a busy day

 * Today is the retirement lunch for my colleague, and then the AAUW "end of year dinner out." I will have to find something small/easily halved and leftovers carried home for the lunch meal especially. (It's at a Mexican place I've never been to, but which the retiree apparently likes. The dinner is at the local Italian place and they do have a couple appetizer items that are good, so I might get one of those as my meal instead)

* I am annoyed (well not really) to report that I must do the PT stretches every day from now on, I guess. I REALLY hurt yesterday morning, to the point where I had to use the cane everywhere (mostly now I've just been bringing it and leaving it in my office in case). I was afraid I'd re-injured myself. And then when I got home around 3, I decided: this is the last rain free day for a while, you HAVE to mow the lawn even though you hurt (which then put me over the 3000 step threshold for my day). And then after resting a bit, I did the PT stretches.

And I felt much better this morning. Well, I was also careful to ice the knee after heavy exertion, and careful not to sit "criss cross applesauce" in my big chair - it's large enough that I can so I sometimes do it, but sitting with one leg crooked up under the other is probably not good now. 

But I am going to try to make time between the two meals (!) to at least do the PT stretches; I think I need them to keep that leg from stiffening up. Maybe eventually I'll be able to decrease the frequency but it DOES feel, when it hurts, like the muscles are very tight, and maybe that's an aftereffect of the damage I suffered?

* Have to start thinking about carry-along projects. I have the socks currently on the needles, and a couple of self-patterning yarns that I could just take as simple projects. But I'm also considering digging out the hexagon quilt that I have not worked on in AGES and bringing it:

It'd be something different, and something that's been in a stall for a long time. I know I have lots of the papers (and if I'm careful, I can reuse them) and lots of hexagons already cut, but also there are some bits and scraps of fabric my mom has that I could use and incorporate too. 

I'm considering, if and when I finish this, just doing it as a coverlet - not putting a batting in it and just either tying or tack-stitching it to the backing in various places. I'll have to think about it. It's all handsewn and I'm not sure it would hold up to the stress of being tugged on a quilting machine (nor would the pattern work well with the stock quilting patterns) and I am horribly slow at handquilting anything. 

* Well, the troubled-student situation has (apparently) resolved. Not for the best, but definitely not for the worst. (Best at this point, I think, would have been them earlier on having gone "something's not right with me" and their family supporting them in getting help). Apparently what happened - the colleague who runs the "capstone class" they were in gave them the final and exit essay papers and on the exit essay the student expressed a firm desire to kill themselves. Which of course triggers the "they need protection" guideline, and that was why I saw a campus police officer escorting them outside the building as I came in. 

The worst outcome: well, I don't like to think about it but some of my nerves Tuesday morning were "what if they did (what they ultimately had threatened to do)" and I am the one to find them?" I mean, with counseling I'd probably be OK but it's not something I like to contemplate.

I hope they get help. I've been in holes myself before but never as bad as they apparently were; mine were more a situational depression (largely during the pandemic) and it sounds like theirs is a serious biochemical issue.

* My colleague had to fill out a police report; I flashed back to when that guy rearended me while driving a university van (luckily with no students on board and luckily I was not hurt). That was a lot less scary and stressful though - once the accident was over and I knew I was unhurt, and the other driver confessed responsibility IN FRONT OF A COP, I knew it was all just paperwork. 

* Posting my final grades this morning. Only 2 Fs out of all the classes; one of them was someone who came and spoke to me and acknowledged that life and stuff got in the way of them doing better (but that I was a good teacher and they were sorry they couldn't make a go of it). I feel sad about that; I hope maybe someday they can come back and finish their degree. The other person was someone who frankly I think wasn't ready for college; they would constantly e-mail claiming they couldn't find the stuff I posted on the class webpage (when everyone else could) and I'd copy the link and e-mail it back to them but often they then never completed the assignment. I admit I feel less bad about that because I feel like there was much less "try" there than with the other student. 

My athlete made good enough grades to keep eligibility (if they haven't used up their years of it yet).

But yeah, I am just tired. Some years I am happy when the semester ends; I feel successful and like I accomplished a lot. This year, I just feel like I survived - that injury really messed a lot of things up and I'm still not totally over it.

* I have to do a few things before I leave to visit my mom next week; I agreed to fill the pulpit in the minister's absence so I need to write two sermons, one for each of the first two weeks in June.