what I did on my morning "off"

two loads of laundry
dishes
made beef stew
bubble bath
shaved legs
read 1 chapter of a romance novel
cleaned 2 bathrooms
made 3 beds
vacuumed
general tidy of public spaces
reshelved all of Dillo's books
cooked rice for dinner
swept back porch
watered plants
took out compost, trash, recycling
contacted 2 possible babysitters

whee!

Athens vs Durham

I am supposed to be writing an essay, but my coworker is meeting with a student and I find it impossible to concentrate with them talking. Must consider earphones and classical music; this happens a fair amount. Or plan all writing for before 10am.

I have been really interested by the contrasts between Athens and Durham. Both are smallish cities, college towns, drops of blue in mostly red states. But they are VERY different.

In Durham, almost everyone I knew who was similar to me in demographic profile (latte-drinkin', volvo-drivin' elite-educated liberal types) was not from Durham, from NC, or from the south. At work, in my neighborhood, parents of the kids' classmates, all tended to be from New Jersey or Seoul or DC or California or Maine. The native Durhamites I knew socially were mostly the children of Duke professors. Very few had southern accents.

In Athens, I work most closely with 6 librarians. They are from AL, SC, FL, GA, NC (and, well, Connecticut). Two of them have strong southern accents (AL and SC). Athens feels much more southern than Durham to me. Interestingly, the parts of it I inhabit don't feel any less liberal - but it's a native southern liberalism, not a transplanted West Coast or Bos-Wash liberalism. I can't yet articulate how it's different, but it is.

Athens feels more segregated than Durham to me; there is no black middle class here as far as I can tell, and the poverty rate among minorities in general is high(er even than Durham). Athens is more a one-industry town than Durham, that industry being UGA, and Atlanta is further than Raleigh, and there's no RTP equivalent. Athens is more truly a college town than Durham, and I suspect is more like Chapel Hill in some respects (student demographics at a state university being rather different from those at Duke).

The weather's about the same, though. It's actually been a remarkably lovely early fall. Athens is horticultural zone 7b, where Durham was on the 7a/7b line.

child care notes to self

http://www.athensparent.com/articles/featuregen/childcare.html

Child Care Resource and Referral Agency of Northeast Georgia at Athens at 2-1-1; 706-353-1313; or 800-924-5085.

UGA McPhaul Center - excellent, 1-3 year wait list. Only $20 to get on list - worth it as a long shot?

Waseca Montessori - good rep., but only school year (10 month)?? availability? location not great.

Champions for Children - wins award, big center, expanding to other locations. availability? has summer camp for rising first graders? location not good - far W outside loop.

Lots of places there's NO info on the web. Lots of places with web presence are church-affiliated and make much of their religious content.

Summer camps look really thin on the ground, too. There is a YMCA camp, with good hours and good prices, but they seem much more religious than in Durham.

Ugh. Meeting at current day care Thursday night to see what is up.