1) My husband won a big award. I mean, technically he won two big awards, one at the university level and one at the college level, but the one at the college level was super meaningful. I was there when it was announced and he was so surprised and I was surprised at how quickly I welled up with tears. He's so good at what he does.
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2) The first day of classes was Wednesday. There was a "threat to life safety" emergency issued at my campus, but we didn't know at the time was that it was not a true threat to life safety. It was scary. Fortunately, I was not the adult in the room at the time - our associate deans started telling us what to do in our office space and I just did what I was told to do. I had a student in my office and I shut off the lights, closed and locked the door, and pulled down the blinds. It was terrifying. I mean, in the end, it was nothing, but there was a half hour or so there where I was frantically trying to find my husband. I just. I never want to go through that again.
And, honestly, the rumors going around this are astounding. Someone was acting erratically at the library and someone else thought they had a weapon. This was called in. It turns out that the maybe weapon was an umbrella. That's the end of the story. But the rumor mill is out of control.
Now we're dealing with a flood of calls for students asking to move to online classes. Classes have started. Classes are at full capacity. This feels like a surreal nightmare.
3) The dog was sick. Again. This time it was the living room rug. So if you come to my house and it smells like dog shit, YOU HAVE TO LET ME KNOW. We are officially nose blind to it at this point because the involvement in cleanup was real.
4) Labor Day is this weekend. I have been tasked with bringing salads. Let's be clear, I usually bring a lettuce salad, but I'm OUT ON LETTUCE RIGHT NOW. I'm going to bring green bean salad and grape salad and hope for the best. If anyone dares to call me out on the salad game, I will probably not handle it well.
I also added "mani/pedi" to the options of things to do over the weekend and a bunch of us are going to get our nails done on Saturday morning. I've already made the appointment and everything. I WILL BE THE COOL AUNT.
5) Updated on seasonal SAD: It's already bad. I'm walking Hannah in the dark 2/3 daily walks again. I am chronically tired. I am very much liable to start crying if you ask me a single even slightly controversial question. I am looking forward to Labor Day, but as soon as someone asks me how the start of the semester is going, I'm nervous I might just break down.
I decided on my birthday in mid-August that I was going to reset. It's been a tough couple of years in the old Gimbalsh household and I was determined that things were going to turn around. But the days get shorter, there's unbloggable things happening at work, and then this week happened with the dog and the active threat to life alert and the news of the world. And it has been (counts days) seventeen days since I decided to reset and I think I'm in a worse place than I was before.
So if all I'm writing about is books and what I ate for dinner, please give me some grace. I am trying to keep it together.
Happy Labor Day to those who celebrate. For the rest of the world, happy weekend!
No Engie. What a scare. I am glad is good but what terrible 30 minutes this must have been. I am so sorry and truly hope you'll never have to go through it again.
ReplyDeleteAlso I am so sorry I have missed your birthday (very belated wishes to you!) and that you are having a rough time. I feel life is tiring these days with everything going on. I am at a loss on how to handle it and for me not even books can give me comfort this year. Glad you can enjoy those at least.
Congrats to the ward. That is so so cool.
It really was scary, but I'm glad no one was hurt.
DeleteGrape salad sounds like a good dessert to me! I read the recipe and it sounded like something that should also be surrounded by Jell-O in some way. So Midwestern.
ReplyDeleteCongratulations to Dr. B for his awards! Were they teaching-related, or for professional research...?
Here's hoping that Hannah feels much better soon and that you do, too. xo
Grape salad is VERY Midwestern. My husband's aunts very much appreciated it, though. Apparently it used to be a staple at these family functions and the reappearance made them so happy.
DeleteHe won two awards - one for advancement of General Education (university-wide award) and one was Chair of the Year (college-wide). His department has had quite a wild ride over the last couple of years and this was recognition of his leadership through some choppy waters. It was so meaningful.
Well...#1 is amazing and #4 is manageable/high probability of being fun. Too bad that the other stuff didn't get the memo about the reset. There is only so much resetting that you can do when the environment around you sucks. Ask me how I know.
ReplyDeleteI'm sending good vibes and looking forward to the books and dinner chat. Doggo said to tell Hannah that she is sending good belly vibes.
