Time change is an unnatural abomination.

Somehow it's got me sleeping later, so I'm all for it! (Sorry.)

I now kind of can't stop cleaning, but I think that is just still anxiety

I am trying to do the insides of things. One thing at a time.

Sophia, you're a wonder. And the city should get its butt over and inspect and remount alarms and replace your damn lock. You've certainly done an enormous amount to meet your part in this--and continue to do so. Now it's their turn to step up and end your suspense and tension. Pfaw!

Parenting is only for the strong, and I salute every damn one of you heroes.

msbelle, I vote for the group thing. Money is definitely a conscience-assuager, but shopping and getting to the PO is a thing I can't promise.

I feel like my work must be adjacent to yours, and I feel you and your old boss, and I love "Horton hears a Whoing it."

I remember you doctor wrangle and I used to nurse/professor/student wrangle. I am good at wrangling. I might be good at my new job, I don't know. Also I just found out a couple of professor feel that the secretary we are hiring just to take meeting minutes (which I think is ridiculous) thinks we should only look at Masters prepared candidates because otherwise they can't understand enough.

I think they should take their own damned minutes. The reason everything is bad is that they talk in circles and jargon and only my old boss pauses to summarize for the minutes. They have huge fights they don't want recorded. Then no one reviews them, they get mad and pick the minutes apart in the next meeting

They need someone with a thick skin, discretion, and the ability to speak up and ask questions in the moment.

Also, the middle of our pre-lit tree doesn't. I have a modest collection of vintage glass ornaminks plus some handcrafted ones by H and me--nothing like the live, ceiling-high trees and three days of hanging the contents of giant boxes full of annually accumulated ornaments of yesteryear.

So, very much downsized, and still. Don' wanna. Probably won't. Candle lamps in the windows, wreath on the front railing, the Christmas house flags I love, and I think we're done. Play music, simmer apple and orange peel with cloves, and call it The Season.

Just in the academic (not research) we have

• Faculty Governance
• Faculty
• Curriculum committee
• Masters subcommittee
• Academic Honesty Review
• DNP subcommittee
• Online Learning Subcommittee
• Academic Affairs committee
• Clinical appointment and promotion
• Rn-BS Subcommittee
• APNN subcommittee
• Council on Diversity and include ness
• Unnamed new committee to discipline faculty because HR can't?
• DNP subcommittee
• PHD subcommittee
• Staff committee
• I-Roc digital initiatives with 4 subcommittees
• DNP summit planning
• Preceptor Workshop planning.

There may be more. We are a very small school. Most of them are the same five people who are the program directors, plus one or two others.

Just got the Connie news. I echo what everyone said about her amazing, steady progress toward happiness. It was inspiring in so many ways. I will miss her hilarious reports of the stuff her coworkers talked about.

Also inspiring? Sophia kicking ass in the cleaning and organizing department!

My cat is having fun playing with an unused tampon on the kitchen floor. I hope she didn't have that out when they were changing my alarms! My alarms are all changed. I still need a lightbulb in my stairways. I was hoping they would do that, because I can't really reach. I can have Aidan do that Sunday, though.

I also found out I can donate the canned goods I can't eat anymore, like beans and tomatoes, to a drive at work, so it won't be hard to get them somewhere. Tonight I am working on the kitchen cupboards.

I haven't had a chance to come by here and express how proud and inspired I am by all you have accomplished these past couple of weeks, Sophia. I'm in awe, and also so glad that the Buffistas have been a source of support for you.

I said on FB, but I'm so sad about Connie. Sad that it took us all so long to realize it happened. Sad and angry that it took so long for her to get an appointment with a pulmonologist.

msbelle, I'd totally be up for a group project thing, but probably not much else.

Right now (and maybe this belongs in a more detailed Delurking post, or a Goodbye Good Riddance post at this point) I'm dealing with trying to pass two kidney stones, having a final paper due in each of my two grad school classes, things being bananas at work, traveling to Florida and New York—all in the next three weeks. And maybe a kidney stone extraction procedure after that if I can't pass them naturally. Plus, my regular doctor is suddenly all concerned that my abdominal CT scan showed enlarged lymph nodes in my abdomen and wants to test me for a bunch of other viruses and diseases. Which...fine, but I'm maxed out, and would like to deal with one health problem at a time, please.

But I'm enjoying grad school! And I really did have a lot of good things to say about this past year. I'll get around to that soon, hopefully.