Bunny, Trixie, Raul, Jerry, Penny

One more week of semester left. Is it obvious I'm counting the days? It's been a good semester, I'm just ready to have a short break from all the meth math. I was talking with one of my fellow tutors, "Bunny", last week. She was speaking of one of her students who is often late or no shows. On that particular day, the student had actually texted Bunny in advance to let her know she was running late.

"Maybe I taught her more than math this semester", Bunny observed. 

I'll remember to do that.

This past week was a good one, feels like it was productive enough

• Magnum and I had some documents we needed to have notarized for our lawyer in Colorado Springs. No, we're not getting a divorce, we have a will and such that we'd recently updated. We went to our credit union to sign the papers with a Notary Public there.

Our wills include a clause, which the lawyer refers somewhat jokingly to as "The Raul and Trixie Clause". It says that, for example, if I keel over and Magnum runs off with a stripper, our kids remain the beneficiaries and the stripper has no claim to anything when Magnum keels over. So "Trixie" refers to the stripper scenario, and "Raul" to some equally distasteful hook up of my own. 

I remember, at the time of the lawyer's explanation, thinking to myself, "hmmm, I know some Raul's who are good guys. Maybe don't call it that", but whatever. So last week as we were tediously signing off on the updates, I noticed that our notary's name was actually Raul - stars aligning for further vindication. And I doubt he would care to run off with a widowed me anyway.

• There's a [cute art supply store] here in town that I'd never been to. I knew if I went in there, I'd buy something I didn't need. Well, yesterday I went in for the first time because I needed a specific sketchbook. Magnum and I were on a coffee walk, and it was right there.
  
  

I broke in the new sketchbook with them apples.

The little store was pretty much as I expected - well stocked with all sorts of toys and with a friendly staff. 

And I only bought the one item I'd gone in there for. 

Yes, I can do this.

And now a Penny update: recall that our dog, Penny, went from being her usual ball of energy to a lethargic old lady dog seemingly overnight. 

Well, she laid around for two days, and on the third day... well... she has risen. 

No clue as to what knocked her on her ass. It's nice to have her back

 

babies, pandas, grannies

"Go look at the cupboard door", he said, enticingly.

Boss directed us to look at the cupboard door in our breakroom that serves as a bulletin board of sorts. Intrigued, the three of us, Mango, Sarge, and I, went to the cupboard. Clearly, none of us had paid any attention to it earlier.

But there it was. An invitation to a baby shower. A baby shower for Kitty. Alas, Kitty is pregnant!

Okay, THIS sheds a little light on the reason Kitty is joining our campus earlier than expected/ necessary - and maybe why Boss was avoiding talking about it before now.

I won't bore with details, but suffice to say that GrandBoss is a good guy and is helping Kitty out since she's wanted to work primarily at our location for a long time. I've said it before, I don't always like working with GrandBoss, but I like working for him. 

I'm happy for Kitty. She's mid-thirties and has eluded to her biological clock ticking getting louder. 

In other clock ticking news, the semester is winding down. One more week of panic before finals. I've had a crew of nice tutees this semester, and I think they'll survive.

Speaking of teaching and learning, recall that I've been fantasizing about getting a tablet I can draw directly upon. I've picked one out, but haven't shelled out the cash for it. 

In the meantime, I've been playing with my little Wacom tablet that I've primarily used for online tutoring.

Figuring out the tools and quirks of using it for digital art play is fun/ frustrating.

And lastly, a Penny update. She seems to be progressing out of the slugfest she's been on since Wednesday. 

She's not yet 100%, and there's still no clue as to what turned her into a granny dog overnight. But she seems to be getting her appetite back and not being such an old lady.

wednesday waiting

The semester is winding down, and I'm ready for it. Barely one week and a half to go. Tutees are fretting as happens at this point in the game.

