No entry last night; I was up to my hearing aids in cap bolts and pin hinges and all the other accoutrements of assembling a piece of furniture. More on that later, perhaps.I wrote an entry a couple of days ago about the sleep-state misperception thing, whch I totally believe is a big part of my sleeping problem. Since then, I have slept amazingly well. Two nights ago, I went to bed about 9:45, must have fallen asleep by 10:00 and woke up only when the phone rang at 5:15 to tell me about the delayed opening of school. NEVER ... NEVER do I sleep like that without interruption. And last night, although I did get up at about 2 and stayed up for 15 minutes, I slept very well before and after, with dreams and everything.
Is it possible that now that I know what it is, my mind has decided it can't fool me anymore, so it's letting me realize I'm asleep when I am? Would that be cool or what, that the human mind is capable of such a thing? Radical, man.
I'm typing this up at work, in my only lull of the day, certainly the only little chunk of time that I'm at my desk in the library. It's PFLAG Day One today; Day Two is tomorrow. I've been spending the day mostly out in a big classroom where we've scheduled two sophomore social studies classes each period to listen to these two women from PFLAG come and tell them what it's like to be the parent of a gay or lesbian child. (Adult children, in these cases.) It's been very
rewarding and worthwhile so far, and we've gotten good responses from the staff members who've been there. The kids, I think, will say more in their classes tomorrow or Monday, but they've been very respectful to the speakers and as responsive as we would hope they would be. There are a lot of "I-never-looked-at-it-that-way-before" expressions on the faces in the room.
(Taking a break from the library to go monitor the next session and then a meeting with the architects about the sink.)
Back in the PFLAG room:
They're doing this warm-up game where they write on the blackboard a big C for Comfortable and a big U for Uncomfortable, and all the kids stand in front of it and the speaker reads a statement and the kids move in front of whichever one they feel. The first one is "Casual Heterosexual Sex" and there's a giggle or twelve and embarrassed looks and everyone goes to the C, of course, and I'm watching as the one obvious gay kid in this group, a very sweet little effeminate Asian boy whose older brothers I knew very well, hesitates for a second before joining his classmates. Ladies and gentlemen, I give you: peer pressure!
Anyway, the day went nicely, 100% polite and respectful and overall I'd say about 97% attentive, which is probably better than if they were in class. I saw a handful here and there of immature boys determined to show how not-gay they were, but in five years or so something will hit them and they'll think "Oh, there was that old lady who came and talked to us in school about this" or else they'll never get it and that's sad for them.
Further downstream now:
The chief architect is really a majorly arrogant, yet obviously insecure with good reason, asshole. I asked him if he had a copy of the plans for the new library with elevations, and he looked at me like I was speaking monkey language and how did I know that word, that's his word? Feh, what a jerk. (The construction manager is a honey, though, adorable and pleasant, maybe 26 or 27? I'll have to have R drop in on me once the work is underway. I digress.) But I was succesful in my sink quest! Yay! Got us a sink, and in a good location, too! Okay, we're losing a little storeroom, but we can put the little fridge and the microwave in there with it and voila, I can cook more at school than at home.
Speaking of home:
My kitchen is in fact done. It took almost three hours last night to assemble the damn piece, which still has a few nicks but I'm letting it go -- well, I'm writing a letter, but I'm not waiting for another replacement part -- and nearly everything is all put away. It looks so nice! I may post a picture tomorrow, but I have to start drinking my colonoscopy juice at 4:00, so maybe no entry at all.
Okay, more than you wanted to know. I'm off to the living room; it would be nice to know it's all spiffed up before I go under the ... tube.
