life update (transitions, pt. 2)

We have a lot of exciting transitions happening in the next few months. Let me explain. No, there is too much; let me sum up.

Moving to an apartment with HB; major reduction in hours with Sasha & Ezra, ending care with Athena; starting regular hours with Jaden; working on a graphic novel; taking weird summer intensives at grad school; traveling in the fall; starting regular preschool teaching (hopefully) between November and January.

Okay, but here's the long version.



After four years living on a college campus and two years living with four or five housemates, HB and I are moving to our very own apartment, just the two of us and our cat. We're planning to do quite a bit of the move by bicycle, which is totally A Thing in our city, but the big furniture will go by truck -- we're not equipped to bike boxsprings or bookshelves by ourselves. We're excited about the new place; it has storage for our bikes, a bit of gardening space for me, and it's across the street from a farmer's market and a park. Bonus: it's five blocks from our favorite housemates' new apartment! Weekly game nights will commence.

In mid-June, I'm transitioning out of my MWF schedule with Sasha and Ezra. Instead, I'll be with them one full day each week, and their other babysitter will be with them the other two days. She used to babysit Sasha when she was younger, so they already have rapport, although Sasha tells me that "she's different from you -- she doesn't know Harry Potter as well and she doesn't do the right voices." (Apparently Sasha sent the babysitter home with "homework" after a trial day with her last week while I was out of town -- the homework being to read the first book in the Harry Potter series. Ha!) I'll also come over weekly for a couple of hours to do literacy tutoring with Sasha. I've already started outlining some lesson plans, and everything is aggressively Harry Potter themed.

Also in mid-June, I'll start hanging out with Jaden for a couple hours one day a week. I'm actually really excited about this, because he is my favorite four-year-old and I very rarely get to see him otherwise. He's transitioning out of preschool to start at an alternative school collective which is one I actually recommended to his parents when they were looking into homeschooling options a few months ago. I'm stoked to hear about their experiences with the program, since it's one I've got down as a potential future resource for potential future offspring.

In mid-July, Athena's family is starting her in daycare. So I'm on the books for occasional date nights, but otherwise I'll be Athena-less, about two months sooner than I'd anticipated. Bittersweet, that one, but she'll do really well around other kids at daycare -- she's already whip-smart and fierce as hell.

So my summer schedule is going to be a lot more open than the past nine months... or... well, actually, than the past 18 years of my life have been. Instead of rattling around at home at a loss for how to occupy myself, I'm planning to seize this weird hiatus from full time work to get down to serious business working on a graphic novel. Oh, there will be schedules and deadlines. Otherwise I'd intend to draw stuff, but instead would wake from an enchanted internet-induced stupor sometime in late September and be very angry with myself.

I'll still be taking classes at grad school over the summer, but they do this stupid thing during summer term where instead of once-weekly courses stretched out over a three month period, the courses are packed into two week "intensives," making it virtually impossible for students with normal jobs to enroll. Fortunately, I do not have normal jobs, so I am taking one "intensive" course and one online course (which, unlike the intensives, follows the usual format, but without ever meeting in a brick-and-mortar classroom). It'll be my first experience taking an online course, so we'll see how it goes.

In October, HB and I are planning to go on our first long bike tour. (We have a short one, with friends and SAG wagon, scheduled for July. Good training, right?) We have a rough route mapped out, and we'll be doing a combination of camping and crashing with Warm Showers hosts -- the first time we've done any sort of couchsurfing-with-strangers type of thing. I'm planning to keep an illustrated travelogue of our trip, a la French Milk. Because I think it'll be bitchin'. And maybe I'll even be able to get it published. Start small, dream big.

High fives,
-MP