One more day

Or really, one more evening.

My week, thus far:

Monday night: CWF meeting. Got home slightly before 8 pm.

Tuesday night: Piano in the afternoon, cooked a slightly more elaborate dinner, had some grading to do and an exam to write.

Wednesday night: Elders meeting, followed by board meeting (Got home around 7:30; board meeting was short-ish and the main order of business was something I regard as a net positive, so). Also had to bake brownies for the Feeding of the Wesley Center Kids. (My campus is small enough that the only active religious groups are the Baptist Campus Ministries, the Church of Christ group (and they may actually be inactive; they have an office but I never see any activity there) and the Wesley center, which is nominally Methodist but which most other Christian groups (including the Catholics) help out with). I'm in class during the lunch time so I won't be serving food.

Tonight: Help take money for the AAUW children's play (this is how we fund our scholarship program; I also helped seat schoolkids as the school groups came in on Tuesday morning)

Yeah, I'll be glad when this week is over. And I find myself wondering: I know we are called to serve others, but what is the point where you say, "No, I can't"? I get awfully worn during these weeks when I have multiple evening meetings and lots of little chores to do during the day. I don't get enough "recovery time" and I can tell it wears on me. (At least the student who came in to discuss their not-quite-passing grade and ask for strategies to try to do better didn't start crying, as I had feared they would. Because at this point, dealing with someone crying? I would probably start crying too.)

I've decided to take Saturday mostly off; I do have to mail in my taxes (yes, I still do the paper forms and send them by snail mail. It's a small protest against a culture that seems to declare that everything these days must be done via smart-phone, or at least done on-line. As I know people who still do not have e-mail and do not want home internet access....I don't know, I like feeling like I'm maybe reminding the guys in government that not everyone is an early adopter, or something.)

I also need to go do "big" grocery shopping (in Sherman). We are having a departmental lunch next week and I volunteered to make the main dish - a barbecued pulled chicken out of the most recent Cook's Country magazine. Also, I just need to get out of town - I haven't been farther than the wal-mart since coming back from Spring Break.

I did have to go to the wal-mart yesterday afternoon. While the crowds were not as bad as I feared (it was cold and rainy), I will say that the weather was what I think of as a "nobody loves me rain" - just a few degrees above freezing, large cold drops, I had decided to leave my umbrella in the car (it's preferable to me to leave it in the car than to forget it in the store). And of course, because it was the end of the day, I had to park in Beyond Far East and walk up to the store. And the fire lane was full of people either letting their Significant Other off so they could shop without getting wet, or loading up the groceries their Significant Other had just bought. And of course that's not an option for me, not without immense amounts of planning to go shopping at the same time as a friend, and then who goes and parks and walks through the rain?  And some guy glared at me because I walked on the crosswalk in front of his car expecting him to stop - and I'm just all, "You're nice and dry in your car. I'm out in the cold rain. I also have the right of way. Don't glare at me, dude."





But I was almost out of milk (I buy the kind from "organically raised" cows, which the Green Spray doesn't carry) and plain yogurt (I buy the Greek kind, and from organically produced milk if at all possible), and without plain yogurt....well, lunch at school would be a problem. And I also wanted one of the disposable aluminum pans to make the brownies in, so no one would have to shepherd one of my glass pans back to me. So I had to go.


But yeah, not fun. And I am reminded why I try to do my shopping early weekend mornings.

One consolation: They had the newest KnitScene, which I bought. Though I will say it's par for the course of summer issues of things: almost nothing (save the big leaf-lace shawl) that I would want to make. (All tank tops, and I am so not a tank-top wearer.)