Lost Month
Now where did May go?
In part, of course, May went to Berlin for a few days, where I enjoyed an art marathon with friends at the Berlin Biennale. Another part of May went to Amsterdam, where I thoroughly enjoyed taking part in the Eclectic Tech Carnival that I co-organized in Linz last year.
What was more or less overlooked along the way was that I became the mother of a grown-up son: Christopher turned 18 on May 28th. Although I had discussed it with him beforehand, I'm afraid I must really be a terribly negligent mother for not celebrating such a momentous occasion with him. On the whole, it seems that Christopher became an adult (at least legally, officially an adult - I haven't really noticed much difference yet) very quietly. I'm not quite sure what to think about that.
I think I am also noticing a certain pattern: every time I go anywhere at all, I seem to end up three times the period I was gone behind in my work. In other words, I am now over three weeks behind schedule. Once again, I am convinced that our calculation of time is no longer working and needs to be reformed.
At some point in May, Christopher managed to pass French. He gave an oral presentation about May 1968 in Paris, which he obviously enjoyed preparing, and since talking is what Christopher does best, it went well enough to ensure a passing grade this semester. We are all hoping he might also be able to pass Spanish in the same way with an oral presentation on the Spanish Civil War, but that remains to be seen.
In the meantime, he needs to pass a math test tomorrow. Since Friday the house has been full of teenagers studying math together, but yesterday evening they all went off to watch the soccer world championship match at a public screening together. Today I was rather amused by Christopher's concern that he didn't receive my text message last night. I keep a text message stored in my phone that says, "Where are you and when will you be home?", which I regularly send to Christopher – and now increasingly often to Patrick as well – generally some time between one and two am. Since it was Saturday night and everyone had been working hard and clearly needed to unwind a bit (especially Seth was getting quite wound up about math problems), I didn't expect anyone to be home at a reasonable hour, so I didn't bother sending the message. However, Christopher has meanwhile so internalized this message that he says it has turned around now, and he starts worrying about me, if he doesn't get a message that I am at home worrying about him.
Peter left for San Francisco the day after I returned from Amsterdam, so it feels as though I really haven't seen much of him this month. The boys have done a reasonably good job taking over for him. Yesterday Paddy and Seth quite efficiently took care of the weekly grocery shopping for us, and today the boys made Wiener Schnitzel with potatoes as a nice Sunday lunch. However, Christopher still does a better job on the kitchen than anyone else in this household, at least when he is home to do it. Somehow it seems that the boys are especially cooperative about taking over household chores when they are studying hard. Peter will get home from San Francisco tomorrow, then I think we will all more or less stay put in Linz, at least for the rest of June. I'm afraid it will take me that long to catch up again on work.
In part, of course, May went to Berlin for a few days, where I enjoyed an art marathon with friends at the Berlin Biennale. Another part of May went to Amsterdam, where I thoroughly enjoyed taking part in the Eclectic Tech Carnival that I co-organized in Linz last year.
What was more or less overlooked along the way was that I became the mother of a grown-up son: Christopher turned 18 on May 28th. Although I had discussed it with him beforehand, I'm afraid I must really be a terribly negligent mother for not celebrating such a momentous occasion with him. On the whole, it seems that Christopher became an adult (at least legally, officially an adult - I haven't really noticed much difference yet) very quietly. I'm not quite sure what to think about that.
I think I am also noticing a certain pattern: every time I go anywhere at all, I seem to end up three times the period I was gone behind in my work. In other words, I am now over three weeks behind schedule. Once again, I am convinced that our calculation of time is no longer working and needs to be reformed.
At some point in May, Christopher managed to pass French. He gave an oral presentation about May 1968 in Paris, which he obviously enjoyed preparing, and since talking is what Christopher does best, it went well enough to ensure a passing grade this semester. We are all hoping he might also be able to pass Spanish in the same way with an oral presentation on the Spanish Civil War, but that remains to be seen.
In the meantime, he needs to pass a math test tomorrow. Since Friday the house has been full of teenagers studying math together, but yesterday evening they all went off to watch the soccer world championship match at a public screening together. Today I was rather amused by Christopher's concern that he didn't receive my text message last night. I keep a text message stored in my phone that says, "Where are you and when will you be home?", which I regularly send to Christopher – and now increasingly often to Patrick as well – generally some time between one and two am. Since it was Saturday night and everyone had been working hard and clearly needed to unwind a bit (especially Seth was getting quite wound up about math problems), I didn't expect anyone to be home at a reasonable hour, so I didn't bother sending the message. However, Christopher has meanwhile so internalized this message that he says it has turned around now, and he starts worrying about me, if he doesn't get a message that I am at home worrying about him.
Peter left for San Francisco the day after I returned from Amsterdam, so it feels as though I really haven't seen much of him this month. The boys have done a reasonably good job taking over for him. Yesterday Paddy and Seth quite efficiently took care of the weekly grocery shopping for us, and today the boys made Wiener Schnitzel with potatoes as a nice Sunday lunch. However, Christopher still does a better job on the kitchen than anyone else in this household, at least when he is home to do it. Somehow it seems that the boys are especially cooperative about taking over household chores when they are studying hard. Peter will get home from San Francisco tomorrow, then I think we will all more or less stay put in Linz, at least for the rest of June. I'm afraid it will take me that long to catch up again on work.
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posted by Aileen at Sunday, June 08, 2008
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