Hannah now has to be on anti-diarrheal meds for the rest of her life. POOR DOG. Oh, well. The hope is we can give it to her once every two or three days, so it won't be an every meal or even every day situation. FINGERS CROSSED.
DeleteTrying again as blogger was down yesterday!
ReplyDelete1) Congrats to your husband!
2) OMG
3) OMG!!!!!
4) A mani-pedi sounds wonderful and I hope you have a great time!
5) I'm so sorry that things are so hard. You have been really going through it. We are all here for you. Book talk and dinner talk sounds perfect to me. xo
YES! Blogger was down. Why was it down? I was having an existential crisis about what would happen if my entire blog just disappeared. Maybe I should consider something other than Blogger that is still being updated and supported. Or maybe I will continue with this precarious situation.
DeleteCongrats to your husband! That is so awesome!! But the lock down is terrifying. I am so sorry you went through that and that is has repercussions on how students feel about their safety. Gah. Isn’t it sad that our children go through those drills on a regular basis. When I was a kid, the only drills were fire and tornado drills and there was nothing scary about it. Now we are told about the drills related to an active shooter (they have a color they use to refer to the drill so it’s not like they say shooter drill but that is what it is and older kids know because there WAS a shooting in our gd zip code last August). It’s so depressing and yet no changes are made to gun control because people love their guns so gd much.
ReplyDeleteOkay… my comment is really going places. But I am so fed up about the ridiculous number of guns in our country. Sigh.
But again, congrats to your husband. I am so glad his talents are being recognized!!
I always think about Annunciation a lot. It really hits close to home when it's RIGHT THERE.
DeleteI was very traumatized by a fire drill in kindergarten. I didn't understand what a drill was, thought it was a real thing, and was very scared about where my sister was. They had to go get her from her classroom line and bring her over to me to calm me down. Honestly, it might be my first "real" memory. I worry about what we're doing to little brains with all of this.
ACK! It’s amazing how quickly things can go from ‘everything is fine’ to ‘I’m terrified and hiding in my office’! Stupid rumor mill. How scary. Also, what Lisa wrote above about the active shooter drills. When my daughter was in middle school they would have those, and the VP of the school would go around banging on the classroom doors to make it seem more ‘real’. Fuck that guy. Even though they knew it was a drill, it was really scary and really toxic masculinity I think. I think he got off on it. Anyway, I’m so so sorry you had to go through that, and that it was not a drill but a real threat (even if just an umbrella).
ReplyDeleteI’m so sorry that Hannah is sick again, poor thing has such a delicate tummy. My childhood dog had a stomach made of steel, but both of the dogs I’ve had as an adult had very delicate tummys. Genevieve always had diarrhea, which was so gross. Mulder always barfed, which was also gross but somehow not as bad as the diarrhea. I swear, we had him less than a week the first time we woke up to the sound of retching. I wonder if that’s why the people who had him before sold him on Craigslist (the rescue went and bought him in a parking lot).
I think with the state of lettuce right now, everyone will appreciate your diligence and feel more comfortable eating the salads you make. We are going to a birthday party on Monday and I am throwing caution to the wind and bringing salad. But I will probably buy a whole head of lettuce that is grown in California, at the Farmer’s Market. Still risky, but average amount of risky, right?
I’m sorry the SAD is so hard on you. I wish I knew an answer that was easier than ‘move to California and be my neighbor and I will babysit Hannah and Zelda for you’.
Well, what we learned here is that none of us are prepared for an active shooter. If something really goes down, we're all screwed. If someone tried to scare me even more in a drill, I think I would have a hard time going back to work.
DeleteHannah's now going to be on a medication for her stomach for the rest of her life. My vet said that this happens for some shepherds. *shrug*
Ugh. I'm sorry friend. Life can feel like a lot at the best of times and that is a broad range of hard things that covers deep existential topics and everyday things that are horrible to deal with (a dog being sick over the rug). Hugs.
ReplyDeleteWrite what feels cathartic. There is no right/wrong and I find processing my feelings helps both validate and liberate them, in a way.
Huge congrats to Dr. BB. And while I know you are both high-functioning independent adults, I am sure your support and encouragement are part of why he is such a good professor, so kudos to you in all of this too.
That active threat situation sounds absolutely terrifying. Not only does it make you feel on edge for future concerns, but it in itself is a form of trauma, even if the "worst case scenario" didn't end up playing out. Ugh. And I can see how the rumour mill can just further perpetuate those complicated and traumatic feelings.