One of my students traveled to Texas to meet up with family to see the recent eclipse in totality. When they arrived, they saw that the forecast where they were called for overcast skies at eclipse time, so they actually travelled 10 hours further to have clear skies. They were motivated!

It paid off, she got the clear skies they were after. During her time away, she actually zoom tutored her scheduled sessions with me, speaking of motivation.

Party Girl had a pow wow with Boss earlier this week. We are now fully staffed after operating lean throughout the fall semester. With the onboarding of assistant boss Mango and transferring Star from another campus, we are now a well-oiled machine.

GrandBoss is offloading another part-timer to our campus, and now Boss is struggling to find spots for everyone for summer semester. We've asked him why we're getting another person now, and he really didn't have an answer. He's not one for confrontation however, so he continues with the struggle.

So Party Girl drafted an "email of discontent", basically saying this other who is joining us is messing with her morale. I told Party Girl I thought the transfer made no sense, regardless of who it is, and we do know who it is - the aforementioned Kitty, who previous to that was known as Slacker.

So Party Girl's discontent is real since 

1. We don't need an additional person, and this transfer threatens others' total work hours.
2. The additional person is a known slacker.

I've taken a wait-and-see attitude after voicing my confusion at the whole thing. Party Girl is being more proactive since she's got much seniority. I don't know how the pow wow with Boss went, but I'm sure the office gossip will deliver soon enough.

*sigh* the struggles of the hourly employed.

In other concerns, our pooch, Penny, is not herself today. Lethargic and quiet, unlike her typical bouncy self. 

All was fine yesterday, and she was her typical self when we packed off to bed last night. But today, she's like an old lady dog. 

We wait.

sloughing

 The view outside my window:

Last week, we were out in the sunshine, whooping it up at Bucee's, now we've got snow, a.k.a. "April Showers".

It's probably my fault. I'd put most of my cold weather clothes away and shook out the summer stuff to be greeted with highs in the 30s. 

Oh well, good moisture happening. Good for the plants and all the way up the food chain.

This was another good week that was. Got in some PEO, some testing, some tuting, checking things off the to-do.

Yesterday, I went for a haircut, and my stylist was making the small-talk that she does when she mentioned something about her "ex-husband", which took me a bit aback. All this time I've been going to her for cuts, the husband's always been "husband", not "ex-".

So I was curious but not that curious. I don't really know her that well. I pop in for a 30-minute cut every couple of months, so there's not a whole lot of dishing to be done. And it's not like she just came out with "I'm getting a divorce", she nonchalantly mentioned the ex-husband in reference to some general thing, like he'd been an ex for a long time. And I know she's only had one husband, so this had to be that guy.

Honestly, I'm not a super chatty person. In fact, I'd be perfectly happy to just sit while she cuts, no words needed. But I know others who like the social aspect of going to the stylist. I think it's something stylists are aware of, so they make conversation out of obligation. I can go along with it if I must.

So, should I have asked what's up with the "ex-"? Or just let the comment go by, like I did, not to be nosy. A couple of months ago, he was a several-years husband. 

I did wonder about her daughter, though. She's the youngest kid and still in high school. What does she think of this ex business? Right smack dab in the middle of prom season? This too shall pass.

I finished up my scheduled physical therapy sessions. Not surprisingly, Dr. J tried to sell me some more, but I think I'm good for now. Not quite feeling like a 17-year-old again, but good enough not to throw any more money at the troubles for now. 

I'm happily running again, slow AF, but it kind of looks like running.

need gas?

 I've been thinking that I want a new toy. A tablet. A tablet that I can draw directly upon. I justify it by saying how handy it would be for tutoring and for P.E.O, which it totally would, but I really want to play (a.k.a. draw) on it.

And then I'd have to learn to use all the tools for digital drawing. For now, I can only do cartoony things. I do have a tablet that is separate from my screen that is great for online tutoring, and I can use it to play draw. So I did this a little while ago.

Know this guy? Do ya?

