Chez Famille

We're apparently to be allowed about a 24-hour window between blizzards/ice storms, and lucky for me, my travel day today was perfect: sunny and dry with clear roads (though still bitter cold). So here I am, safely in the bosom of my family.

Well, in literal terms, at this very moment I'm safely in the bosom of Starbucks, whither I have come for the free internet. (Long-time flisties may recall my brother, who has apparently found a time-turner to take him back to the 1980s, where he somehow manages to live with neither computer nor internet. I stay with him when I come to the homeplace.)

Ordinarily, I wouldn't have abandoned all the relatives even for you, beloved flist, on my first night home. But en route today, I had a phone call from the dean, asking if I could deal with a student problem that has to be solved before the semester grading period officially ends. Could I (as division head) come in to meet with the student this afternoon?

Um, I replied, at the moment I'm about 200 miles away. "All right, I'll have the student send you an email," he said. Oh, fuck, yeah, can't wait; that's just what I want to do on the first day of vacation after a multi-hour drive, I said. (Well, in my head, I said that. Aloud, I said, "That will be fine. I'll write back to her tonight.")

Anyway, that's why I'm here in Starbucks with a giant cup of tea and free wifi. I've finished dealing with the student (for now; I'm sure I haven't heard the last of it), and now I'm rewarding myself with LJ.

Tomorrow is my annual shopping-and-bookstores trip with the siblings. Last year's bookstore trip netted some really excellent books for my antiquarian book collection; I hope I'm just as lucky tomorrow.

I'm SO far behind on fest reading, it isn't funny. And I haven't had a chance to read the holiday edition of
cackling_crone yet, either. And I want to respond to everyone's lists of characters. Maybe Friday morning, I'll steal back to the arms of Starbucks.

Annoying thing: my shift key has taken to sticking; I have to mash it at least three times per capital.

There's a guy in this Starbucks who looks just like Bill Clinton. I'm not even kidding. He's too short, though.

Good news: I don't have to be the interim dean next year! The president picked some other hapless victim far better-qualified candidate. Yay!!!

Be semi-good, my friends. "See" you Friday, perhaps.