March 25th, 2013 → 6:01 am
“I tax not you, you elements, with unkindness.” King Lear
I’ve been at a conference the last few days and yesterday, Sunday, I was supposed to fly home. Then came this crazy winter storm and I got stranded in the Chicago airport when my flight was cancelled. I thought about getting a hotel and waiting it out, like I was supposed to do, but I missed my son so much. I was dying to kiss and hold him after days without his adorable cuddle so instead I rented a car, drove through the storm, passed at least 50 cars stranded or skidded off the side of the road, and made it to my baby at 11pm last night. This morning I woke with the cold realization of how stupid I was, but what the hell is it doing snowing like this at the end of March?!?!?
Filed under: Blog & Other & Self/My Life
March 20th, 2013 → 6:03 am
“Commit
The oldest sins the newest kind of ways.” – Henry IV, Part II
I don’t know how the EU is going to fix its currency and banking mess, but suddenly and indiscriminately reaching into citizen accounts and taking money from people’s hard earned savings seems more like theft than public policy to me. There has got to be a better way.
Filed under: Blog & Economics/Money
March 17th, 2013 → 6:18 am
“Time’s the king of men;
he’s both their parent, and he is their grave,
and gives them what he will, not what they crave.” – Pericles
I never seem to have enough time. Enough said.
Filed under: Blog & Self/My Life
March 13th, 2013 → 5:17 am
“The barge she sat in, like a burnished throne
Burned on the water; the poop was beaten gold.” – Antony and Cleopatra
A former student came to see me in my office yesterday. Within five minutes she was crying, spilling the story of her breakup with her boyfriend, segueing into the heartache of the death of her father… I started to wonder why she’d come to see me of all people, when she suddenly explained that when her life was a mess, she liked to seek out people who had their shit together. This time, she thought of me and coming to hang out with me. It was a huge complement, of course, though rather surprising. My seat is not a burnished throne, and my poop most certainly is not gold. But if I can talk to someone for forty-five minutes and make them feel even a little bit better about life, well, that’s an awesome thing.
Filed under: Blog & Self/My Life
March 9th, 2013 → 6:16 am
“‘Tis one thing to be tempted, Escalus,
Another thing to fall.” – Measure for Measure
Ways in which I am tempted: junk food, extra sleep, denigrating idiots, spoiling my baby, blaming my husband, ignoring the laundry, hating my enemies
Ways in which I fall: junk food (often), extra sleep (rarely), denigrating idiots (sometimes), spoiling my baby (all the time), blaming my husband (now and again), ignoring the laundry (not enough), hating my enemies (too obsessively)
That’s not the worst track record, is it?
Filed under: Blog & Self/My Life
March 5th, 2013 → 8:15 am
“The slaves of chance, and flies
Of every wind that blows.” – Winter’s Tale
Last Thursday a man in Florida, asleep in his bedroom in his very own home, was suddenly swallowed up by a 60 foot sinkhole that opened up beneath his bed. Could that be any more other-wordly, science-fictiony unbelievable? We paltry human beings, we measly bags of flesh; in vain we put up sticks of wood and concrete to try and protect ourselves from the world. We could all be swallowed up by sinkholes at any time, without any notice. What a truly frightening thought.