Studying hard and hoping to pass

Ahh, the first day of school. Which I greeted with much hysteria and panic because, to review, pregnantly sick all summer long and not, I repeat, not ready with the necessary syllabi until late yesterday and only just photocopying them this morning before my 8am class. But to my students, all appeared well, and so my semester-long subterfuge begins.

In other news...

HOUSING:
Home inspection scheduled for Thursday, a three-hour tour about which they sent me a "service agreement" that contained all kinds of "we are not really responsible for anything we cannot see and lots we can see if we choose not to see it and so there" language. They then asked me to sign on the dotted line. Yep, I feel secure.

I am planning on getting all nerdy during the inspection, during which I anticipate not having much to do, not being a housing inspector or the least bit knowledgeable about anything at all to do with the process myself. So, I am going to bring graph paper and measure and then draw all the rooms, the better for my Type A self to plan with. When told of this idea, the husband said, "well, you'll need to come up with some sort of scale," to which I said, "umm, why not one block equals one square foot?" At which point, the husband stopped talking to me, since that was apparently much too simple an answer for him. These non-humanities people! Sheesh!

PREGNANCY:
And now, maternity clothes: as my friendly readers know, I am a lover of the shopping. So one would assume that having to shop for a whole new wardrobe would make me very happy. Sadly, not so. First, maternity clothes do not have much in the way of what we would call style. Or, at least not much in the way of MY style. What is the fixation with jumpers?? No one who is not a member of a cult wears jumpers anymore, and yet we are all expected to devour them once we gain a little weight or become visibly mammalian? I think not. Second, maternity clothes are much too expensive, it being a closed market after all. Third, they are not widely available except online, where what you get is often not at all what was pictured/described (even more so than is to be expected for online clothing purchases). Fourth, the sizes are widely inaccurate and useless anyway, since you will be gaining all kinds of weight in a few months as it is. I do not like feeling that there is so much guesswork involved in my purchases. I pride myself on being sure of my shopping! All of this results in my wearing outfits that can only be charitably described as odd for the next few months. Sigh....

PERU:
Some know that I have family in Peru (whom I did not get to visit because of the horrible passport debacle of '07). Thankfully, they are all well post-earthquake, though they did feel it and buildings in Lima were affected. At the time of the quake, my mother, father, sister, brother-in-law, nephew, brother, sister-in-law, and her brother were all in the house together and all are safe and sound, we are happy to report.