My soul just feels better with fresh air in my lungs.

I didn't bring anything to work with me for lunch today (I am so out of groceries right now), so I was forced to go somewhere. I decided on Subway, since I hadn't had it forever and because it's probably the least caloric option in the vicinity of work. I took my tuna sandwich to Fairview Park and sat in the parking lot overlooking the hills where they let the fireworks off on the 4th of July. (That makes it sounds so picturesque, but it's not really!) I sat there for about half an hour, five minutes of which was spent with my eyes closed with the sunshine on my face. I thought about how perfect of a day it would be if I were at a beach. It was still pretty nice, even for being in Illinois in the middle of a bunch of cornfields.

I drove back to campus and went for a walk for about 20 minutes. I smiled to myself thinking that folks in England would think that this weather is really hot. I remember one day Carrie came home and said the humidity was stifling. It was like 82 degrees out in June and the humidity was nothing... at least compared to an Illinois summer. Oh, those crazy English.

Comments

Post a Comment

Popular posts from this blog

Well, I found out for sure today that my supervisor at the Accommodations Office is not leaving. I'm not gonna lie... I'm pretty bummed about it. I had sort of decided that being here for the next few years would be perfect for me. I wasn't banking on the fact that he'd leave (after all, it wasn't a fact), but I just spent a lot of time thinking about what it would be like if he did and now that he's not... well... yeah, I'm just bummed. I'm glad that I asked, though, because now I can take my job search more seriously. Not that I wasn't taking it seriously before, but now I know that being at ISU in that capacity isn't an option anymore and I can put all of my energy into other things. There isn't much happening on the job front here, though. I've only applied for one job in the area; all of the others I've applied for are in Las Vegas and Denver. I think it would be cool to move away for a few years, but it's not ideal. I...
Read more
So the situation with the parent has been, I guess, about 75% resolved. Cecilia did some investigating and it sounds like the whole thing was pretty much pointless (the student doesn't even need the class?!). I'm annoyed and frustrated because the mother took a completely different angle with Cecilia, which probably makes me look worse. Cecilia reassured me that I did fine and that I shouldn't worry about it. I still feel awful; that mother said some very hurtful things that will probably stick with me for awhile. I still feel like crying about the whole thing. I hate feeling incompetent, but the thing that's worse is that I'm worried that Cecilia doesn't think I'm a good advisor. She doesn't know me well enough to know that I care, that I listen, and that I'm patient and understanding. All she knows is what she hears from other people and, unfortunately, this parent probably had a lot of bad things to say about me, which really just came from a pl...
Read more

20 Years Ago - NCHS Color Guard Takes Europe

Image
I was recently reminded of our high school trip to Europe, which happened 20 years ago during this time of year--December 26, 2000 through January 3, 2001. It's wild that this event was more than half my life ago! I felt like going down memory lane and writing about the journey, so henceforth commences my first blog post of 2021, commemorating a long-ago adventure during simpler times (pre-9/11, pre-adulthood, pre-any type of responsibility). The whole music department at Normal Community High School went--marching band, color guard, choir, and orchestra--and we all had performances whilst overseas. I was 16 years old and it didn't register to me at the time how big of a deal it was. I totally took the experience for granted, but, with the proper hindsight now, I'm super grateful. It couldn't have been cheap and I don't think my parents had that kind of disposable income readily available. I wish I could go back in time and truly take it all in, appreciate it fully,...
Read more