Well, I think Joyce Carol Oates now writes books faster than I come up with new entries. I thought that returning to graduate school would give me tons of free time for pastimes like blogging, but it instead gave me free time for pastimes like problem sets and cover letters. So now it is vacation and I will attempt to sum up what's been going on over the past few months.

Late October
In the summer, I thought I needed a project to occupy my time, since I had no job or school obligations. Of course, we did have Abe, who is nothing if not a project and a half, but I wasn't thinking clearly. The projects I chose included Michael Phelps worship and also running a half-marathon. Training in the summer was easy, except for the heat and flies on Cape Cod. But that's not much to complain about when there are nice runs along the bike path that end at the beach.

Then came fall, something I had decided not to think about when I signed up for the race. Living in mortal fear of rigging in the big race, I wanted to keep running every day. The only time for this was 5 o'clock in the morning, which is a downright awful time to do anything except go back to sleep.

My daily run included a small gothic church as my turnaround spot, and every morning, around 5:30, I passed a man in coveralls and a tool belt, praying loudly while gazing up at the steeple. The steeple itself was bathed in a spotlight every day which, since it was still pretty dark, made the church look pretty nice.

The race itself was actually pretty great. I went out faster than I thought I should have and was able to keep up a pace better than the one I had planned on. Leah and Max came to watch and, though Max's antics made Leah nearly miss me at the finish, the cheering was helpful. Then I almost fainted at the end, but about a gallon of gatorade brought me back to life. I immediately went home and fell asleep for 3 hours.

This came right in the middle of midterms, for which I performed exactly average. One of the great things about business school is that the mean gets you a B, so average was not a problem. I found that I have improved a lot in my studying skills since college. Also, it's easier to study for accounting and so on than for history tests.

Thanksgiving
From October to Thanksgiving was a blur of recruiting events and Abe turning from an infant into a grinning baby. Recruiting events are basically lectures followed by speed dating, with cheese and crackers. They tell you all about how the firm is differentiated from its competitors, and then they give you snacks, and then you wander around asking people if they like their jobs. Some were fun, but after about three weeks of them, the shine wore off. Not that I don't like cheese and crackers.

For Thanksgiving itself , we first saw Max perform in his "Harvest Holiday Concert" (no offense, fall vegetables who must be harvested and consider it no holiday). Then we drove out to Cape Cod to see my family. Since I was in the best shape of the last 5 years, I was able to go for a run with my brother. We made a big, traditional dinner, and, like every year, it was eaten in 1/5 the time it took to prepare. Oh well. I wrote about 15 cover letters, which succeeded in getting me 1 interview.

December
December was a good month around here... for a while. Recruiting calmed down a little bit and I was reintroduced to Leah, Max, and Abe after weeks of late nights. I rocked my finals and was all set to relax with a few days of no school with the boys in day care when disaster struck. Abe got sick, and Max got sick, and both of them started waking up in the middle of the night because they were so congested. We tried some breathe-rite strips on Max, which make him look like a tiny little NFL wide receiver. They don't work to keep him from snoring (yes, we have a 3 year old who snores) but he loves them anyway and now there is a new obsession to compete with bedtime. Abe decided he could only sleep if he was held and so Leah and I slept in shifts for about 3 days. That. Was. Awful. And I didn't even have most of the shifts.

We decided that they could go to school anyway, but then it snowed for two days in a row and BPS cancelled everything. Even if you love your kids a lot, and I do, it is not easy to be home with them, housebound, when they are sick.

Everyone has mended by now, after a nice trip to NY and NJ.

January
New Years Eve is really a young man's game. We had Carrie and Perry and Ella and my friend Ronen for dinner, and at one point Ronen was curled up in a blanket on the couch, drinking coffee to perk up. At another, I was watching This Old House.

Still, it's nice to have friends for dinner. We tried to have Max and Ella have a sleepover, but Max was too wired and couldn't sleep, so they were separated. This is how it goes with girls in your bed. It can simply be too much.

Later, Max and Abe put on matching pajamas. Abe thought it was funny.

Where to begin?

So much has happened since July, and I have only a few minutes before I am back in class, but the biggest news around here is that Abe is getting huge. Here he is with Max.

Abe.

Is.

Clean.