Monday afternoon things

 Friday was hectic, did not get a post written - we were doing in-person interviews for a job candidate (more about that later) and I was on campus from before 7 am until 5 pm, and then we had a dinner with the candidate after that at a local restaurant.

The weekend I spent doing some knitting, and yesterday I cooked:

- cowboy caviar again (marinated black beans) for CWF tonight

- another batch of the raspberry glazed turkey meatballs for my department's finger-food feast*

- a batch of Chocolate Revel Bars (which is what the Better Homes and Gardens cookbook calls 'em; I think of them as Fudgy Oat Bars because years and years and years ago when I lived in Ann Arbor, there was one seller at the farmer's market who had baked goods and one of the things they had that I bought for a treat was these, and they called them Fudgy Oat Bars.)

(*which I admit I now think of as "those dang meatballs" because I've made them so many times over the years. I mean, it's a reliable recipe, people like them, and they're not HARD, but it does get tiresome to make them. But: note to self - get the higher fat ground turkey, these were better than the ones I made for AAUW because I did that for these - the AAUW ones were a little dry)

Tonight is CWF; as soon as I get my grading done here I'm going home for a bit just to relax; I'm tired. It's been a stressful end of the semester - a problem student being a Problem, both for me (their advisor) and for my newest colleague (their professor) and we've had to work to do damage control. I think in the end they may not wind up coming back, which may be for the best. 

On the other hand: apparently the tentative offer we extended to the EXCELLENT job candidate (seriously: the students who heard them give the sample lecture said, almost to a person "please please hire this person to come and teach") was accepted. When my colleague told me she heard it was, I actually threw my hand in the air and exclaimed "Thank You, Jesus" because this has been such a journey and this is literally the best possible person we could hire.

I'm afraid now to be TOO hopeful seeing as enough things have gone wrong in my life in recent years. But maybe this is one case where I can hope? Where come the fall, we won't have to worry about covering certain classes? And I might have someone to collaborate on research with?

I do have a massive headache right now. Part of it is being tired. Part of it is having graded a batch of take home exams (and one never came in, and I don't know what's up with that). Part of it is I made a comment - in re a study on increasing after-dark pedestrian deaths - about "I remember being taught to wear light colored and/or reflective clothing after dark when walking" and I had SEVERAL people come at me saying "if you can't see well enough in the dark not to hit someone in black clothing you should not be driving" and holy crap, that makes me want to just nuke my bluesky account right there.

When did I say I hit someone? Do you know that the place I live in has ZERO public transport? Do you know I MOSTLY avoid driving after dark (because I don't like it) but it's not always avoidable? And why are you saying 100% of the safety onus is on ME? (I have had people step out from between parked cars WITHOUT EVEN LOOKING and it's a good thing I have fast reflexes)

I don't know. People are so difficult. I want friends but when I see stuff like that I tell myself it's not worth it, better to be alone and miserable than be made miserable by other people. (I wish we could lock our accounts there; that was what made twitter tolerable for me, before most of my friends left it for bluesky)

part of it is I've already begun getting requests for grade bumps - not even for extra credit, but bald requests for "hey can you add a couple percentage points to my grade so I get the next higher letter" and no I'm sorry Dave, I can't do that.

 Part of it is just *waves hands at the state of the world*

***

But really what I want is like a week more of time between now and when I'm slated to go to my mom's. Time to go antiquing, and to sit at home and watch old movies on TCM and knit, and time to listen to Christmas music, and time to enjoy things. I never have enough time to enjoy things. That will probably be what I say on my deathbed. 

I also have two packages in limbo: the Susan Crawford book I ordered just cleared customs in California (? it's coming from the UK) and has to be swapped between a couple more carriers (EVRI -->OSM--> USPS) and the yarn I ordered last week from Simply Sock Yarn, is, well

Yeah, it's "en route to next delivery point" after them telling me it'd come today. I'm wondering if the tornadoes in Tennessee messed up shipping.

Makes me a little sad; I was going to wind it off and take it with me to knit with and now, who knows? it might not arrive in time. I had the ideal pattern for it, too.