penn

Life is good

Matt and I had a wonderful weekend. I managed to avoid my official work. I will have a pile of grading on Monday, but the weekend was worth it.

Saturday was long but fun. We taught an exploratory science day for middle schoolers first. We crashed carts, made babies (genetics), examined our own cells with microscopes, and did some acid/base chemistry. Oh, and we blew up a gummy bear. We immediately headed home to get dolled up for prom. I inserted a pic below - we did not go quite as fancy as the kids.

Prom was at the Wabasha Street Caves in St. Paul. I believe the site was a speakeasy at one point. It is lovely inside, with stuccoed cave ceilings and many adjoining rooms. The night had minimal drama, casino games, and not too much rap. All in all, a success.

Sunday, we explored outdoors. Matt ran a 5k at our nature center (yes, the one I used to work for). In the afternoon, we went back to watch a prescribed burn and do some hiking. We spotted spring wildflowers poking up (spring beauties below) and looked for frogs with some 6 year old friends we ran into.

We finished off by grilling burgers and brats with our neighbors and their kids. I taught their kindergartner how to make homemade whipped cream for our strawberry dessert.

Wonderful to have a weekend that was simultaneously jam-packed AND relaxing. Exactly what I needed to refresh for another long week.

Channeling Narnia

This is the winter that will not end. Thankfully, I am still awed by the beauty of the heavy snow that blankets the ground. We seem to thaw out for just long enough to melt the snow, then we get a fresh covering.

Tomorrow marks yet another late start (and maybe snow day) for my school. I teach in a rural district, and the snow-thaw-snow cycle wreaks havoc on gravel roads.

I think I will still settle down for bed now, and I will enjoy some extra sleep and morning grading while looking out on the loveliness.

A marriageable age

Julia Shaw wrote an intriguing article for slate entitled I Married Young. What are the rest of you waiting for?". The article struck a particular nerve with me. Shaw discusses how she had originally planned to wait for marriage, because life needs to be all ironed out first. Then, she met her wonderful husband during her sophomore year of college, and she decided an early marriage wasn't so bad. This, it turns out, has been a great decision for her. Her article enumerates all the benefits she has gained from the support of her husband and their wonderful marriage.

While I'm certainly happy for Shaw, as she seems to have married well for her, I am irked that the article focused on the age at which folks marry and not instead on who and how people date and make the decision for marriage. If Shaw had instead said "don't let your age hold you back from marrying your amazing boyfriend" or "don't break up with a great man because you have 'life plans'," I wouldn't be half so annoyed at the article.

I didn't get married at 29 because I was waiting for my life to fall into place. It just took me that long to find my wonderful, amazing, kind husband. Matt truly is one of the best people I know, and I am both proud and lucky to have him as my life partner. We were 26 when we met, and we prudently dated for awhile because we'd both dated people who started out nice and devolved into awful. If I had the good luck to have met him earlier, we would likely have married earlier.

I did meet a guy my sophomore year of college, and we did consider marriage. But my reasons for leaving that relationship weren't related to "not being held back." Yes, I did break up with him to study abroad. But, even at the time, I knew that was just a convenient time for a break up. He would have held me back in life. Not due to changing my goals, but because he was not the right partner for me. If I had pushed to get married earlier so I could have had that life partner through my random wandering 20s (which were mostly independent apart from being on my parents' cell phone plan), I would have married wrong and had that early divorce that many young people do have.

I'm glad Shaw's marriage worked out well. For some of us, it takes world wandering, soul-searching, and some growing up to find (or become) the right partner. To Shaw: don't judge us because we were not as lucky as you.