Friends in Mind

So there's something I have been thinking about a lot lately, (including the night I posted last, but I didn't really want to juxtapose it with my ruminations on the death because thankfully these are quite different situations!) are my friends and family who have been battling day to day with various forms of illness. I know how this can change everything, how you have to be stronger and more perserverent just to do the normal things and how sometimes it just takes it out of you, physically and emotionally...Here's my mental shout out to my friend Jeff, (Reiter's syndrome), my sis, Moira (still recovering from a detached retina), brother-in-law Tom, (mystery malady...and those can be the worst!), my dad (recovering from his colon surgery) and my friend Rosie (breast cancer, started chemo last week). I've been thinking of you, praying for you.

The new school term started today...that was fast! I am taking one class this term, Victorian Lit, and it meets Monday and Wednesday nights, so that will start tomorrow. Today I started my summer "teaching" gig, which is fifteen hours a week tutoring in the reading/writing center. I was happy to get this assignment because, although it is more scheduled hours (teaching is only five in class hours a week), there are no papers to grade--woo hoo! Today was scheduling for the students who are taking set hours of tutoring each week (we also take walk-ins). It was a little worrisome as there seem to be more students than slots. Also, the published hours for the center did not change from the normal school year, 9-5 Monday through Friday, but right now we only have enough people to stay open 9-3 Monday through Thursday. Right at 3 o' clock, as Nikki and I were preparing to leave, three people showed up, planning to sign up for slots after 3pm, or on Fridays. Hopefully they will hire on another person and sort it out somehow, or we are going to have a very busy six weeks!

I am looking forward to this weekend, when the local Shambala center is sponsoring a weekend meditation training retreat. Actually it's just Friday night and Saturday, which is probably enough for my attention span, as I have been slack in my meditation practice as of late. I'll let you know how it goes!

P.S. If you are observant, you might notice this post contains my first attempt at a link! Pictures are perhaps only weeks away!