We got an email on Friday with more news about the university. While a valiant effort was made to “spin” it, the news was still pretty terrible. The dining services is being outsourced, the baseball program is (seemingly randomly) gone, and about 215 positions will be cut.
No word on how this is going to affect yours truly, but even if I dodge this round my friends at work are surely to feel it. And we’ve already seen waves of people leaving – jumping ship so they don’t have to walk the plank.
So, still stressful and vague. Not doing much for morale – but we’re still working hard and hoping for the best.
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On Saturday morning, I needed some mindless exercise so I got out my trusty reel lawnmower and got the grass cut – human powered. Then I got out the trimmer and went after the edges. Notably, I didn’t do any weeding. I think that I’ve got some interesting looking weeds along the fence in my yard and it seems kind of arbitrary to designate some plants as winners and some as weeds. So, I let them go to see what grows. Also, I’m lazy. I did cut some mint to dry and add to tea – so, I guess I’m a gardener? Or something?
A late breakfast, and then worked on a temporary repair to the back fence. I’ll make a more permanent repair once I’m sure that the neighbors didn’t open up a hole in the fence on purpose – I suspect it was a line crew working on the pole in the corner of my yard. Also, they left a couple dozen feet of co-ax cable hanging down – which I thoughtfully tidied up.
Then, a quick clean up and off to lunch.
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Went to the new Mustard Seed Market downtown for lunch. The menus are at the end of the line and while I guess you’re supposed to take those and figure out what you want and then get in line – we didn’t do that. Instead, we got in line and had to quickly figure what we wanted before we got to the cashier.
A little stressful – especially since I’m not a huge fan of… you know… “favor”, but I figured out how to order something that made sense plain and was ready to go at the cashier.
Lunch was with some new friends that Jim had met on facebook. We had a really nice time “in real life” and while I wouldn’t consider myself good at new social situations – I felt like I had know these two for years and we were Catching Up instead of Getting To Know Each Other. Which was a new thing for me – but very cool. We talked long after lunch was done – a good sign – but Jim and I had a wedding to go to and needed to head out.
Also, while the top of my head wasn’t burning – I had on sunblock – I was starting to heat up a bit. 🙂
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Quick clean up and then dress clothes – then off to the wedding. There were snacks and drinks beforehand, then a short and simple exchanging of the vows. And then, they were married. It was kind of amazing when the rest of the traditional service was skipped – they went right for the important bits. Which was totally fine by me – I’m about the least traditional or sentimental person on the planet. And I am not kidding around on that.
Dinner was pretty good – although, dammit, why do people insist on putting onions in the green beans? What is wrong with you people?
Anyway, lots of cookies and snacks and cake. I did some folding and shared some paper treasures with the kids there – then it was time for music and dancing.
The DJ was, in a word, terrible. I like dancing, but I have my limits and only got out on the dance floor a couple of times. The chicken dance? Really? Again? And they managed to screw up the electric slide. Which I didn’t think was possible. Sigh.
In reality, the problem wasn’t the music – though it was bad.
It was me.
I’ve got a pretty short shelf life when it comes to parties. Unless I’m really engaged, 2 hours is about my limit. By the time 10 o’clock rolled around, I had been ready to leave for about 2 hours. Nobody’s fault but me – which means I guess I need to be more social to get used to being around a lot of people for longer time. Still…. the chicken dance?
Really?
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Headache this morning when I got up, but after ThunderCat and I watched some Fringe I was feeling better. (Seriously, I think he likes watching it with me.)
Jim wanted to go to Stan Hywet today for the gardens and see the flowers. We got a late start, but still managed to see everything before the rain started. Not exactly my thing, but I did like the glass sculptures and the Japanese gardens. He took tons of pictures and I mostly tagged along and tried to stay out of frame.
I was dragging by the end of the day and had another headache – or the one from the morning came back – but I was better after some tea and sitting quietly on the covered porch with a good book.
Which would scream introvert if that wasn’t an oxymoron . So, it sort of quietly suggested introvert. Really, though, I’m trying so hard.
What I really need to do is start a book club where we don’t discuss books. Instead, we just sit near each other, read books to ourselves, and take turns getting tea.
Ahhhhhh… that would be heaven.
Wow, I actually teared up thinking how nice that would be. Yikes! I need to get out more.
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Finally, I think I’m going to make an effort to do more on twitter. Mostly because I decided all my tweets would be in Haiku and it’s a good mental exercise to try and come up with something to say. And make it fit the 5 7 5.
I’ve also got some pictures to add to tumblr tonight. So, I think I’ll close this and spread my social (butterfly) media wings a bit.