Marty T's condition

My dissertation director, mentor, and friend Marty Townsend is recovering from a benign cyst in her brain. It had plugged up the drain of spinal fluid, so she was in pretty bad shape, according to a mutual friend, "other" Marty (Patton). Now she's on the mend, so that's wonderful, but I'm overcome with guilt that I haven't kept in touch as well as I should have.

Thursday was a busy day. I had a committee meeting at 11 a.m. Then I taught my three classes. The 1:30 class was observed by a colleague as part of my tenure-track process. She had only good things to say, thank goodness, since a few of my students were acting up a bit. And I finished my lesson plan too soon, so I had to let them out early. Oddly, doing the same lesson plan in the next class took the entire class period. Maybe I went quicker than I might have otherwise gone, given the slight nerves I had.

Following my last class, I headed for the shop where I get my hair done. I had highlights added so that I don't look quite so thin-haired. It looks good, but rather unlike me since normally I have very little done to my hair other than trimming it now and then. My husband liked it, so all is well.

Driving home was an adventure in yet another Michigan weather change. I endured heavy foggy rain the whole way. When I finally made it into my garage, all I wanted to do was get some supper and go to bed, but I did manage to rally long enough to watch American Idol. I'm not obsessed this season, but the Kalamazoo guy was on so I needed to see if he made it through to the next round. He didn't, but because they now have some wild-card spots, he might get through yet.

Yesterday was my sister Sally's birthday. I called her last night, and she seemed to be in a good mood. She was delighted that we were flying down in a couple of weeks. I hope we have time to see everyone we want to see. It would be nice to have more time, but we have what we have, and even at that, we're stealing time from our class prep and grading routines. The family never understands why we can't just drop everything and hop on a plane whenever we feel like a long weekend.

Today is the last day of February. Thank goodness this month is so short. Any longer, and more people would be lined up to take anti-depressants. There's something hopeful about March, even if the weather doesn't really change that much here in Michigan. We're bound to have several more heavy snows before the winter ends. However, our brief trip to Louisiana will doubtless remind us that living in the Deep South means heat and humidity far too soon to be pleasant.