Finally we're getting some beautiful spring weather! So I go outside to eat my lunch on a bench under a flowering tree in the middle of campus, and along comes a retired colleague who used to have an office next to mine and pretty soon we're sitting there chattering away and enjoying the sunshine so much that I don't even notice that bugs are falling on me.
Two hours later I'm still picking them off, little black beetly things that crawled up my sleeves and down my shirt and into my underwear until I'm feeling bugs crawling even where there are no bugs. Good thing I'm not teaching this afternoon--imagine trying to retrieve a squirmy insect from inside your bra while standing in front of a room full of freshmen.
So typical! In the middle of the most gorgeous day of the semester, I get attacked by creepy-crawlies. Looks like it's time to get out of Dodge!
And, thanks to the generosity of my wonderful colleagues, I'm going to do just that--not because of the bugs but because my mother's health is deteriorating quickly. I'm flying out Saturday and missing the last week of classes but leaving behind detailed instructions for colleagues who are stepping in. I should be back for finals week but I've prepared all my final exams and set them out on my desk with full instructions just in case I get delayed.
I'll take some work with me, of course--a little grading, a little committee work, a few drafts that require responses--but I think I'll leave behind the bugs.
(But first I have to find them all.)
1 comment:
Hope the trip goes as well as such trips can go. At least being onsite in a crisis usually beats worrying from a distance, so hurrah for colleagues who provide support in an emergency.
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