Enjoyable evening

Yesterday we spent from about 5 p.m. until about 8:30 or 9:00 p.m. at my colleague's home with his wife and daughter and about six others, mostly of them from my department. It was enjoyable, even if the wine was flowing freely. Neither my husband nor I participated in the alcoholic libations, so I guess we were spoilsports, but I just don't feel comfortable with drinking, especially not when everyone else there was a tenured faculty person except for me. I felt like I'd been admitted to the Old Boys and Girls Club. Of course, if the initiation was to drink with them, then I failed. My husband, of course, needed to be able to drive us back to Grand Rapids, so he had a good reason to abstain, but mine is even better. I never liked my mother when she was drunk, and I don't like myself when I'm even tipsy. That doesn't happen often, but when it does, I usually feel regretful. Control freak. That's me.

My younger son e-mailed us with the news that he was now qualified for Social Security Disability benefits. I wouldn't say anything to him, nor to his brother, but I honestly don't feel that he should ever have applied for these benefits. I don't know how much money he'll receive (probably not much), but there are people much more deserving of assistance than he is. His "buddy" the social worker has more or less convinced my son that he's crazy and can spend the rest of his life sitting on his ass if he can convince the courts he's crazy enough that he can't work. He'll have to periodically re-apply and be reevaluated by doctors of their choosing, so he probably won't get those benefits for longer than a year or two.

My husband left this morning for Louisiana. I encouraged him to leave early so he could do most of his driving on Sunday, when there is less traffic. Also, I wanted him to be as rested as possible before the ordeal ahead of him (his mother's surgery). The weather is turning bad, with a tropical storm making landfall in the Florida panhandle and a front moving down from the West, so he's sort of sandwiched in the middle. I hope he gets most of the way there before he runs into lots of storms.

I haven't felt well today. I slept badly, awake from 2 a.m. until 4:30 a.m. or so. I go through temperature issues at night: too hot, too cold, blanket on, blanket off. The joys of menopause. Yahoo.

Anyway. That's the way it is.