The Politics of Personal Destruction
The college president, Dr. Loewenstein, resigned today. It came after a week of personal attacks on song lyrics he’d written over the years. Really, the attacks were because some people don’t like him/his decisions. Once again, the college will be leaderless in a very difficult time. And once again, some faculty are behaving very badly in reaction to his resignation; lining up to celebrate. In more ways than one, they have what every unemployed teacher has: no class. Thank goodness there are other examples of faculty reacting in a much more mature way. They’re not all bad.
Looming departure
As usual before a trip, I have numerous things to do and feel like I won’t have time to do them all before I leave. I was able to do a little cleaning this evening after I got home from the ShadowChase Walking Group. I really liked meeting up with the group. It has the kind of structure that I respond to. Looking forward to being a regular with them. I was also able to cook up some food for tomorrow and Thursday. Meals are taken care of until I leave.
I had intended to play Haelindir a bit tonight, but some kinnies asked for help running the Great Barrows, so I switched to Danae and we knocked it out tout suite.
I learned some French txt abbreviations today. My favorites are mdr, short for mort de rire (dead/dying from laughter) and A+, short for a plus tard (until later).
Tomorrow I have some things to take care of in the afternoon so I’m taking a half day off. And then more stuff to do in the evening. I may never be ready to leave.
A+
Fyona’s birthday party
Fyona’s birthday is today. Yesterday there was a party for her. The theme was sci-fi/futuristic/genre.
Here are a few photos.
Fyona
Jay
Rob, Master of Meat and Flame!
Ana’s wedding
I attended the wedding of Ana Torres on Saturday. She is the receptionist at St. Stanislaus. I was very honored to have been invited. As might be expected, I took a few photos.
The couple enters the reception.
Vangie and Walt
Amelia
The happy couple
April Hafla
Thalisha has classic silent film era looks.
You can always count on The Dragon Dancer to get things going.
Jodie. So flipping beautiful!
Sierra is so cute!
A whole lot of running around
Today was the first day of what will be a very busy weekend.
After I got off work at 2, I went by the church to pick up a key, stopped in at the Salvation Army store, and did my 5K training. The wind made it difficult but I got it done. Then, after a quick shower, I went down to open up the church for the Memorial Vigil for Jeff Broome. After the service, I went down to Minnie’s for the hafla. I took 500 photos! Quite ridiculous really. So you can expect to see some more belly dance photos soon.
Payday = spendday
I had a lot of difficulty sleeping last night. In part because my calves and feet were sore! Nevertheless, I walked another 4 miles today.
Very productive after-work period tonight. First, I went to the Honda dealership and had them put in a new battery for me ($108). Then I went to the mall and replaced the battery in my pocket watch ($6.50) and I had a strombolli at LA Italian ($5.95). After that, I went to the Goodwill Store and bought a blazer ($5.00). The main event of the evening was going to Brenden to see Atlas Shrugged pt 1 ($5.00) and while there, I bought a pair of Polish dogs ($4.00). Finally, I stopped by Save Mart to buy a few things ($15.00). All told, I spent $149.45.
Looking forward to tomorrow when I’ll spend even more money.
Getting strong now
Karen treated us all to lunch today in the office because it was Administrative Professionals Day. She brought in pizza, salad, chicken, and fries from BJ’s Brewhouse. It was pretty tasty. Thanks Karen!
At lunch, Sandy and I walked 3 miles, and Vee and I did another 2 during the afternoon wellness break. After work , I did my 5K training (Week 4, Day 1). It went like this: 5 minutes of warm up, 3 minutes of jogging, 90 seconds of walking, 5 minutes of jogging, 3 minutes of walking, 3 minutes of jogging, 90 seconds of walking, 5 minutes of jogging, and a 5 minute cool down. I also did a couple of extra laps before and after. So all told, I did 8.5 miles today. Yee haw! The best part is that even though I’d had a difficult time with my jogging on Sunday, today was a breeze! Nice! It was really very encouraging!
Another incidental item about today, I sported my bowler hat all day. Quite dashing if I do say so!
Photos from the Vigil
Outside during the Service of Light
Inside the candlelit church
Some of the catechumens
Tom and Jackson
Car woes
I was running really low on gas today, but I finally got my Visa gift card activated so this afternoon, I drove to the gas station to put the $30 into my tank. As I made to leave, my car wouldn’t start. After a moment or two, the engine did turn over and I was able to go about my evening. I hoped that the problem had been that I’d been so low on fuel that the pump needed to be re-primed.
After my next errand at the Community Center, I went to start the car and again, it wouldn’t turn over. This time, it REALLY didn’t work. I called Steve to see if he was still at work (which is nearby) and it turned out that he was actually at the church. I asked if he could come give me a jump-start. As I waited for him, a man pulled up to drop his son off for Boy Scouts. He asked if he could help. He didn’t have cables but he pulled his vehicle up to mine so that he could do the jump when the cables arrived. Moments later, Vangie arrived with the cables and we were able to get my car started. The gentleman advised me to drive around for a bit and then pull into a gas station where I could test the battery and charge it or buy a new one. I said that I would but that it would have to wait until Thursday when I got paid. He then insisted on giving me money to get a battery. He didn’t even want to give me his name so that I could pay him back.
My very own Good Samaritan.
