Monday will be one year since Dad died. In a lot of ways, though, today feels like the anniversary, because the 23rd fell on a Saturday last year. Having his death on a Saturday afternoon was especially painful for me, because when we were younger he’d always take me out to the mall to shop and play video games. (I’m only now beginning to realize that this was mostly done to get me out of the house for a few hours so Mom could have…
I suppose it’s hard for me to think of this upcoming weekend as a "holiday" because I only teach Mondays and Wednesdays, and MCCC has class today. In a lot of ways this may be a busier weekend than usual for me because tomorrow I get to cook my very first vegetarian turkey for myself (I’d looked for them locally in past years but they always sold out before I could get one), and then Friday I’m actually going to do some Black Friday shopping…
Two of Dad’s loves were architecture and cars. One of the ways he put himself through college was to buy old cars that were being sold for a pittance, then fix them up and sell them for a big profit. You don’t want to know how many times I had to hear his speech about how the car companies are evil for making their cars impossible to fix on your own. (It’s not that I don’t agree with him, but after hearing the same speech…
About a half-hour ago I finished the last of my students’ portfolios from this past semester; I’m waiting a little while here to allow some people who had problems submitting things to me to get some last papers e-mailed to me, but then tomorrow afternoon I’ll be submitting their grades. Contrary to what I thought earlier, I actually do get a week off before the next semester starts, and I probably need that time off right now more than ever. In addition to catching up…
This past weekend I’ve just taken some time for myself and tried to decompress. For the first time since Dad’s death I didn’t have anything that needed immediate attention from my students, although starting Wednesday I’ll have some fifty or sixty portfolios to look at and get graded by the following Monday. I also start teaching Composition I at MCCC that Monday, so over the next couple of days I’ll have to look at the required textbook for that class and try to figure out…