Whew, what a week! I was going to say, "another week, another week of dollars." That sounded lame, and definitely not true. Then I thought, "another week, another week of stress." That just sounded depressing, and again, not entirely true. Today is clearly not the day to try to be clever. So, I will just focus on what happened since I last posted:
1. My mom came to visit. We had an awesome time. I can't believe she is really 70. She was running up the hill with me when she was here, despite the rain. She didn't blink an eye at an all day hike. It's pretty impressive. She's in better shape than most people MY age. That should shame all of you. Get off your butts, so that when you're 70 no one will know. We had a birthday dinner with three of her old friends. As some of you know, many moons ago my mom attended the same institution I am attending now, and some of her old friends still live here. It was great, and a great way to celebrate a special occasion. I think my mom was really happy.
2. I got lots of fun birthday presents. Yay for presents!
3. My mom left, and I was sad and lonely once again. But, I had to quickly get over it- there was no time to wallow. At that point I entered what I would call the "bad busy" part of my week. Bad busy is in stark contrast to good (productive) busy. Bad busy is when you have too much to do and none of it goes very well and you get stuck spending way too much time on trivial stuff you can't avoid. E's example of needing to get a brake light fixed within 24 hours when your day was already fully scheduled is exactly what I mean. This week I got locked out of my classroom with students waiting, and was forced to run around campus, and pay $5 (which I didn't have on me), in order to get in (!). That is one of many things that took too much time and should not have happened, when I already had too much to do in the time given. I feel like I should write a physics formula about this. I am sure my students could help me with it.
3. I did a lot of work, stayed up late, finished things and generally tried to keep a handle on my semester. Taking four classes plus teaching is a bit much, but so far I am managing it. I am really interested in the content of my classes (even stats is improving!) and so I think that will mean I am motivated to stay on the tread mill. I can't stop, or I might fall off and not be able to get back on. My brother says he thinks of the semester like a rushing river. You just get in and keep going, because you have to. You have to keep your head up too, obviously. Any other metaphors for the semester?
4. I drove to visit TMH for the first time this semester. Part of this might be another case of bad busy. The time it takes to go see TMH is way more than driving time. Prep time takes more than one might imagine. For one thing, it requires dragging a cat unwillingly out from under the bed. The kennel is really the only place for Gemi when I am gone, so such is life. Driving to the kennel is also no fun, but it's a breeze compared to getting the cat out of her hiding spot. I love Gemi, and I love TMH, so this is the reality I have to handle. In any case, it only happens once a month. Of course the other part of seeing TMH is the good part. I was so excited to arrive last night. He had one more late birthday surprise for me: he made me a video/slideshow. He put together lots of fun pictures of us, all the adventures we have shared over the past two years, and set it to music. It made me cry- it was so sweet. He loves me.
So, here I am, back at TMH's. It seems like another life when I was living here teaching at that other school. He is at work and already I have been quite productive today. (I really just took a break to write here, I promise). It is nice to be here on Fridays and work by myself. I don't have the distractions I have at home and I can look forward to him getting home from work. It is a beautiful day here... so we look forward to a relaxing weekend.
Ok, time to crank the treadmill back up a little bit (on Fridays I am- usually- fortunate enough to be able to slow it down some).
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