I hope you are able to get some much-needed rest. Hugs <3
I was talking with my husband's aunt over Labor Day about how challenging the last 2-3 years has been and she said, "sometimes you have a hard decade." A HARD DECADE?! That seems like too much!!!
DeleteSo sorry about the threat to life alert. I had one at my former job and the two-ish hours we were locked in were awful. It was a false alarm thankfully, but as you know, you don’t know it then, and the fear is real. Hugs (if you’re a hugger). Write about books and dinner and whatever! Never apologize for blogging about what you want on your own blog!
ReplyDeleteTWO HOURS! Oh, no. That's a very long time. I'm sorry that happened to you.
DeleteENGIE. What can we do to help??? The dog (why do they do these things on the CARPET???) The threat to life incident... have I ever told you about the time I was at the mall and there was an "active shooter" which turned out to be a balloon popping? Imagine the chaos. And afterwards my friend told me that of course the stress in that moment was just as real as if there had been a real shooter, so the PTSD can be real as well.
ReplyDeleteI feel you so, so much on the SAD. I know I complain all the time now about the Florida heat, but the whole reason I moved here was because of SAD. It is TERRIBLE. Does the SAD lamp actually help? They didn't have those when I was growing up in the dark, gloomy midwest.
On a brighter note, congratulations to your husband!!! And I hope you enjoy the Labor Day weekend. Hang in there... and also write about whatever you want! We are here for it!
Oh, no! Balloon popping could be so scary! Ugh. It's true that you might have learned it was false afterwards, but it felt very real at the time.
DeleteThe SAD lamp does help, but it is not a replacement, obviously. I do a lot better than I did in the 90s and 00s, but I just want the sun to shine!
Btw I tried to comment yesterday but it didn't work- no idea why!!!
ReplyDeleteBlogger was down! I had a nightmare that I would never be able to get comments again. How would I keep up with everybody?!
Delete1. How cool! Dr. BB is a superstar!
ReplyDelete2. OMG, how awful. I’m sorry you had to go through that.
3. See above. AAAAARG.
4. You are definitely with cool Aunt!
5. This on top of 2 and 3 adds up to a lot of bad things out of your control. Sending hugs. I’m here for posts about books, food, venting, and whatever you decide to write about.
Just FYI, I do read all of your posts. I don’t always comment, but I love how your write.
I was truly the cool aunt this weekend. None of my other niblings have ever thought I was cool, but the twelve-year-old girls think I'm pretty fun!
DeleteCongrats to Dr. BB! I’m so sorry a wonderful moment like that was followed by one so awful. I don’t really have words, but am thinking about you and your colleagues. Write whatever you want, whenever you want; life is for sure life-ing. PS: Dogs aim for carpet and rugs; I’d swear to it. Maysie threw up the other day and did it over a gate (over) (OVER) into the living room rather than on the kitchen floor.
ReplyDeleteAgreed! Our dog used to struggle with us when he was about to throw up and we were trying to get him to the bathroom tile. NO, he wanted to barf on the carpet!
DeleteWe have a theory that they can't grip on the tile/wood, so they always go for a rug or carpet. But it IS really gross.
DeleteWe heard about the active shooter threat while out to lunch as a team on Wed. Everyone whipped out their phones at once, which was kind of comical (though the situation was NOT AT ALL FUNNY). Glad it was a false alarm.
ReplyDeleteCongrats to your husband!!
This is going to sound weird, but who do you go to for your mani/pedi? Tara has been wanting to get her nails done, but has no idea where to go.
Oh, if I'm going for a mani/pedi in town I go to Gel Nails, which is by Festival and H&R Block. You can make appointments, but I've also never been turned down when I have walked in.
DeleteWhat a range of highs and lows you’ve had. Yay Dr. BB. That sounds exhausting.
ReplyDeleteWhat is that grape salad? Is it salad the way that jello salad is salad? I mean it looks tasty and all and I would probably eat many bowls of it.
Hey- if you’re writing about books and dinner and dogs, I think that really covers some of the important things in life, so I’m glad you have that going.
