work life

1. We have reached the time in the semester of general quiet interrupted by bursts of panic. This is contrast to the past couple of weeks, which have been all bustle all the time.

2. I am starting to really hate the students, viewed en masse. It's sad, because my individual encounters with students are almost uniformly great - the ones I have hired as babysitters, the ones who have worked for me at work, many of the ones I help at the desk. But then I get on the bus and am a sardine among a sea of 19-year-old humans who say things like "I just had the best experience of my life - I laid out in the garden for 5 hours!" (This was the best experience of your life?!?) and "How are we going to get to Ben & Jerry's? I don't want to walk that far." (It is a 5 minute walk.) And all they do in the student paper is whine. (I know, I was probably as annoyingly self-absorbed and shallow as a 19 year old. I am still annoyingly self-absorbed and shallow now, sometimes. But still.)

3. It's not so bad having my boss on vacation. I can get so much done. Including the schedule, which she has relinquished to me for the first time, and which, while somewhat complex, does not seem to be as hair-tearingly agonizing as she makes it out to be every 3 months.

my summer vacation

The nanny has asked for June 6-10 off, so that's the date of our summer vacation. So we will not be free for the traditional August week on Martha's Vineyard with my mother. We're having trouble deciding what to do.

Option 1: Fly to Boston, and mix staying with family and visiting friends with some car camping, possibly up the Maine coast, or if things work out spend some time in the house in Woods Hole (still not for sale, still awaiting septic system estimate; right now my mother is thinking of buying it.)

Advantages: see family, see friends, get some time at the beach, possibly see childhood Maine haunts. mr flea likes the idea of the last.

Disadvantages: Cost of airfare ($425), need to borrow car from family (probably not a big deal), need to plan if we decide to camp.

Option 2: Car camp in the mountains, maybe go up into WV. Possibility of visiting WV friends, meeting up with Ohio friends who like to camp.

Advantages: cheap, see friends, see mountains.

Disadvantages: no beach, even more intensive need to plan.

Advice? Am I insane to consider extended camping with a 1 year old? My plan is to buy a new cheap big tent from Target that's big enough to hold us and the pack-n-play. My parents certainly camped with small children.

Part of me thinks that Casper is such a horrible sleeper in new surroundings that going anywhere will be more trouble than its worth in term of my exhaustion. But I hate the idea of being here all summer with no break. There's not that much to do in the vicinity and it's so hot, even by June.