bits and Pieces

A younger colleague, Rusty, cancelled on last night's beer after work. I teach until 9 PM on Mondays and (gosh, I've just forgotten how to spell "Wednesday" and had to look it up! - gotta be a senior [almost] moment) Wednesdays and occasionally go out for a beer or glass of wine to settle out. Rusty and his lovely wife Dana have been dog-sitting and the dog's owner was coming 'round to pick it up. The problem is that the dog escaped. No dog. No beer. End of story.

She must be my dearest longest friend. I first met C.T. when I moved to Albany in 1980. A true eccentric who was living in a tent erected in a hallway between two artist's lofts.

Though a visual artist, her true love is language, which she twists like a pretzel so that everything seems to have more than one meaning. You are never sure what she is actually saying. I've had years of cryptic emails.

In the mid eighties, she quite her job as an art teacher and gave away all her possessions (I ended up with her coffee maker) to fly to Berlin and live with a scientist with whom she had been having an affair. He often came to the US on academic visits and such, and after a year or two, asked C.T. to come and live with him. The problem was that he convinced C.T. to come and live with him AND HIS WIFE.

Several of CT's good friends suggested that this may not be the best idea. Off she went anyway, only to be booted immediately out into the streets of Berlin with no money, unable to speak German, and pregnant. She made her way back to Albany with her tail between her legs, a swelling figure, no job, and no money.

She gave birth to a son Matt and struggled with part time work. Eventually, after her scientist separated from his wife, CT returned to Europe, once again, to live with him. That lasted a few years until CT realized that the scientist was an idiot, and returned again to the US.

She has struggled ever since to raise a fine young man (a friend of Ben's since they were kids) and finally land a full time job this January teaching English in a public school for unwed mothers outside of Boston. Two weeks into her new job she had some sort of cerebral hemorrhage. We don't know if she will recover. If she does, doctors say she may not be able to speak or understand language. There is hope for a more robust recovery. Fingers are crossed.

What's going on around your life. Maybe you've got a happier story to tell.