The snow is falling. It's cold outside. Three inches predicted for today. But next week, next Friday, I'll be flying to Hawaii! The temps there (according to weather.com) are highs in the 80s and lows in the high 60s, with uninterrupted sunshine. How wonderful is that going to be?!!! It's still nearly impossible to believe. I've never been so far away from home before. Just think: a huge expanse of ocean will separate me from everyone and everything I know, with the notable exception of my Esteemed Spouse, who is as excited (if not more so) than I am.
It was nice to get home last night. We ate supper, watched Idol, and talked. Last night I dreamed about Mary and Aunt Susie and my sisters. We were putting together a big feast, and somehow, one of the recipes was little bunches of boiled crawfish added to a fruit salad. (I don't know if that's a yum or a yuck!) It always makes me happy to dream about Aunt Susie. I miss her so much. She was an anchor in my life that provided me with support that I didn't get from my mother. As a result, I take being an aunt myself very seriously, even though I have not had a chance to interact with my nieces and nephews the way I would have liked. I don't know how much good I would have done them, since my influence is apparently to lead them away from fundamentalist religion and conservative ideas and toward open-mindedness and tolerance of others who are different from them.
I've tried really hard all week not to fret and worry over my sons. Maybe when we go to St. Louis for the Popular Culture conference, they can come up to visit us. Or not. Unfortunately, I'm presenting my detective fiction paper on Wednesday night and my husband is presenting Friday afternoon. At least mine will be over with, and I'll be able to enjoy the rest of the conference. I'm hoping to see some of my friends from Mizzou. Jackie and her family live in St. Louis, and Liz and her family live in Columbia, so it's possible.
That means I need to write a paper, though. Actually, two of them, since I have the Michigan Academy of Arts and Sciences paper to deliver somewhere around April 1. That one is not on detective fiction, but on classroom body language and nonverbal communication. It's here in town, at Calvin College. No travel, fortunately.
It's cold in my office, so I guess I'd better turn on some more lights to heat the place up enough to grade papers. There is much of that to do today, tomorrow, and Sunday. I'll have to turn in midterm grades before we leave on Friday. That Friday is also my daughter-in-law's birthday, so I've promised her a gift from Hawaii. Tomorrow is my younger sister's birthday. This is the birthday crunch time in the family.
There will be one family member who won't hear from me this year on her birthday, and that's the niece I've decided to ignore. As I told my sister (not this niece's mother), "She's not in my world anymore. I don't plan to claim her. She's burned her bridges with me." My sister told me that this particular niece has gotten into other trouble with her mouthiness, that it's apparently the reason she can't hold a job. So maybe I should cut her some slack. But that's the problem, I think. Too many people have allowed her to behave in this way, and as a result, their own lives have been damaged by her. I don't personally plan to participate in the continuing destruction. Perhaps I should not admit that I've never really liked this girl because she doesn't have a very winning personality. She's not especially intelligent or open-minded, and she hardly ever emerges from her own navel-gazing to realize that she causes other people discomfort and pain. She's certainly put her own mother through enough hell to last a lifetime. Of course, my sister doesn't hold a grudge about it. It's her own daughter, and her grandchildren, too, at stake. (This daughter, when angered by her mother, threatened to prevent her mother from seeing the grandchildren.)
Anyway, my world isn't a better place for having her in it. It seems to be a calmer and more enjoyable place without her influence. Therefore, that's one fewer birthday card to send this year.
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