Oof, Ginger. That's just so wrong. Erin's right. Cancer should at least be a free pass from anything stressful and unpleasant that's not actually the cancer and its treatment.

Ginger, that's rough. I hope the next transfusion goes more smoothly and that the gastroenterologist is at the top of her/his game.

Connie, I don't really know what to say that wouldn't end up some ridiculous lecture on the nature of love and grief. Neither of us needs that. So I'm just going to skip it. In spirit I'm sitting quietly with you.

A guy just messaged me on OK Cupid to tell me that he thinks my profile is cool, and it would be great to know someone who could help him with his math classes.

::headdesk::

Actually, his first message was just, "I need a math teacher." Then, two hours later, he sent one that said, "That came out wrong," and added that he thought my profile sounded cool, and asked some more about something I'd mentioned in it, and that he could use some help with math.

So, I need one more teaching reference. Is it OK to ask a colleague,

Yes, certainly, as long as it is someone who would be expected to be in a position to judge. A senior lecturer would be better if one is available, but any experienced person would be ok. The important thing is that they be able to report directly on what they saw in the classroom.

Observations and letters by colleagues are standard in building a tenure case, because there really isn't anyone who qualifies as a supervisor of tenure track faculty.

Thanks. I thought of someone better to ask -- the undergrad coordinator, who I know a bit, and who I think I can ask to come observe one of my classes. If he says no, then I'll ask the colleague I was thinking of (who is not a senior lecturer, but he runs the teaching discussion group that I've been a part of, and during the summers, he teaches at a teacher-training program, so he knows all the educational jargon and stuff.)

(I don't actually have any research references anymore, since I haven't done all that much research lately, but I have been supervising an undergrad student on a research project that's actually been getting some pretty cool results, and the person who runs the undergrad research program here is one of my references, so I'm keeping her up-to-date on how that's going, as a semi-research reference.)

I'm not emailing the person until next week, though -- I don't want to get a "no" answer while I'm fasting, because I know that my brain will start panicking then. I can deal with a "no" if my blood sugar isn't plummeting at the same time.

It's so cute when faculty discover old Google Easter eggs. One just discovered tilt. So cute.

OMG ... someone's made a family of taxidermied mouse vampire hunters.