meirwen_1988

So, I've wanted an iPad for awhile now, mostly for work. I'd tried using my NOOK as a tablet for meetings, conferences, etc., class, you know--the whole academic thing. But the NOOK is primarily a reading device, at which it works beautifully. I really needed an iPad, especially with the lovely way I can hook one of those into the SmartClassrooms. I put it off and off, but, finally, this year I decided I'd break down--because, really, the most sensible time to do it is when you've just bought a flippin' house. (We'll discuss my money management issues some other time, okay kiddies?)

So, yesterday, I decided it was the day, and since I hadn't been able to make it out to DestinyUSA at all during the summer, it was my last chance before the 30 week cluster-flip that is the school year started. So once I finished the "Convocation Walk-through" that was yesterday morning, I decided I'd get one. AND that I'd drive to Syracuse to the Apple Store to do it, rather than just take the 5 minute drive to Best Buy or Walmart here in town.

So I went to DestinyUSA. Got some lunch, then headed to the Apple store (which was cray-cray, because, "Hello!" dumba$$--back to SCHOOL frenzy). Nonetheless, a lovely, older Apple associate named Stan came to help me. He was charming, unhurried, answered my questions (talking me back from more memory than I'd really need, given the use I intended for the iPad), and all was well. In talking I explained I'd be using it in the classroom, etc. When the time came to settle up, I got a LOVELY surprise. Apparently, the only time my educator discount applies to an iPad is...wait for it...during their "Back to School" sale period. So, I got a discount that wouldn't have applied any other time of the year. Then, on top of it, because it was the sale period, I also got a $50 gift card for the Apple Store. So, because I irresponsibly decided to buy my iPad now...I win! And, because every pay period I put $10 into a special account labeled "Electronics" I was able to buy it mostly for cash, not credit.

So, the universe just patted me on the head a bit, for which I am grateful. Especially since my NOOK is being a bit of a butthead at the moment in terms of battery issues.

In other news, there is still nowhere to sit in the apartment, except the stepladder in the kitchen or the bed. Oh, well.

While I've always loved the play, I never could quite "buy" A Midsummer Night's Dream. This is largely because the notion of falling asleep, outside, on Midsummer Eve was just ludicrous. It is often in the 40s or 50s here on that night (Faherenheit for those of you who have succumbed to the pedantry of decimal mania), so just "falling asleep" in your clothes outside and waking up without a case of hypothermia just never "range true" to me. However, the next time I watch Puck and Bottom, Helena and Hermia, and the rest, the sleeping lovers will not make me shake my head in disbelief.

Tonight I got home from Eastern Star exhausted, weary--the stress of trying to buy the house in Utica, the commitments to Star and family, teaching two summer classes (which are more concentrated, and longer than each individual class is during the regular year, so twice as tiring), and the stress of packing are all seeming to hit at once. I felt barely able to put one foot in front of the other, but the puppies and kitties need things that can't be put off. Still in my long whites (we had initiation tonight), I walked the dogs--in a white lace top and a full, white lawn skirt. Even had white shoes on. And I was perfectly comfortable out in the yard, even with the leftover damp from last night's storm. Trying to watch the black dog in the darkness between the maples and the locust trees, trying to keep the nearly blind one away from the road, it was still beautiful. The quiet, the still air, the smell of iris and peonies a quiet note floating atop the scent of grass and earth.

And then I saw it out of the corner of my eye. A flash of almost blue white light in a streak across the sky. "Shooting star," I thought to myself. So I started looking at the sky to see if it was a shower of meteors. And then I saw another streak--beside the barn. And then I realized it was fireflies. The brightest, most dynamic fireflies I have ever seen. These were not twinkling lights in the lawn. These were brilliant globes of light moving in the grass, among the trees, all the way to the tops of some of the maples. And at the bases of many of the trees are little villages of mushrooms, brown and smooth.

Tonight, the subjects of Titania and Oberon let me see them preparing for two nights from now, and the Midsummer Revels.

Thank you.