted my son!

Dear Blog-o...

I’ve missed you. 

I’ve missed writing all manner of drivel about life here on the high-altitude plain.

I’ve missed posting goofy photos, that only “my quirky sight” finds amusing.  

When I look back, years from now, will I remember what caused this hiatus?

Will I remember that I spent practically every waking hour, into the weeist hours of the morning and every weekend—much to the chagrin of the Legal Dude—studying?

Will I remember that during these past two months, the Legal Dude—after working a full day, and then some—has come home to cook dinner, practically every night?

Will I remember that the teenager has queried, more than once, “Um, Mom? Do I have clean socks?”

Will I remember that I sat in the Legal Dude’s office and cried, when I got an 82% on my first art project?  

Or how proud I felt when I told him I got a 92% on the second?

Will I remember how inept and inarticulate I feel, sitting in class thinking, “man, I just sounded so ignorant!”

Will I remember this day—this night—when my professor told me "so, you’ve been accepted into the graduate program” in early childhood education with a concentration in curriculum and instruction?

You bet I will!

I hope I remember it all.

Congratulations to me!