It was a busy week and yesterday I was pretty much a slug. Or my spirit animal, the snail.
After taking Monday off to drive back from the beach (reminder to self – don’t take I-40 again. Just don’t), I had much to do at work. We had a Zoom meeting with grad students to try to keep them informed about the coming budget cuts. There’s a lot of anxiety because the new funding model that the UNC Board of Governors (appointed by the state legislature) established for next year cuts graduate funding in favor of undergraduate enrollment. However, we know little about what may actually happen. I’ve been down this road before, and even though each budget cut looks horrendous on the horizon, there’s always been a lot of wolf-crying. I keep trying to keep this in mind. And it is scheduling and advising time, and students are taking PhD qualifying exams and language proficiency exams. Now it is time for me to work on the department newsletter, which is usually a pleasure.
There. I’ve been doing the mandated annual security training online, and it tells me to never complain or talk about work on social media. Well, that ship sailed quite some time ago.
Friday night I drove over to Beck’s house and we spent a pleasant evening. I spent the night because I had been drinking some but mainly because I was spooked about driving at night by myself. Does this mean that I am old now? Anyway, Beck and I always have meaningful and fun conversations. We laugh a lot but we also dig in. There was, however, no dancing this time.
Today I will weave again. I mainly want to pick an area in the house to clean thoroughly. I believe that it will be around the wood stove. There are cobwebs and many, many dusty knickknacks, and boxes filled with stuff to be taken to Goodwill or the used bookstores or the little free libraries. After seeing Beck’s beautiful clean house it makes me want that more than ever. It’s just hard with pets and physical disabilities.
I cooked this week and we finished watching The Last Kingdom series. WAH! I already miss Uhtred son of Uhtred, and Aelswith, Alfred’s Queen. I really loved her character. I reread My Side of the Mountain, which was my favorite book in my pre-teen years. I spent a lot of time in the woods by myself during that time. Now I’ve picked up Night Train to Lisbon. If it gets too heavy for me at times, I have Jenny Lawson and David Sedaris books as antidotes.
slowly she turned 