Happy October!
September and October are my favourite months of the year.
So while I'm happy it's October, I also know that I'm 50% of the way through my favourite time of the year.
If I loved winter, Canada would be Nirvana.
The Ferrell lecture was as amazing as I knew it would be.
Talk about dumpster diving, trash picking, street scavenging, street busking, graffiti artists, agents of social control, and how to reconfigure space and time from a sociological perspective and I'll be all over you like flies to honey.
Of course, I would have had my own pictures had I not forgotten my camera in my excitement to get to the lecture.
Where Stephen and I sat in the third row.
In spite of Stephen's typical unwillingness to sit anywhere below the middle rows.
But I wanted to be up close and hearing everything, so it was the third row.
Would have been the first, but Stephen put his foot down.
Check this link out for a youtube vid of Jeff Ferrell on a dumpster diving expedition.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=SNw1q7XOWgA
I tried to upload into my blog, but it wouldn't let me.
Absolutely amazing!
This afternoon's workshop will prove to be equally as stimulating.
6th Annual ACQRA Qualitative Workshop with Dr. Jeff Ferrell
Date: Oct 1, 2011
Time: 1:00 PM-4:00 PM
Location: Margaret McCain Hall, Room 307, Fredericton, NB, Canada
The Atlantic Centre for Qualitative Research and Analysis is pleased to introduce Dr. Jeff Ferrell, presenter at the 6th Annual Qualitative Workshop. Dr. Ferrell will be discussing Autoethnography.
And dinner this evening?I already have a list of questions.
Emily has been sick for since Wednesday.
Keeping her contagious little self home was a must.
Unfortunately, I couldn't stay home with her.
Days of 8.00 am - 6.00 pm are the norm around here, and sick kids don't make much of a difference.
I know, I know, I'm a terrible mother.
After supper, then, I come home, tired, exhausted, barely enough energy to put fork to face and eat dinner.
But reserving some for Em.
How this would play out was a mystery.
With no couch downstairs, laying on the couch together watching television was not an option.
Em came into my room Wednesday evening with Keith's laptop, and we watched America's Next Top Model.
And then, she wanted to watch something I had never watched before, had no interest in watching, but being too tired to resist, laid there passively beside her.
The program?
The Big Bang Theory.
Not really being a fan of Johnny Galecki was probably the major reason for not watching it before now.
However, Jim Parsons as Sheldon Cooper?
More than enough to capture my attention beyond one episode.
Enough to keep me in stitches since Wednesday evening, and creating an opportunity for Em and I to curl up on my bed, Frankie at the end of the bed, Dibley in between us, as we systematically make our way through each and every episode available on watchseries.eu.
I haven't been so excited by a comedy since Frasier was available on line.
Niles Crane . . .funniest character on television.
And now, Sheldon Cooper.
Good thing.
Because moving into October usually means the shiny patina of the new school year has already tarnished.
The realization of the work load is setting in and papers and midterms are now coming due.
Increasing the stress of students.
Who them show up in my office and can occasionally burst into tears.
I'll need all the laughs I can get.
Mer and I had an appointment with Norma yesterday for colors and cuts.
And something called red peekaboos for Mer.
The appointment was made and rescheduled several times, meaning yesterday I had to go.
In part because of my commitment to support small business owners.
But more because I. So. Needed. to get my hair colored.
As I have said before, I'd be happy to have grey hair.
If it was ALL grey.
But having grey hair interspersed throughout my brown hair, with the grey wings on the side for added accentuation is just more than I can handle.
I'm not a vain person, believe me, but I do have my limits.
And my hair is one of them.
Mer's hair was her birthday present from me and Stephen.
She'll be 22 this month.
I can't believe it.
That she'll be 22 and that I'm old enough to have a 22 year old daughter.
A cut and color as a birthday present?
Oh yeah.
When that cut and color is as exceptional was what Norma provides, it is definitely a gift.
Mer was tired.
Meaning Mer was cranky.
She did well keeping everything under wraps.
But just.
There were a couple of moments the mask slipped and Mer's misery emerged.
Spending time with Mer, even with small moments of crankiness, was worth it.
I am trying to spend time with her, just the two of us, at least once a week.
We text everyday, so we do communicate, but nothing beats sitting down face to face.
Even at a salon with your hair piled high atop your head held fast with hair color, foils of color sprinkled here and there.
At the end, all coiffed and smelling pretty, Norma remarked we looked like sisters.
Imagine Mer's response.
But one man, awaiting a head shave from Norma, commented that I did, indeed, look good.
Stroke my ego, please.
I don't mind.
Title Lyric: Big Bang Theory by The Barenaked Ladies