Week in review

Man, this week has been a mixed bag!  Apologies for not writing sooner - it's one of those weeks where it seems like everything and nothing is going on.  We have 2 weeks left in the semester.  It is exactly 1 week until my birthday.  Time flies.  So...the week in review.

Monday we found out that Dave will not be the interim chair of his department.  Major bummer in some ways, not a major bummer in others.  We were looking at this as a move towards his permanency, but he had a great talk with the Dean, and it appears that he is going nowhere soon.  Which is a very good thing.  We've spent the past 9 months on a real emotional rollercoaster, not knowing because of a lot of things, whether Dave would have a job next year or not.  So, to have someone high up be so optimistic about the future is a nice feeling.

Tuesday, I picked out my birthday present from Dave and Ian.  It might be here in time for my birthday too. It's a beach cruiser, retro-style bike.  Pics to come when it gets here.  I'm super excited!

Wednesday, tornados ripped apart a town Dave and I called home for 8 years.  I made some of my best friends ever there, got my Ph.D. there.  We'd seen tornados while we were there, but nothing this bad.  Thank God almost everyone I know that still lives there is ok.  So far, no one I know is dead or severely injured.  Friends have house and vehicle damage, but no loss of life.  I can't get in touch with the people from a vet clinic that I volunteered at - their clinic was in the vicinity of the hit and all of them were like family.  They were the inspiration for this blog url - they used to call me the Rodent Scholar.  So say a prayer for them and for everyone down there.

This video was shot from University Mall

It's so hard to go on Facebook or to watch videos like this without getting choked up.  Without thinking, wow, I used to eat at Full Moon BBQ, I went to that CVS, Kevin and I would get "scientific doughnuts" from Krispy Kreme when we were stressed.  And I know T-town will rally and rebuild.  And I know the power will come back on.  And I know it could've been much worse and people I know could've been killed.  But it's still so weird and sad to watch the national news and see a place that you lived featured as the top story for such a terrible reason.

Today the I-man didn't feel so great.  Poor baby - he ran a fever all day unless we gave him Tylenol and was generally snotty and miserable.  But even that wasn't entirely bad.  We cuddled a lot, which was really nice.  Granted, I was definitely wishing he felt better, but it was nice just sitting in the rocking chair with nothing more to do than stroke his hair and rock him.

So, whew - what a rollercoaster ride this week!