Magnum and I made it to the ridiculous gas station that is Buc ee's on Friday. 

I mean, he needed some gas, so why not?

We knew ahead of time that it was huge - 74,000 square feet of convenience store. 116 gas pumps.

A large portion of the pumps were strangely occupied when we arrived. The novelty is still wearing off a bit since this Buc ee's opened about a month ago. Just across the road sits a standard Loaf 'n' Jug. It looked like a Lego® replica in its juxtaposition with Buc ee's.

Then we parked the car and headed to the store, glancing back frequently as we're taught when hiking in an unknown area of the woods. Look backwards often so you know what your return trip should look like, to prevent getting lost in the vast wilderness. It applies in the Buc ee's parking lot.

There were plenty of people there, but the store was so huge, it was easy to walk around. We were instantly struck with the smell of barbecued flesh as there was a LOT of food being freshly made. In addition to all that, there were rows and rows of typical convenience store fare - snack bag stuff, a whole wall of jerky...

So I wasn't too shocked at any of this as I'd heard stories of the Buc ee's experience. What I wasn't prepared for, however, was... the restroom.

I'd heard they had "the cleanest restrooms", but by gas station standards, that's difficulto get too excited about. But Buc ee's outdoes them all by miles!

The bathroom was huge and sparkly clean. You could throw a high school prom in there. And the stalls, omg the stalls - each with its own nearly floor-to-ceiling heavy door with Schlage indicator lock. Inside was plenty of TP, and a private hand sanitizer dispenser. Super bright and cheery because of the individual skylight.

It was quite ridonkulous.

So now I've had the Buc ee's experience. Apprently the chain has a nearly cult following, I mean...

SOURCE

We didn't try the barbecue or the "Buc ee nuggets", as we were fresh from lunch. No tattoos are planned either.

We did bring home a so soft plush blanket, though. 

The cat promptly let us know that we got it for him.

missives

"Me and S send our deepest apologies.  We have other circumstances that prevents us from attending the tutoring session..."

 - a last minute cancel text I received from a tutee this week. It's so... formal.

If not for the grammatical errors - "Me and S" *cringe*; "...circumstances that prevents..." *frown* - I would highly suspect he asked ChatGPT or similar to write the text for him. It's what all the kids are doing these days, right?

This particular tutee is young, intelligent, and personable, but his texts are so formal. Deepest apologies? Circumstances?

Anyway, it was another busy week, and I am now basking in un-busyness. The only scheduled thing I have today is an annual well-woman check later this morning. Coworker Star is back from her worldly travels, so my Fridays are free once again, for now.

I was at work on Monday during the eclipse. We had just a little over 50% of totality here, so no biggie. The campus observatory had their filtered telescopes available, but the line was very long, so I skipped. At least the campus had a large stash of eclipse glasses, and Work Study grabbed a pair we all took turns with.

So I popped out and oohed and aahed a bit with the cardboard glasses, then went back to work. Wolfgang had road tripped to Texas with some friends to see the totality, so after work, I fed his cat. That sums up my 2024 eclipse experience.

Apparently the next eclipse to cross the U.S. will be in 2045. Its path will go right over Colorado. If I'm still alive and in Colorado at that time, maybe I'll have my nurse wake me from my nap.

And speaking of nurses, this week, we got the sweetest gift at work from one of the nursing students. 

We provide testing for several nursing students each semester.  And nursing students take a LOT of tests - sometimes 2 or 3 a week. So we get to know them quite well over the two year program and vice versa. 

They're often understandably giddy and thankful around graduation - "might not see you again... unless you're in the hospital?"

This week, one particularly pleasant student dropped off a box of donuts along with the sweetest thank-you note, even mentioning Boss, Sarge, and me by name. 

It prompted quite the onion-cutting fest, it did. 

And, the donuts? No grocery store donuts. They were from Lamar's. 

