Today started off wonderfully. I could sleep a little later because I was working from home (my summer schedule), and I had a leisurely breakfast and cup of coffee. Then I checked my emails... and saw a reminder about an in-person meeting today. Travalon was heading in to work, so I asked if he could drop me off. We drove to the parking lot where I catch the shuttle, and the shuttle was waiting there, so I offered to take it, but he said, "No, I'll take you in." The shuttle saw I wasn't going to take him, so he left right after us. We were driving on Langdon Street when we got stopped for construction, and Travalon said he suddenly had to go really badly. There were a couple of port-a-potties at the construction site, so he turned on his hazards and ran over to them. A guy was there, but Travalon looks like a guy who has worked with his hands, so the guy just waved him in. After that slight delay, we drove to my building... and as Travalon was dropping me off, I saw the shuttle go by, so I saved exactly no time by riding with him. At least he wasn't really late to work himself, and nobody seemed to notice that I was offline for twenty minutes. I didn't take a morning break to make up for it.
Lately in the evening there have been what look like plumes of smoke but are actually swarms of bugs called midges filling the evening air. I mention this because a) it's freaky as all get-out, and b) as I was walking with Seabird at lunch today, I inhaled a midge. I started coughing uncontrollably, and she asked if I was okay, so I said, "I inhaled one of those bugs!" "Extra protein," she said, and I said, "No, I didn't swallow it, I inhaled it!" But I quickly recovered. She said walking with me is like having a living encyclopedia with her, because I know what all the trees and birds and shrubs are. I only knew what the midges were because of a recent newspaper article about them.
I had an online meeting before lunch that was torture, because the people who were supposed to be showing us the new system didn't know how to use it themselves, so we got treated to twenty minutes of them trying to figure something out in the demo. In the afternoon we had a Staff Congress meeting, which is why I had to be in person, and the head of all HR at the university congratulated me on my promotion. Then when I got back to the office, there was an email saying I would have to leave a committee I'm on because of my promotion. I thought I had until Wednesday to decide, but it sounds like it's been decided for me. So I guess I'm salaried now.
In the evening there was a old-time music jam at the music club I belong to, but there was also a Mass for a guy who was just ordained to the transitional diaconate, and it was at my old church. Any chance I get to go to Mass there, I'll take, even though I don't know the guy. Because he's Mexican, the Mass was mostly in Spanish, and I was doing pretty well at following it but flubbed the responses. Rich sat next to me, and then afterwards there was a huge fiesta in the church basement with tacos and chimichangas and horchata and rice and beans, and other random things like cheese and crackers and melons and macaroni salad, and lots of desserts. I wasn't even hungry but still ate like a pig (un cerdo) anyway. Rich and I snuck away to the library to do Night Prayer, then I headed home and he went right back to the party. Hockey Girl said it felt like tomorrow should be Saturday, since people usually party like that on Friday nights, but I know tomorrow is Tuesday and I have to work. At least it's from home, so I can sleep in and then drink coffee in my pajamas.
Famous Hat
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