July, July

Today has been an interesting day. It started out bad, cycled to good, and has leveled out to the level of introspective.

The day started with a passive aggressive semi-confrontation with the Blonde One in the lab this morning. She's a decidedly unpleasant human being who likes to take credit for work she hasn't done, which irks me to no end. To the list of things that still need to be packed, add this: mystery object that she claims that she's going to pack, but won't. Frustration.

I spent the good part of the day with my boyfriend, which was excellent because we don't get to spend large chunks of time together that often. I'm always running to the lab and he's always running to work or other things.

I used my grill for the first time, and ate most of my meals today out on my back patio. It was lovely out - cool, slight breeze, scattered cloud cover.

Lee just left for the night, and I checked my email. I generally try not to play with my laptop when Lee is here. In my inbox was the reply to an email that I had sent earlier today to my creative writing professor from this past Spring. I had asked him if he still had my portfolio and if I could have it back anytime soon.

He replied to apologize for not getting it back to me sooner and to tell me that his life partner died. I can't explain how much my heart goes out to him. During the class, a member of his family died. This has been an incredibly stressful half-year for him.

He is an immensely tough person and was an incredible teacher for the semester that I had him and will do amazing work in the future - both on paper and with his students. He took zero crap from the problem students and helped the students who wanted to learn to succeed...and all the while didn't let the bastards get him down. And in academia, there are so many bastards and so few good students. I am honored to call him a colleague.