End of January Rant--Jeers and Cheers

I don't like to rant.  No, seriously, I don't.  I like to write well constructed arguments about particular topics that interest me or piss me off.  But for some reason, January has been a pretty shitty month and it has consumed me.  So instead of racking my brain for the perfect critique which has consumed each Wednesday; and instead of writing I've just avoided it. I'm going to rant about my month and then we can just move on to February and things can get back to normal.

There's a great women's online news site called Women's ENews.  I met the founder when I attended the Feminist Intensive last year.  They have a section in each weekly posting called "Cheers and Jeers."  I'm going to steal that idea for my end of November rant.  And please excuse how personal this might get.

JEERS

 

I'll start with that so we can at least end on a positive.  On January 4th, I saw some disturbing posts on facebook by my husband's niece and nephew about their mom.  His nephew and his partner lived with us for three weeks last January so we got very close with them.  I called him to find out what was going on and he told me his mom was in the ICU.  Two days later my husband and his brother had booked flights to fly to Mississippi to see their sister, who was at that point, in Hospice.  I joined him two days later so I could be with him and his family for the funeral.  She was 56.  He lost his other brother in a motorcycle accident when he was only 20.  He lost his Dad when he was 19.  Sometimes having a bigger family means losing a lot more. 

I came home and was thrust into the last two weeks of rehearsal for a play I am in called Dinner With Friends.  It took us all much longer to get comfortable with our lines than I am comfortable with and ended up being quite stressful and frustrating.  Furthermore, a day after I got back, I got sick.  I was out of work three days for the funeral, then three days the following week for a really bad cold.  I went to the doctor after MLK day and she felt I just had a bad cold even though I had a killer sinus headache and my boss and my administrative assistant were insistent that I had a sinus infection.  I worked all week but wasn't improving.  Saturday, the day after the show opened, I developed a fever and had to go on stage feeling horrible.  I went back to the doctor on Monday (another two days out of work)and she decided I probably did have a sinus infection.  DUH!  So 18 days later, I'm starting to feel a teensy bit better.  I stress the word teensy.

It was below 10 degrees here for like a week.  Enough said about that.

The university is suffering a ba-zillion dollar deficit.  It's not quite that bad, but it's bad enough and stressful and worrisome.  And when you already have a small budget to do the kind of work I do, it means doing it with even less.  There's only so much money for the women and the gays, you know?

One of my best friends had a very bad infection and was hospitalized far, far away from me.  I was worried.  She's okay now, but it was scary for a while.

Cheers

Obama was inaugurated on MLK Day.   You really can't beat that.  My favorite quote of the speech was "from Seneca to Selma to Stonewall."

My play opened last Friday and it really is such a neat Theatre, the B arker Playhouse. Their claim to fame is that they are the oldest little Theatre in America. It is filled with such nice people, and a lovely cast and crew.  And I just adore Kevin Broccoli, my director.  If you haven't seen his work, please try to do so.  He's the new up and coming King of Providence, I think. 

Tina Fey and Amy Poehler hosted the Golden Globes.  I could care less about the award part but watching them made me happy. 

We re-financed our rental property and are going to save about $400 a month.  There was some deal by the Feds that would help you re-fi even if you were under water.  Nice.  Thanks Obama.

And I saw David Sedaris.  He was funny.  But the stuff that was the funniest is so gross I can't possible publish it here.

To February!  In our family, this month is known as Birthday Month!