Rainy Friday Blues

No raise now. In December, they’ve promised to “look at” my issues.

Let’s look at the other wonderful things that have hit me before 10am on this rainy Friday morning:

1 – Mom called while I was driving to work – she has to have semi-emergency gall bladder surgery this morning. Her condition is not life threatening, but it is painful. Oh, and they’re MOVING HOUSE in like four days.

2 – Baby sister Corrie, who turns 18 today and gets no party or attention because of Mom’s surprise surgery, also needs to be deposited, along with all her teenaged stuff, to her freshman dorm this week.

3 – Given Mom’s post-surgical recovery time, I’ve offered to go up to Wisconsin and help move house and/or drive my sister to her Pennsylvania college. If I go (and I’m happy to do it) then I lose some vacation hours that had been earmarked for visits to the Professor in Brazil next year. So I may have to work Christmas week again.

4 – Sarai, my friend with cancer, found a lump in her other breast last night. Preliminary exams haven’t ruled out a tumor. We’re hoping it’s a ball of yuck from all her treatments, but if it isn’t . . . well what do you do when you go to six months of chemo and cancer still grows?

Ok, now let’s do some glass-is-half-full:

1 – It’s pouring rain outside. That gives us relief from heat, feeds my wilting plants, makes my tomatoes fat and luscious. Sounds nice, too.

2 – Virgil is a big ball of pain-in-the-butt, but so cute; floppy and clumsy and enthusiastic and small. And the Professor’s pretty wonderful with him. Bella’s learning to deal, although she’s turned into Grumpy Cat, and Bite and Hiss at Mom Who I Hate for All Time Cat. It’s something like having a toddler and teenager in the house, though with no diapers to contain the excrement, and sharper teeth.

3 – My birthday’s comin’ in just two weeks. And the Professor, who is going to a conference in Chicago and thought he’d miss it, made arrangements to fly back that night so he could be with me. Smile.

4 – Today’s my baby sister’s birthday. 18 years old. I helped teach her to read, to tie her shoes, to walk, and now she towers over me and is getting ready to start college. Sniff.

5 – The Professor took an extra teaching course this term. Good for the $$ and also his resume, and since it’s a duplicate of a course he’s already teaching, it’s not an unbearable load of pre-term preparation.

6 – I have my health.

7 – I’ve given up non-weekend drinking, to spare the calories. But it’s Friday, so tonight I CAN HAVE A BEER and MAN WILL I and MAYBE A BOTTLE WINE TO WASH IT DOWN. I am SOOO not cooking dinner tonight.

The rain has ceased, and – what’s that I hear? A whisper, it’s pretty quiet – Oh, it’s my pile of work calling. I’d better go shut it up.