First, the not-so-good:
- Did I come down with the deadly plague after encountering the cheerful colleagues in the previous post? Why, yes, and I lost a whole week of work in addition to feeling horrible and lying in bed. On the other hand, it's probably not their fault; there's a lot going around at this time of year.
- Getting an article rejection, a grant rejection, and a "where are your revisions?" email was icing on the cake, though it probably serves me right for trying to look at email when too sick to reply.
- The political news, especially on Twitter first thing in the morning, is the gift that just keeps on giving, isn't it? I'm reminded of the line from Mad Men: "They won't stop until they figure out how to steal more bread from the mouths of children."
But then, it's May, and there is some good somewhere.
- The snow is gone, and the rain even stopped for a day so we could see the sun.
- There are flowers out now, though I know that's not a blessing for those of you with allergies. One of the walks I took pre-plague goes by a steep dropoff with fields and trees, and one set of those trees has white flowers with a scent so delicious you can almost taste it. They don't seem to be mock orange (which has a great scent), and I don't know what they are.
- I wake up at 4 every morning now (thanks, plague!), and now that I feel better, it's cool and beautiful when I go outside to get the paper. The birds are singing then though it's not quite dawn.
Time to see if I have a brain left to do some of the work that got neglected this week.
