updates

Well, my getting up early plan is going pretty well. I just have to be careful not to start thinking about anything after 10:30 pm, because then I'll wake up and not be able to go to bed early enough to get up so early. (I'm really looking forward to that part of old age when you don't need as much sleep-- there are so many things I like to do when I'm awake.) It hasn't fixed all of my work issues, but it is helping with depression and my general attitude, so that's good.

The baby birthday party was kind of awkward and kind of fun. Thanks to all of the good suggestions for a gift, I brought a board book that apparently they didn't yet have, and which even got the approval of two of the Moms who were there -- who had completely ignored me for two hours previously. It's rare that I'm the only childfree person in a room, as well as the only gay person. When I first arrived at the party, L, the husband half of the host couple was there, plus 3 Moms and 4 1-year olds. The Mom women just kind of looked me up and down, I didn't fit any of their categories of people to talk to, and they decided to ignore me. Which was OK -- I played with the dogs (who I know from the dog park) and hung out with L. Then two more Dads arrived, who were more friendly to me but were so busy with their cell phones and Crackberries that they were only half present. It was all really interesting anthropologically speaking -- I'm not usually around that many upper middle class conventional people. It definitely seemed that in this really gendered atmosphere, I was being treated more like a guy. And that's fine, but funny to me, since in an all-lesbian setting I'm definitely on the girly side. Gender is a fluid spectrum, for sure.

And then on Monday I had lunch with someone who might become a new friend! This is very exciting since I've been in a kind of hermit state for a long time. Suddenly this week I wind up with 3 lunches, two of them with people I don't know very well.

13 days before I teach my first class of the fall term. That's plenty of time, right?