Star Crossed Musing

So I'm two weeks into my six week class over the summer, and I'm really liking what I see in the students and the class. I had to reach down deep to find my happy place in the course after some changes we made to the curriculum, but now that I'm in it, I really like what I'm seeing and how everything is coming together. One of the things I'm happiest about, honestly, is how far my teaching has come. I've found out that I'm likely to co-teach a class I've taught before in a previous semester. It was one of my first teaching experiences where I took on a lot of the responsibility, and although there were areas in which I was very happy with how things went, there were a number of things I could have done better. One of the things I realized today, though, is that in thinking about that upcoming course assignment... I know what to do to fix it. I've already got plans. I've learned so much since my first time through and I know how to address t...

That was the question the psychiatrist had for me. "Why are you asking for a diagnosis? What does this mean to you?" I told him what it meant to me. It means having something in my chart in case I grow old and can't communicate, or don't have loved ones to intercede for me. It means that if I interact oddly with medication, we can take the condition into account. It means one more reason not to have more kids on top of all the reasons I already have. It means that my son would have someone he could look to and know I understand him. It means being visible as someone who is autistic but still pretty successful in life, all things considered. It means choosing not to pass. He wasn't wrong to ask that question. He was wrong to keep asking it after he told me that even being aware of it to ask for an evaluation meant I didn't have it. He was wrong to insinuate that I was fishing for a diagnosis. He was wrong to backpedal and suggest that if I was thinking of...

Evil Goblin by caoimm @ Deviant Art Opening Song: The Sky is a Poisonous Garden Tonight , Concrete Blonde So standing in the hallway, listening to the scrabbling on the roof, Uno calls Zeke and says that Heidi is going to host his party and oh, by the way, there's something weird going on and maybe they should come over. Zeke nods, everyone starts getting in the car, but then Adia realizes Eldi is missing. Zeke goes looking for her and, with his keen eyes, realizes that she's pretending to be a flower in a flower stand. He goes to retrieve her, but she insists on being purchased, being a flower and all. Zeke rolls his eyes and buys her, then gives her to Adia, suddenly embarrassed because he's realized it looks like he's giving flowers to someone not his girlfriend. Adia stuffs Eldi back in her purse hurriedly ("Watch the wings!") and they all pile into cars. Dylan and Viktor ride in his car while everyone else goes with Zeke. When you let the kinetom...

Opening song: Glory and Gore , Lorde We pick up our story at Mo's, with a depressed Uno trying to justify ways to not get married, but kind of failing -- leaving the one reason that he doesn't want to, but more than that, he doesn't want to choose yet -- and he has to in order to get married. The group ponders who would have sent them the items, but no one has any set ideas. They're sitting down to try to get through that when Zeke's phone rings -- it's work. They've got a strange local murder, and they're wanting him to come consult and take a look at it, if he would. Zeke takes off to meet the officer at the scene. Uno also takes off, as he wants to meet with his changeling posse and tell them the news. While the rest of them are finishing lunch and preparing to go head off on their various plans for the day, Adia gets a text -- from her ex, Mickey. saying that he wants to talk to her and has some information for her. "Call me."Over...

The other morning, I was tooling around Facebook (like you do) when I encountered a link to this article:  5 Reasons Why I Got Engaged Before 23 . I was so moved to post that I went out and found that engagement picture, which is not mine, but which I chose because regardless of any associated aesthetic qualities, it was pretty obviously taken at the University of Oklahoma campus, which was also the setting for my own really misguided adventure into holy matrimony at a young age. Disclaimer: I got married at 19 to a 19 yr. old guy. We were both each other's first official girl/boyfriend and had not dated, really, prior to our relationship. We had dated for a bit over a year before we were married, and a bit less than six months before we got engaged. We were married for fifteen years before getting divorced -- not a bad run time-wise by any standards, I think. We have two children together, and have both remarried since. I personally know people who got married at similar ages ...

Rising Waters, Season 2 Session 1 Opening song: Team , by Lorde Our setting is Baltimore, Charm City. The story opens with a concert at Moe's, which also is accorded neutral ground within the city. There's a group of changelings who've formed a band, and Duff from Charm City Cakes (a former changeling himself) is sponsoring their concert (about half the band members work for him). The band's name is Tempest, and their style is something like you might get if a ren faire, the Lumineers, and a goth metal band all had a baby together. That said, it's not bad... just wildly uneven. All the PCs got an invitation to this, as really there were very few people who were friendly to Duff who didn't. He catered it, you see. So they all show up, including Zeke's new girlfriend, who is into local music and wanted to give it a try. Uno's working front of house, in an effort to stretch his human legs a little more and get some spending money, Dylan's ma...

Seriously. A ton of them. The house I'm staying out is out in the woods and there are a lot of ponds and rivers and inlets in the area. The front of the house is quiet, but man, out by the back windows, it's a chorus of basso profundo frogs in fine voice, making with the joyful froggie sounds in earnest. The odd thing, to me, was that when I first heard it, I was suprised and had to think of what it was. I honestly couldn't place it for a sec, and then when I did, I was both happy and sad. Happy to be hearing it again, and sad because at my house, there are no frog sounds from the woods and wetland. The forest floor is silent. Down in the bottom of our yard, you see, it is not anything one would recognize as a pond. There used to be something more pond like on the other side of our property line, on land owned by a church, but they went to a lot of trouble to drain it -- of course, they didn't level it, so it came back, which makes me wonder just what the point w...