Yes, grape salad is "salad." I used four pounds of grapes (2 were red; 2 were green), a brick of cream cheese, a cup of sour cream, and a quarter cup of sugar with some vanilla extract. It is delicious, of course.
DeleteYou're really going through it, aren't you? The active shooter threat sounds terrifying, especially not knowing how serious it was in the moment. I have been in lockdown like that twice as a kid but I don't think I really understood what was happening or how serious it could have been, so luckily, it didn't traumatize me too much. These days, I know it would be really scary!! I'm glad it all turned out okay.
ReplyDeleteCongrats to Dr. BB for winning two awards! That's amazing. <3
I'm surprised to hear people say that they were sort of clueless as a child. I feel like I was terrified of everything when I was little!
DeleteWe will read whatever you write, whenever you write it. After all that has gone on, we will definitely understand. I have been through the animal grossness on carpets. It is one of those Murphy's Law type of things.
ReplyDeleteRight? They never get sick in the bathroom. I met someone who trained their dog to jump in the bathroom when they were throwing up and I thought it was GENIUS. Unfortunately, Hannah's usually sick at night, so we've never been able to intercept her to get her someone easier to clean.
DeleteYou are writing and posting, which is an accomplishment. (I am not managing either of those things.) The beginning of the school year is A Challenge, and dealing with a sick pup and a campus emergency on top of that??? Not cool.
ReplyDeleteI don't have SAD and I have still registered the darkness creeping in on either side. I hope you can find a lot of ways to fill your days with energy and light, despite the decline of sunny hours.
Woo hoo! Congrats to your husband! What a superstar!!!
Your Labor Day salads sound perfect, and a mani/pedi is sure to secure your status as Cool Aunt. Have a wonderful weekend!
I have to admit that the nail salon where I took them did a pretty terrible job on the paint. LOL. Both my finger and toenails were chipped within 48 hours. Oh, well. I did my best. Next year we'll have to find a better place.
DeleteHuge congrats to Dr. B - not one, but two awards! Woo!
ReplyDeleteOh no, an active shooter scare! I am always afraid of that because I also work on a campus! I am glad you’re ok… and that it turned out to be nothing (but just the thought of it, ugh!)
I am so sorry you’re affected by SAD. Are you using your daylight lamp in the morning again? Is it helping? I’ll soon have to run on the treadmill again in the early morning hours because sunrise is happening later and later…
Hope you had a relaxing and fun Labor Day Weekend!
I will say, San, that the Run Hide Fight message is particularly unclear on a campus with multiple buildings if the messaging doesn't say where the threat is. Do I stay in my building? Do I run and maybe run towards the danger? I don't know that anyone did anything wrong in this situation, but I do think the message is dumb and dangerous.
DeleteOf course Dr. BB got the awards. I mean, duh. He is really, really good at what he does.
ReplyDeleteAlso: Blogger --> Settings --> Back up content (close to the bottom).
There are also, apparently, extensions that will let you generate a PDF of your blog but...um...yours would probably be epically long so yeah, no.
Also, this for another option: https://support.google.com/blogger/thread/96905278/how-to-backup-my-entire-blog?hl=en
DeleteYes, the backups that I have seen only produce backups of the text, but not the photos or comments. But there's no guarantee if your blog is hosted elsewhere, is there? I mean, typepad just shuttered all its blogs.
DeleteWOOF! Rough week! I am sorry that you had to go through that! I use Google Takeout https://takeout.google.com/ you can export your blog (and/or any/all Google related things) and it will do it regularly too. I do it every quarter and have actually uploaded it to Wordpress (but never hit GO) and it worked okay! It never hurts!
ReplyDeleteCongrats to Hubby! That is awesome. He is so smart!
Hm. I'll have to some research on the links you and Anne suggested. I probably should have a backup, shouldn't I?
DeleteThat’s a hard week. As someone who works in a public high school I am familiar with all kids of drills. Active assailant (no longer called active shooter in NJ), bomb threat, fire, shelter in place, etc etc
ReplyDeleteSeptember has been very rough for me as well. I am constantly feeling behind- on everything, and I miss my 20-25 year old self.
Lexapro and HRT are keeping me from crying spells that were part of my morning commute for the longest time.
Hugs.
Daria from NJ
I don't cry on my commute, so I guess I'm doing okay? It's such a low bar we set for ourselves, isn't it?
Delete