And there you have it...

We are having a spiffy time at the moment trying to keep up with the pace of life. At the advanced age of fifty-two years and eight months, my sleep is often reduced to four-six hours which necessitates the taking of a nap during the day. Hah! In my dreams! In reality I get up at 5:45am and am on the go for as long as I can manage to stay awake at night. Having had a good night's sleep, despite having a cold, today I have news to share and a further commentary on the joys and perils of living with a loved one who hates one.

DD1 has another prom invitation. On Saturday we went out shopping for a prom dress which she is buying for herself this year. I shuddered at the cost of the dresses, and when she tried on a dress costing over $500 and said "I don't care about how much it is, just if I like how it looks" I realised that she was, perhaps, living in another world from the rest of us. I consider myself very fortunate to be able to afford what we need and some of what we don't need. I don't consider myself frugal but I don't spend excessive amounts of money on myself either. I'm always on the look out for a sale and a bargain and I cringe at the thought of overpaying for anything. Wedding dresses and Prom dresses fall into the 'overpaying' category.

We are both hated by DD1 when life doesn't go her way. If she asks for (and gets) what she wants, all is well. When we ask for a small boon or favor, we are told "I don't have to do anything because I'm hardly ever here" or "I only live here because I'm forced to live here" and "when I'm eighteen I'm leaving because you aren't going to pay for my college because you won't even pay for car insurance so I can drive". We know our place and we humbly withdraw to it.

And now the news. DH has received word today that he will be going to Colorado on Sabbatical for almost a year, beginning in the summer of 2010. I'm very happy for him, because I know he wants to do this, and he most certainly deserves a break to do what he really enjoys in research. I wish we could all go, but it simply isn't practical with the kids being the ages they are, so yours truly will be holding down the domestic fort and will be single-parenting for much of the time. We will most certainly miss him but there will be visits back and forth between MA and CO so perhaps it will be bearable. My ostrich tendencies prevent me from looking too closely at the realities and facing up to the future so at the moment I'm able to imagine that I will be able to ride the waves. Or not.