Saturday Snippets: Summer Session, Week 1

It feels like a whirlwind of a week.  I do wonder if I start many a Saturday feeling that way about the past week.  Let me take a look back, snapshot style, so that I'll remember in later years:

--The first week of the quarter has gone well for my department.  How do I define well?  No one was kept away or called away by an air traffic controllers' strike or natural disaster or a health crisis.   We didn't have two or more classes booked into one room.  The technology kept working, even if it was slow.  No one got a better job offer and quit week 1.

--Let me hasten to add that I don't begrudge my department members a better job.  I just prefer to avoid the chaos of better jobs arriving when classes are underway.

--It was a week of departures in other parts of the school, all voluntary.  While I am sad to see people go, I am happy to be reminded that we all have options.

--It was a week of several birthdays.  At work, the birthdays made the atmosphere more festive.  We have a colleague who always makes sure we have a cake on birthdays.

--My birthday was Tuesday.  You may know that for my birthday I got both a nuclear arms control treaty with Iran and amazing pictures of Pluto--just the things to get for a girl who already has everything a girl could want.

--I had multiple reminders that although I may feel invisible and inconsequential, I have purpose.  I helped many students and the various colleagues that go with them.  I have family and friends, and although I may not see them as often as I wish I could, we are still connected.

--I ended the week with my parents arriving for a long week-end with us.  I am lucky in that I truly like being with all of my relatives, both on my side and my spouse's side.  I know many people who see a visit with family as a chore to be endured.  I do not.

--I used their impending arrival as a chance to catch up on sorting the paperwork that's been piling up.  I got the guest room organized.  I did some long delayed cleaning (like windowsills and baseboards).  I love being in a clean, uncluttered house, but I don't always take the effort.

--As I cleaned, I also thought about the fact that we moved here 2 years ago, and some of the stuff that we moved over from the old house, I haven't used in the past 2 years.  Perhaps it is time to sort and declutter again.

--We have a smoker that we got from a neighborhood friend who upgraded to a better smoker.  We finally started using it this week.  What an amazing difference that smoking a chicken makes to the taste of chicken--and any dish that uses smoked chicken.  We had a fabulous chicken chili on a rain-threatening Thursday night and the Mexican casserole dish that we make with refried beans and grilled veggies was even better with smoked chicken.

--What will the week-end bring?  Will we smoke a salmon?  Will we shop the end of summer sales?  Will we breakfast at the beach?  Will we decide to relax in the backyard, since we have new furniture?  Stay tuned!