"He went to Lamar's" is the donut equivalent to "He went to Jared"

fancy pants in the wind

Like many across the country right now, we're fighting the wind wars. I trekked the one mile to the gym this morning and saw lots of tree trash and bowed fencing from yesterday and last night. It's predicted to taper off this afternoon and evening - something to look forward to.

I worked yesterday with Triple-D and [Chili], which I didn't mind since it was a good day to be stuck indoors. And it was a nice time.  Everyone seemed friendlier than usual, and I'm chalking that up to Chili's presence. 

Also as predicted, my stepfather-in-law did pass away late Thursday/ early Friday. I'm relieved for him as his quality of life was very low by that time. Thankfully, he was able to live with home hospice care with my mother-in-law until the final breath. I'm relieved for her too and hope she can relax some now.

So yesterday after work, while the wind was howling and rattling the windows, I stayed in and did some much needed cleaning. Seems like I could produce a whole dog out of the hair I vacuum up each time - the downside of dog ownership.

I also played with my sketchbook and pencilled another of these Akira Toriyama characters. 

This one is named Kid Buu and is apparently "pure evil".

I really know nothing about the whole Dragonball scene, just find the characters so expressive in their posturing.

Kid Buu or not, after the exercise, I think of him simply as "Mr. Fancy Pants"

We watched a movie - The Novice - about obsessive compulsive behavior and perfectionism (I guess). It got a high rating on Rotten Tomatoes, but I didn't care for it.  And it wasn't just because it was about womens collegiate rowing, I mean, the main character had to have something to obsess about to get the points across. I just didn't care about the character.

Yesterday, I learned that one of the nursing students who tests with us at the college had been a vet tech for years. She said the sick animals made her too sad, so she decided to switch to nursing people because she figures people won't have as much of an effect. Hmmm.

Today's agenda includes a coffee walk in the wind and a dog food and cat litter run. Excitement.

barometers and babies

Going in to work in a couple of hours. I think this is the last Friday afternoon that I'm covering for coworker Star as she vacations around the globe. Or maybe I've got one more cover, I don't remember at the moment, but I'll be there today. 

A little weekly recap:

• I was zoom tutoring yesterday with a student who attends one of our other campuses. Student lives near my brother, Hagrid, and we were talking about the incoming weather warnings. This weekend is set to be windy and low humidity - a bad combination because it raises the fire danger.

So I asked Student how he fared a couple of years ago in that very scary Marshall Fire - the one that [burned Hagrid's house down].

Well, Student didn't lose his house, but his wife went into labor at just 8 months pregnant. AND, the hospital they were sent to actually was the one that had to be evacuated because of the approaching fire, AND the second hospital they went to was nearly out of beds because of all the birthing women. He said it was because of the pressure drop.

The windstorm that whipped up the fire was the precurser to a significant snowstorm, so the barometric pressure dropped suddenly. After a quick google search, I learned this may affect pregnancies (makes me wonder about other mammals) and send women into labor. Studies are "inconclusive", however. Like full moons making people crazy(er) - mostly anecdotal "evidence"  from nurses saying it's so. Who knew?

• Anyone watching the NCAA tournaments? I've never really paid attention to March Madness, but who can escape the hype around Caitlin Clark and Iowa?

I've not watched any of the games or even highlights, just sort of following along. She has certainly put womens college basketball on the map. But what to do with that basketball talent as a woman? I'm sure she'll be a force in the WNBA and get lots of endorsements, but how big of a following has the WNBA?

I have no clue, or interest, as to what's happening in the men's bracket.

There it is - work, weather, and sports. How's that for standard avoidance chit chat? 

I will mention that my 91-year-old stepfather-in-law is likely in his last few hours unless he's already passed away and I just haven't received word yet. He's become quite frail in recent months and took a significant turn for the worse earlier this week. 

Magnum is in Colorado Springs - where his mom and stepdad live - for work today and sure to be checking in with his mom.