If you see a whole thing - it seems that it's always beautiful. Planets, lives... But up close a world's all dirt and rocks. And day to day, life's a hard job, you get tired, you lose the pattern. - Ursula K. LeGuin

Tuesday, December 8, 2009

RBOC: Update Edition

  • Work for the next two weeks will consist of nothing but meetings, reviews and grading. Ugh!
  • My department is beginning an assessment of our doctoral program. We have not yet reached the 5-year mark with the program but have noticed several ideas from our initial proposal have not panned out the way we expected. Mid-course corrections are important and good but it's getting hard to stay committed to the process as the semester rolls to a close.
  • The potential third piece of family bad news did not come to fruition. We are all relieved.
  • Unfortunately that doesn't take away from the crapification of the other pieces of news.
  • Most of the trouble has resolved around finances and employment. The majority of my family can be classified as the "hidden unemployed."
  • Hidden unemployment has been discussed as a indicator of the nation's financial health but I haven't found as much discussion on the lack of resources available to the individuals themselves. When an entire family is hit social capital is destroyed.
  • We had a wonderful time with Angel on his birthday.
  • Last night we bought our Christmas tree. It is a particularly lovely one this year. I'm hoping Angel can come up next week to help decorate.
  • Pumpkin has been accepted to graduate school for the spring semester. She'll be moving to a neighboring state on January 2nd. We are very excited for her.
  • While cleaning up some files I realized I have 12 manuscripts under review. This may be some kind of record for me.

3 comments:

Seeking Solace said...

Yay for Pumpkin!!!

"Crapification"...I so have to use that. It's right up there with my "Crapola". :)

Annie said...

Thanks for the update. I'm glad there is some good news and happy days to report, and I hope things work out better for your family.

Julie said...

I'm sorry for your family's troubles, but I'm glad the third piece of bad news did not happen. At least that's something, but it doesn't make the other two things less painful.

I can relate to unemployment. It's so scary and does affect the entire family, physically and mentally.

I can't get unemployment benefits, because we moved. What little we had for retirement is gone with the wind. I recently cashed in my life insurance policy to pay bills. I can't die or grow older now:)

Enough of me...yet again. On a good note, I'm glad you all had fun on Angel's day. And congrats to Pumpkin. That is awesome! It's cool that she can be in a neighboring state. I know you're very excited and proud of her accomplishments.