More Student Tragedy

I'm afraid I'm going to write this as if it is funny. It is not. But a matter-of-fact list-y tone is all a can muster at the moment before I go home and cry, pet my cat and eat ice cream because I can't freakin' DO anything that will be of any help to anyone except prepare my lectures for tomorrow and I'm not just up to that.
So far this semester, I have had a student die, a student with probable ovarian cancer, a student with acknowledged painkiller addiction, a student's whose wife miscarried, a student with brain surgery and the usual quantity of student's with family members in various kinds of trouble (sick kids, nasty divorces, grandparents dying) and romantic ailments. Then today I received the call from my senior who just found both of her parents murdered. Okay, now I'm crying again. Aaaaaagh.

Facebook?

For lots of reasons (I don't need any more on-line time wasters, I don't want to try and figure out if my colleagues are "friends" . . . ) I am not on facebook and don't particularly want to be. However, I am being encouraged to join from various forces and wanted to know 1) who is on facebook? and 2) how often those of you who are on are on? Let me know.

It's a party in my mind!

I hope I don't sound like I am gloating, but I am so happy about the fact that
(1) I have a four day weekend coming up
(2) After today, I am done teaching in one of my classes.

What this means is that I do not have to give another lecture until next Wed.
And tomorrow, for lab, we are going to a place with the largest population of Blood Root I have ever seen. Even if spring weather is not here the spring ephemerals are out.

What are you happy about today?
Thanks for letting me share.

An email from a student

Here's the entire thing:

'was that the percentage of our grade on the garde to date?

i didnt really get it or its base on how many points i have'

Sheesh! Need I say more?

Earth Hour (and baby) celebrated by knitters

For the second time the knitting group participated in Earth Hour, while throwing a baby shower for Sparkling Squirrel. Well, we kept on a lamp for those knitting, but turned off all other lights. http://www.msnbc.msn.com/id/29900742/ Here's the group at Indian Palace, and lounging in bed Sunday morning. Tucson Trekker & Rusty had some aura going on where I couldn't get a photo of both of them in focus.

Pride

I am proud of our students here at William Jewell. We had one student named as a Goldwater Scholar and one student named as an Honorable Mention. They are both great students and it is just a reminder of why I like my job.

GBKD Mini-weekend retreat Update

The big drama, at least for me, about this retreat was getting Sparkling Squirrel from the airport to Lawrence before the snow storm of the decade set in to the KC metro area. The forecast was for 6-12 inches in Independence and other parts of the metro, with most of the metro forecast for up to six inches. This storm was dumping 15 inches of snow in Western Kansas! There were calls for Thundersnow! Snow could start as early a 7 pm on Friday or 4 am on Saturday. (SS's flight came in at 10:30 pm).

The original plan was I was to pick SS from the airport and return to Independence where we would hang out Sat. morning. Early Sat. afternoon we would head to Lawrence for the larger retreat. Well, with the snow in the forecast, I was worried about getting to Lawrence on Sat.

So I decided to pick up SS from the airport and then head to Lawrence, if the roads were not bad.

I worried about this all day on Friday. Picked SS up without incidence, drove to Lawrence without incidence - just a little sleet.

Had a wonderful time with Sparkling Squirrel and Sally's Sister and a special guest. Slept well.

But this morning - no snow.

Currently, Sally's Sister is making homemade pizza dough for our pizza party tonight.