Relaxxxxxxxxxxx
Well I'm taking it easy today. I've got certain pains, shall we say. The kind I loathe and resent some months more than others. But let's not go there.
Yesterday was my first day of classes and it went all right. I was a bit frazzled and hurried having missed our first class. My students left feeling a bit rattled in the brain space as I threw a lot of concepts at them. But they laughed at my jokes and I even got in a (legitimate!) Noel Fielding reference (one student perked up in recognition). Then a few students came up afterwards seeming very enthusiastic and for this I am grateful.
Then I made my way uptown and caught up with tennis_bear who showed me some stuff he'd found in his personal archives; there were flyers and papers and assorted other things from a Doctor Who after school group he and some friends started when he was a teenager. It was adorable. And we went to Strictly Roots where I ate waaaay too much. It's a Vegetarian Jamaican place where I used to eat lunch a lot, many years ago when I interned at a foster care agency in Harlem. We also looked in some shops in Harlem for the ras-el-hanout spice mixture recommended by cmcmck, with no luck. :sadface:
And he gave me a necklace of a pink triangle with a red shoe on it. He said it "screamed Gina" when he saw it. :-)
In a little while we met up with some other friends of mine at a place called Harlem Tavern and had a delightful evening under clear skies. And tennis_bear discovered two of my friends live a block away from him. So, yay neighbors!
Here I am with my Harlem peeps
My evening was topped off by a late night Skype chat with doctorpancakes, truly the best way to end my day.
Skype is some pretty amazing technology. Have I mentioned lately that I love the internet?
I love the internet.
On Friday the news was broken to all the staff and somehow it didn't occur to me that people would take my boss' departure as intensely as they did. Many of them cried. I had to stop and remind myself that she's been there for 10 years, and also that I've known this information for weeks, over a month. I've had time to not only process it but move beyond it as I consider my future at the helm. Tomorrow should be interesting, as she starts training me in the new position.
It was very odd placing an ad for my own replacement. I want to replace me with me, only Better Me.
Today I caught up on Torchwood and Doctor Who. I'm fairly certain I wasn't meant to laugh and/or roll my eyes at the narrative crescendos of each. Feel free to discuss in the comments, as you wish, those on my flist who are into either of those shows.
I'd cruise my flist for their reactions, except I've opted to avoid much internet contact today in a deliberate attempt to avoid all the 9/11 stuff.
(And btw, I'd be much obliged if nobody swung by with any 9/11 comments here. Really. Just don't, and don't try to engage me in why either cuz that's just as dreadful. We all have our ways of dealing, and this is mine).
I leave you with this, a product that simultaneously intrigues and frightens me as well as makes me laugh. It reminds me of Edwardian era packaging.
Yesterday was my first day of classes and it went all right. I was a bit frazzled and hurried having missed our first class. My students left feeling a bit rattled in the brain space as I threw a lot of concepts at them. But they laughed at my jokes and I even got in a (legitimate!) Noel Fielding reference (one student perked up in recognition). Then a few students came up afterwards seeming very enthusiastic and for this I am grateful.
Then I made my way uptown and caught up with tennis_bear who showed me some stuff he'd found in his personal archives; there were flyers and papers and assorted other things from a Doctor Who after school group he and some friends started when he was a teenager. It was adorable. And we went to Strictly Roots where I ate waaaay too much. It's a Vegetarian Jamaican place where I used to eat lunch a lot, many years ago when I interned at a foster care agency in Harlem. We also looked in some shops in Harlem for the ras-el-hanout spice mixture recommended by cmcmck, with no luck. :sadface:
And he gave me a necklace of a pink triangle with a red shoe on it. He said it "screamed Gina" when he saw it. :-)
In a little while we met up with some other friends of mine at a place called Harlem Tavern and had a delightful evening under clear skies. And tennis_bear discovered two of my friends live a block away from him. So, yay neighbors!
Here I am with my Harlem peeps
My evening was topped off by a late night Skype chat with doctorpancakes, truly the best way to end my day.
Skype is some pretty amazing technology. Have I mentioned lately that I love the internet?
I love the internet.
On Friday the news was broken to all the staff and somehow it didn't occur to me that people would take my boss' departure as intensely as they did. Many of them cried. I had to stop and remind myself that she's been there for 10 years, and also that I've known this information for weeks, over a month. I've had time to not only process it but move beyond it as I consider my future at the helm. Tomorrow should be interesting, as she starts training me in the new position.
It was very odd placing an ad for my own replacement. I want to replace me with me, only Better Me.
Today I caught up on Torchwood and Doctor Who. I'm fairly certain I wasn't meant to laugh and/or roll my eyes at the narrative crescendos of each. Feel free to discuss in the comments, as you wish, those on my flist who are into either of those shows.
I'd cruise my flist for their reactions, except I've opted to avoid much internet contact today in a deliberate attempt to avoid all the 9/11 stuff.
(And btw, I'd be much obliged if nobody swung by with any 9/11 comments here. Really. Just don't, and don't try to engage me in why either cuz that's just as dreadful. We all have our ways of dealing, and this is mine).
I leave you with this, a product that simultaneously intrigues and frightens me as well as makes me laugh. It reminds me of Edwardian era packaging.