wrapping up, settling in

// boring newsy entry follows -- just sort of a dump for my own records //

It was prospectives weekend here in Durham; the 1-year anniversary of Paige and my visit to consider Duke as her future alma mater; my visit to Durham for the first time since I thought it would be the last. My goal for this weekend was to make our hosted prospectives more comfortable than I'd been (though our hosts were gracious enough), and to be supportive beyond just making sure they got where they needed to be in the mornings and evenings.

For me, since I'm not part of the Academic Machine, it meant just being a gracious host -- supplying unlimited morning coffee, snacks or just water, diverting the conversation away from what everyone else was asking and giving them opportunities to learn about what it's like to live in Durham from a non-Duke student perspective.

My time with our guests wasn't much truth-be-told, a few hours in the mornings with one of them, and not much at all with the other, as she had many on-campus commitments starting early and running late. I hope I was able to contribute to their comfort while taking on this stressful time.

The other part of our contribution this weekend was hosting the Grad Student Party at our house. For Paige and I, who love hosting, this was a breeze. Plus, unlike most other times we've had people over or hosted parties, we didn't have to do any of the shopping -- another student went out and bought all the beer and wine, and all the snacks, dropping them off at our house a few days early. All we had to do was set it all up (lay it all out on trays, slice cheese, put all the dips and hummus in bowls, etc) and get ice. Then we opened our door and let the party happen.

I thought it was a moderate success but the following night at the Faculty Party, more than a few 3rd year and 4th years told me that it was the best party they'd been to during their whole time at Duke! High praise that I'm not sure we're worthy of, but we'll take it. I know we'll have other opportunities to host parties and I think we're up for it. The clear weather helped keep everything clean, and our lack of furnishings actually helped make room for all the guests -- I think we had between 35 and 50. (I'm horrible at estimating that sort of thing and I didn't want to walk around with a clicker.)

Saturday morning I cleaned the house and was done with all the dishes, vacuuming, cleaning a few spills, wiping down the bathrooms and taking out the trash and recycling by the time Paige got back from the mid-morning seminar. The rest of the day we just vegged out. Late nights take their toll on us and Paige had had a few beers (which is exactly that many more than she usually has, ever) so she was feeling a specific need to be mellow. 'Fine with me -- I made a vegetarian shepherd's pie (overcast, rainy comfort food) and read.

Saturday evening was the Faculty party, which actually took place at a faculty member's home... which we looked at when we were looking at buying! That house was actually my number 2 or 3, even though it has a really awkward master suite that Paige didn't like. It's got a great screened in porch, too, with a bar. Having just had our party the night before with the same basic number of folks (in fact, most of the same exact folks), I'm even more happy that we are in the house we're in. (Nothing against that space.)

Anyway, it was sort of interesting to be chilling out in a living room having considered that space as potentially our own at one time, and seeing most of the same furniture that was there when it was "staged" for selling. The professor took it off the market eventually -- it's just a lot of house for a single person and I think she was looking at downsizing before the market tanked, but it's a lovely house in a nice location.

Today, the students left and it was back to normal. I finished reading The Forever War by Joe Haldeman, which had been on my list for over two years, and Paige tackled her normal routine. The rain continued so we stayed in rather than heading out for yoga. Monday tomorrow -- back to the grind. (Yes, it's very much a grind these days.)