edna?? edna who??!!??

I’m going to do a currents entry because evidently that’s the only way I’ll ever make another entry ever again. I want to write, I say I will write, then…. I don’t. My excuse is that we are ridiculously busy at work, and apparently I’m ridiculously busy at home too but I’m not sure what exactly I’m busy with at home, as nothing seems to be getting done. Lots of stuff getting done at work, though, at least. Except today, when I am officially sick to death of barely stopping to take a breath. And we have at least reached the happy point where nothing is quite so urgent so I can play a bit.

In fact, I just told an athletic advisor that I can not do a huge complicated GPA calculation for her until Monday. What I really wanted to say to her, upon being told that this eedjit football player who flunked out ten years ago and went to play football professionally and didn’t become the shining star he expected to become and now wants to come back and finish his degree ….which, FINE, okay, that’s admirable and he didn’t have too much left to do but I had to figure all this out three years ago because OMG OMG FOOTBALL PLAYER WANTS TO FINISH OMG!!! and then he didn’t enroll so I had to do it all AGAIN last fall because again, OMG OMG OMG FOOTBALL PLAYER WANTS TO COME BACK!!!! and my three-years-ago evaluation was expired and it was just a great big pain in the ass… what I REALLY wanted to say was, "ARE.YOU.FUCKING.KIDDING.ME?!?!?" when she called to say the idiot had not only NOT made the grades he needed in spring to get above a 2.0 GPA (a C average, for fuck sake) but is now in fact even FURTHER away. Oh, just realized he’s also suspended. Again. 

Yes, I’m a little peeved because the athletic advisors (who are VERY nice people that I actually DO like quite a lot) are always doing this, making us do all this tremendous amount of work for athletes who are already ridiculously privileged and I’ve already had to do ridiculous amounts of extra work for this guy TWICE and now the idiot can’t even make above a D in a basic computer class, and I do not think it’s worth all this effort when obviously HE doesn’t give a flip and probably expects the athletic advisor to fix everything for him anyhow which is of course exactly what she is trying to do. 

Oh, if only I were in charge of our world. 

Obviously that was Current Peeve. Let’s move on to a cheerier subject.

Current (happy!) astonishment: I am sitting here at my work computer, typing away without my reading glasses. Seriously, this is MAJOR. And exciting!!! And really bizarre. I’ve been having to wear reading glasses in addition to my contacts for, well, EVER. Years. And years.

Sunday morning I was starting to put my left contact in, looked at my hand, and my contact was in approximately a bajillion pieces. NO idea what happened. Oddly the day before I’d dropped the OTHER contact, looked for it forever, and as soon as I gave up and decided I’d just have to order a new one, found it on the floor right in front of me where I’d been crawling on my hands and knees for probably half an hour. That was my right contact — not the same one that broke into a bajillion pieces the next day. (I have gas-permeable contacts – the hard ones) ANYHOW, first thing the next morning I ordered a new left contact, and then decided to spring for an entire set as well because I realized do not want to find myself in England in a few weeks with a lost contact or with the RIGHT one suddenly in a bajillion pieces in my hand. 

I expected my new contacts to take a couple of weeks because my optometrist is horrifically slow, especially with old-fashioned hard contacts which apparently they have to send out to The Past for. And they said it would be at least a week. 

Next morning I get a call— and my contacts are in. I immediately wondered how many ways they’d screwed them up since I didn’t think it was possible to get ANYTHING the next day from them, especially my apparently-extremely-special contacts. And they do tend to screw things up. 

Well, not only are my new contacts NOT screwed up, but… I can actually SEE now. I thought at first that it was just because they are brand new and not covered with filmy crap like my old ones tended to be. Then I realized today that I can READ THINGS WITHOUT MY READING GLASSES!!! Okay, I probably should wear way lower-power ones because  it’s not perfect, but I was at the point where I couldn’t see at all without the glasses if I was reading, imperfectly included. 

I’m thinking that since I’ve had my old contacts several years and my prescription has changed in my glasses, that, DUH, it also changed in my contacts and I’d just not gotten new ones because I could see okay out of the old ones and needed glasses more and my insurance pays for one or the other, not both. If I’d realized I could actually SEE with my new prescription, I would have sprung for them out of my own pocket ages ago, like I just did. 

Anyhow, this is quite the thrill, being able to SEE again. 

Current excitement: Well, other than being able to see, of course: 
THREE WEEKS TILL ENGLAND!!! EEEEEKKKKKK!!!!! This is both terrifically exciting and terrifying as I keep thinking of THINGS I HAVE TO DO. Although honestly I am in good shape and there’s NOT that much that has to be done. At least not that can be done right this second. I’m sure part of this panic is on Baker B’s behalf, since I fear for his sanity because he is such a terrible traveler and does not react well to problems and things going wrong while traveling (or at ANY time, honestly) and as I keep gently reminding him, things WILL go wrong when you travel. There is no doubt about THAT. 

Since I haven’t written at all lately I’m sure I haven’t mentioned the latest development, in which Baker B will be the one renting the car at Heathrow when we arrive, and driving himself to Devizes. Originally Kim and I were going to get a car for a day and take him since I’ve actually driven in England and he has not (on top of being nervous and scatterbrained- not a good combo when you’re driving on the opposite side of the road in a backwards-to-you-car.) I told our landlady of this plan and she said we were insane (it would be 3 hours of driving for us, straight off the plane after an overnight flight)  and offered to let Baker B stay a night with us in London for free and we could take him the next day when we aren’t all exhausted. Which at first he thought would be great – then realized how much more traveling time that’s going to be; it’s an hour on the tube from Heathrow to where we’re staying, and then back again next day.. anyhow, him just renting the car and keeping it made the most sense. We’l need it the next week, and now he’ll have one while he’s in the country. He was just going to walk and take buses but it would be good to have a car if he needs one. And if he won’t crash it. And Kim and I are taking a train to Pewsey the next week and he’ll pick us up. If he hasn’t crashed the car. 

SO, it’s all coming together! 

And this is a short Currents(and conversely a very long entry) and I must go as we are going down to see Baker B’s mom tonight and my dad tomorrow and I should start wrapping things up here. Happy Friday!