Sadnesses

So many people seem to have sad things happening in their lives lately. My cousin Walt (whom I call Junior) is waiting for his liver transplant after nearly dying in ICU. They had to drain a lot of fluid from his abdomen. I hope the liver transplant happens in time to save him. He's a sweet guy.

My brother's mother-in-law died. She'd been "on the way out" for a couple of months, causing my brother's wife and other relatives numerous trips back and forth, not easy, since my brother's family is in North Carolina and the mother-in-law was in Louisiana.

Mary Beth e-mailed to say that her husband's uncle (the one their son is named after) was killed by an intruder into his home. Mike is being double-whammied after his wife Pam was injured by the air bags in a traffic accident and then received news that her father had had a heart attack and was soon to undergo bypass surgery. Ellie had to attend a memorial service for a dear friend with whom she worked for a long time. Everyone, of course, is occasionally visited by the tragic, but it doesn't usually come in such a large, widespread wave.

I believe in the power of positive thinking, which prayer is a form of, so to all of them, I don't say "I will pray for you" but "I'll be thinking about you." To be true to myself, I can't say "pray" since I don't do "pray." What I do is spend some quiet time thinking about these folks, feeling empathy for their pain and worry, and sending out hopeful thoughts. We are all part of this energy that is life, and we contribute to it in our own ways.

Last night was my last night class, thank goodness, but I have another one in the fall. Darn it. I'm not at my best at night, and this fall will be hard. I'll have three classes during the day, then the one at night, on Thursdays. My days will begin early, since in order to get to class by 9:30, I'll have to be up and moving by 6 a.m.

I'm eager to get an office assigned to me, but apparently it won't happen until late in the summer, so I guess this coming Wednesday, I'll load up what few things I have in the cubicle and haul them home. I will NOT miss that loud man in the corner who talks to strangers on the phone so loudly that he might as well be giving a speech in an auditorium. Then, regardless of who he's talking to, he signs off with "Ciao, baby, I love ya." Gag me with a spoon. How pretentious can you get before you're forced to live in Los Angeles since no one else will have you?

One more week of keeping the nose to the grindstone (ugh, cliche-ville), then my son's graduation, then blessed time off to rest.