My family had the most untraditional Thanksgiving ever. Split in half, we all ended up in Mexico, but in two coastal cities more than 20 hours apart from each other. Needless to say, we didn't all see each other, but managed to have a blast in our respective paradises: Mom & Dad, Ev & Emily in Puerto Vallarta; Emily & fam, Leslie, & myself in Puerto Penasco (also known as Rocky Point).
I don't know how to pick a few pictures out of the whole trip to show you how beautiful and perfect it was, but I'll try. And I'll add in a few adorable pics of the nieces for good measure.
The girls and their favorite Aunt Leslie
Katie's unbeatable smile.
Sisters, sisters...
Maddie & me
Our lovely hosts, Emily and Franz
The BBC News site is my source for world news. I may only read the headlines, but I feel more aware of worldly happenings than if I had no news intake at all.
At times, I'm deeply disturbed by what I find on the BBC News.
One of today's:
Hundreds of Nigerian robbers shot
Though the current police inspector general of Nigeria has been in office for only 100 days, he admits that 785 "suspected armed robbers" have been shot, murdered, without fair trial in the last three months. That is, 90 days.
The appalling daily average, then, is around 9 suspected armed robbers killed each day of those three months.
I'm deeply grateful to live in the United States where we have a fairly decent judicial system. No, it might not be perfect, and yes, some innocent people probably are put behind bars, maybe even sentenced to the death penalty.
But most of the the institutions here work. If they don't, they generally don't result in hundreds of murdered people for no reason (note the generally).
I'm grateful to live in a place where the streets aren't lined with military personnel with huge guns, where I don't fear losing my life or my possessions daily, where I know I am free to not only believe what I want, but to voice those beliefs, my opinions, without fearing political, personal, or any sort of repercussions.
I can talk a lot of crap about our government and institutions and the atrocious health care system in this country, but I am eternally grateful that I was born here, that I've grown up here, where I'm free. Where I have more, in nearly every sense of the word, than millions, if not billions of others around the globe. How blessed we truly are.
If I told you what it actually smelled like, I wouldn't have any friends anymore. I'd be ostracized by everyone who knows me.
_________
I work late on Tuesday nights. Last evening, I was sitting at the reference desk and kept getting a waft of the most undignified smell. Such an odor has no place in a library, that's for sure. Linda, today, mentioned the smell of a locker room; indeed, it was akin to that.
Every time I'd go around the desk to go downstairs, the smell would become so powerful it'd almost knock me out. It was such an offensive odor, I didn't want to mention it to the student workers for fear it was one of them or a patron nearby in the library.
__________
This morning, I noticed the smell still. When I was helping a student at the reference desk at noon, I told her to scoot closer to me to avoid the stanky aura that was drifting over the fortress-like walls of the desk.
I mentioned it in a staff meeting today. In explaining where the stench was coming from I pointed out the area by the column that has plants and pumpkins near.
"Maybe we have pumpkin rot," someone offered.
And indeed, that is what we had. The most foul odor ever. Pumpkin rot inside. The entire bottom of the pumpkin was split open and rotting on the carpet.
Needless to say, it's been removed.
There's nothing like making sure you're busy.
I feel like I'm following in the footsteps of my oldest sister, though I'd never claim to be close to her family's level of innumerable commitments and responsibilities. I keep myself going, a full schedule, with the help of 3 calendars/planners. One is electronic. One is portable and in print. The final one stays in my kitchen on the wall.
Looking back at this semester, I think only one or two weekends were free from an event. And I'm tired. But my weekends are booked from now until, well, after Christmas.
I had Friday off of work this week only because I worked all day on Saturday. And although working on Saturdays is inherently lame, having the occasional Friday free from the office is great. You get to run around and do things while the majority of the world is working. It's liberating.
I decided on Friday that I would take my car back to the shop to have them check out the squeaking that had been going on since they changed my oil two weeks ago. As the laws of nature would have it, my car didn't squeak that morning. I knew that would happen. That's Lana Luck for you.
They ran a brake check anyway and found my brakes in great need of help. 5%-10% left on the front and 70% left on the back. Something was off. So they did all this stuff and I sat in the sun-warmed waiting room, reading, for 2 and 1/2 hours. There went my Friday morning (although I did finish the Boleyn Inheritance finally). And all my money.
I had grocerying to do and I wanted to wash my car, as it's been months since I've done that, but I'd spent $300 on two new brake pads and other brake "stuff" when I wasn't expecting to spend any. I got a minimal amount of groceries and called it a day.
The rest of the afternoon, as it was well into the afternoon once I made it home, was spent cleaning, straightening, lifting weights, watching movies, making music mixes, etc. These last two music mixes (Summer 07--Road Trip Replay and Fall 07--Stay with Me) are close to my favorites (for now). My mixes go like this: one for each semester or season so that I am creating a sort of chronological, autobiographical montage of the music I was listening to during any specific time (beginning when I was in grad school). The project has proved insightful. The two mixes that came out of last winter included a great deal of electronica and techno. Good choices for dreary winter.
