At School: Week 8

How did I navigate the world without Gracie?  I can't imagine doing so now.  Did every week used to have highlights?  I don't think so; at least, I can't remember them if they did.  I am like Dorothy moving from the black and white world of Kansas to the technicolor world of Oz.

Entrance to the trail

1. Tuesday is our best day at school because we only have one class and an hour in the office.  This past Tuesday was especially beautiful.  Instead of hopping right in the car for the 50+ minute drive home, Gracie and I decided to take a stroll on our favorite wood duck trail.  We had just reached the practice fields--usually deserted--when Gracie spun around.  Of course I turned too and was just in time to move out of the way of a herd of men, probably a gym class out for a run down the trail.  Ball shagging was out, so instead, we left the tail and discovered a beautiful little lake nestled in the woods that made me long for my kayak.  It didn't take much imagination to picture a tiny house nestled on the shore of the tiny lake with my blue kayak  resting next to one side of my lawn chair and Gracie lying on the other side.  So, of  course, I had to recite Robert Frost's "Stopping by the Woods on a Snowy Evening" for Gracie.  She seemed suitably impressed.

Tiny Lake in the Century College woods

Our second highlight of the week happened Thursday when Gracie and I picked up Nate at his apartment after we finished at school and used a Groupon to have lunch at the 50th Street Cafe.  Graice liked it because the booth was spacious and the floor was carpeted.  I liked the green beans in Asian dressing.

Gracie says, "Let's get out of here!"

Friday, Gracie and I went to the English department retreat, arriving at 8 a.m. as directed with our bottle of cranberry juice and bag of pretzels to contribute to the potluck breakfast.  This is usually an all day affair, but we left early--actually just a little bit earlier than the adjuncts in general who were to stay for lunch and then leave while the UFTs made their plans: summer classes and whom to hire and how. Because our Friday afternoon class meets only once a week and Week 9 is a short week, we decided two weeks in a row with no classes at all was a bad idea and resisted canceling class as the department apparently did.  It was a long day for us both as a result, another Fried day.  We were glad to be heading home at 4:30 p.m. in the afternoon and didn't even mind the rush hour traffic with its periodic stops due to frantic lane changes by the foolish people who persist in thinking that squeezing into the moving lane will get them wherever it is they are rushing to faster; instead, this action, particularly when practiced by so many, is what causes the traffic to stop.  For me the rush of lemmings to the sea is no mystery.  Lane changers reincarnated is what those lemmings are, justice meted out by the universe. 

We saw Nate again Saturday when he came over to do his laundry.  The washer, which has been not working well for awhile, didn't get all the water out of his clothes due to weak spinning.  As a result, the weight of his wet clothes did the dryer in, which led to the third highlight of the week--a trip to Sears with Gracie.  Saturday afternoon, we purchased a new GE washer and dryer from Sears and allowed the hyper salesman to talk us into buying an extended warranty.  Our salesman was like someone out of a 1950s TV comedy, *December Bride* or *Ozzie and Harriet* and the desperation he was giving off was like a cheap perfume.  Fortunately, the pair is being delivered tomorrow, just in time to wash clothes to take on our trip next week.  Gracie rides the airplane.  How to prepare?  Suggestons welcome.

View from the bridge joining the east campus to the west campus.
Century College, White Bear Lake, MN