Internships and Crispy Bacon

It's 20-something degrees here. Outside. Inside, we have a fire going and the heater on blast. (I can barely breathe with all the heat.)

So, it's cold. I'm grateful we have heat and a fire.

Because of the 2017 Tree Fall (thanks Harvey), we have enough wood to maintain a fire for days. Wait, what we have is kindling. I was a Girl Scout but apparently have very little knowledge of building and keeping a fire. We were more indoorsy Girl Scouts. I think we went camping a few times but I do not remember building a fire or even gathering the wood for said fire. I think we roasted marshmallows so someone must have built a fire.

Thankfully, I have a husband who knows all about the fire. He even prepared (fourth part planner?) with the purchase of the fire starter logs.

With the family gathered 'round the cracklin' fire, we are watching the local news since the break of day. The reporters are now inside their cars reporting on the accidents and weather.

I'm not sure what the local meteorologists have coined this freeze but I'm sure it includes 'ice' or 'icy' or 'frozen' or 'cold blast.' Roads and overpasses are closed. Schools and businesses are closed.

Never fear, we have bread, milk and snacks. And, I have alcohol. (That I won't drink until 5 p.m.)

I'm on my work from home lunch break right now. Technology allows for calls, calendars and meetings to occur. Brilliant. I did shower, but there's no make up on this face and my hair only looks done because of fourth part planning that involved getting fresh color yesterday on our MLK holiday.

Up the road Chris travels to school (I haaate that six-hour drive), there is ice everywhere. We knew of the impending Icy Frozen Cold Blast 2018 this weekend so we began the conversation of  'you can't go back to school Tuesday so maybe Monday since school starts Thursday.' Nah, we (and I mean, Chris) decided Monday was too early so he was taking the Wednesday route.

School starts Thursday.

I'm guessing there are no books to buy, classrooms to find or other spring semester figuring out activities.

I do know he needs 12 hours of Spanish for his degree requirement. And, I know he has three semesters (maybe? hopeful?) of school left. I don't think 12 hours that are dependent on each preceding hour can happen in three semesters.

I also know he can knock out six of those hours in the summer study abroad program. He can also knock out a summer internship concurrently with those six hours of Spanish while abroad. By abroad, we mean Central or South America.

For a planner, watching this play out for a 20-year-old who basically lets life come to him each and every moment is D-I-F-F-I-C-U-L-T. With my fourth part planning skills, I could have this all calendered and organized -- including when to email professors and advisors, when to make application and when to ask for financial aid. But, I'm watching.

I'm about to start becoming a bit more active in my watching and start nudging. Not pushing because apparently, we as parents are to let our children figure this out. I need to meet these kids who have it all together and figure out everything on their own -- assuming they also pay rent, insurance, etc. Who are these people? Where did I go wrong? Or, am I right?

Really, who cares how it is accomplished. If I hand hold or helicopter or any of the other 'bad' labels applied to my parenting, have I really, truly handicapped him for the future. Hey, I turned out OK and my parents took care of my financial aid forms. My parents also talked to me about my future plans. They provided insight -- of course, journalist and newspaper reporter didn't resonate as a career -- around becoming an educator. (Guess I sort of am an educator now,)

I'm nudging for an email to go to his advisor today -- I mean, what else are we doing except watching the fire and the news -- about the study abroad. I've also nudged toward what time classes are Thursday. (We just had recognition that the roads might still be bad Wednesday. Lord, help me.)

I also nudged for passport photo and application throughout the Christmas break. Neither happened. Chris has an expired passport that requires an in-person visit to get a new one. Yeah, no. We'll wait.

Fourth part planning sometimes sends me to the corner rocking. Is there an appreciation? Of course, there is. Do all enjoy it? Absolutely not.

Along with getting my hair colored on the holiday, I also picked up our week's worth of groceries. (I still love and adore and could marry curbside pick up.) I did the meal planning and other than milk (which Gervais had to get last night because 2018 Frozen Tundra SA) we are set. The family drank hot chocolate this morning. We ate a hardy breakfast of cinnamon rolls (from a can people don't get too excited) and bacon.

Half extra crispy, half a bit limp.

When will we ever figure out how to cook bacon in the oven. We've tried different temps -- 400 degrees, 415 degrees, 425 degrees and even dropped to 375 degrees mid-cook. We've tried different times -- 15 minutes, 20 minutes and moved to 12 minutes and then babysat every three minutes.

Why do we make our bacon in the oven . . . because frying it up in the pan is messy and requires full attention. You know what frying in the pan also does -- gives you crispy bacon.

Now, we have a plate sitting beside the stove with three pieces of the limp and one super crisp (read: burned).

I'm thinking this bacon will be a part of my lunch tomorrow (if the roads clear). I'm already talking about tomorrow and the people in my house aren't having it. They like resting in the no-school zone. I do, too, but I'm a planner. I know we have to pack lunches tomorrow. We have to finish up the tic tac toe homework so we don't work on it tomorrow. We need to do laundry and pack for the journey back to school.

We need to email our advisor about the class schedule because I just heard my son exclaim, "I still don't understand how introduction to drama can be my second English.' Add to that, "I think my landscape architecture class will be interesting."

What's that for, I ask. The response was along the lines of not sure.

"I'm going to email my advisor in a few minutes when my laptop charges up."

(FYI: I'm typing on a laptop. I could email that advisor. I want to email that advisor. I want to call that advisor.)

School starts Thursday.

We have no school today.

We have limp bacon.

We have a fire going.

We have Netflix.

We have technology.

I have two work calls about to kick off my afternoon.

Lunch break is over.

Internship requests are just beginning.

Como puedo obtener credito espanol?