She/her. Higher ed student affairs professional. Elder goth, nerd. I read lots of books, love opera, cats & football, hate driving. Unabashedly progressive. Chaotic good.
Folks, I may have a PhD in history-including US politics history-but the last several years I’ve been working in public health as a science writer. One of my areas of focus is Aging, including Alzheimer’s and related dementias (AD/RD).
I find the discourse around Biden really troubling.
The next two weeks are full of new student orientation sessions for incoming students. 4 sessions between now and July 19. NGL am ready for orientation to be over. The kids are great though. Last night I spent some time getting smooches from this little muffin. (She belongs to a friend.)
Bought an early birthday present for myself at Half Price (3 books that were on my want to buy list). Esp excited about the Kamali book (her book The Stationery Shop was outstanding). The Song book is packaged beautifully. Waiting to see how/if/when Beryl will impact Central Texas. Hope for rain.
Have a pic of the purple sage blooming outside my building at work. I don't have much to say about today's Supreme Court ruling because I don't have the expertise to have an informed opinion of it. I know it's not good, quite bad in fact. How bad remains to be parsed by people more informed than me.
Listening to Procol Harum this morning, which makes me feel very melancholic. Even though I was a small child when they were big, I think I'm an old soul.
We have officially reached the there's no cold water in the pipes time of year. Taking advantage of people at church to go to the store while it's only in the 80s so that after I go to the pool I can sequester myself in my air conditioned house the rest of the day.
This is week 4 of freshman orientation. This week's group was fun and chatty with many, many, many questions. We love Orientation but we are in the weeds now and are starting to feel it. So after today's meeting my coworker and I hit up Crown and Anchor for burgers. (I've had such a craving.)
Went to a friend's house for his birthday last night. (And for Nuclear Tacos. Gotta love hot tacos and cold beer.) He's Dutch so he wanted to play the DQd Dutch Eurovision song (which was very catchy). That then turned into 5 hours of music listening with him tossing us around 1:30. Good times.
Thursday was the summer solstice in North America. Summer is officially here, and I continue to find my relief in the local swimming pool. In addition to cooling me down, it just plain feels good to move in the water.
Dear Diary, Day 1 of my staycation is starting out at the car dealership to see why one of my tires is losing air pressure. I'll be here a few hours. #goodtimes
They have a car here that I am calling the Breast Cancer Special. (And no donuts.) But I have a fully charged kindle so I'm good.
It's miserably hot out but the universe is teasing some cooler, rainy weather in a few days. I'm on staycation this week so I want to believe in the forecast. But what I fear will happen is it will be 10% chance of rain and high of 95 by Wed. I want the universe to prove me wrong!
Greg Abbott tweeted yesterday in response to the university's announcement this week taking away hybrid schedules for almost all staff in the fall It's time to get back to work. A man who literally has a wfh home provided to him. Greg Abbott can go fuck himself.
One of my favorite brewpubs, Brewtorium was hosting a drag brunch today. Some spineless coward called in a bomb threat, so Brewtorium closed up shop after the police left. I can't fault their business decision but hate that the cowards will be emboldened. Yet another reason to leave this state.
I don't for a moment believe it's only 93. Just got back from the grocery, and it is blazing hot out. I did buy watermelon to help cool down. May go back tomorrow for peaches and nectarines. I love summer fruits, even if I don't love summer (here). Yet another reason to leave TX as soon as I can.
The air quality hit me hard today. I only ran a few errands and my lungs were having none of it. I cut the errands short and am in for the count. Good excuse to make a refreshing Pimm's Cup (I went a little overboard on my pour) and eat cold fruit and relax in the a/c following Marigold's example.
I see no one's yet slid into my DMs. Cool, cool.
I'm taking 2 days for the long weekend so I'm ever so briefly on vacation. (To use up some of the copious comp time I've been earning this past spring.)
Today's breakfast is some Tylenol after yesterday's very long day. But the weather is beautiful and I'll soon grab some snacks for the Eurovision final this afternoon. The last several weeks have been tough and it feels good just to have rest and peace. And kitty snuggles. (Marigold being cute.)
Reception today for our graduates. So many tears. Commencement is in a few hours so resting. This is just the top half of this rocket that was built and flown by our Texas Spacecraft Lab student group.
Today was a shameful day at UT. Our toad of a governor sent in militarized police to arrest people exercising their right to protest. And our President opener the door to let it happen. And our police *commanded* the protestors to disperse speaking for "the people of Texas." Shameful.
I'm convinced this week is trying to kill me. It's mile 23 of the marathon and I'm desperate to make it to Friday. So after getting home from work there was only one thing to do.
Eclipse Day! Working on campus because UT has a big communal event later even though this is a normal wfh day. Listening to The Dark Side of the Moon, the only playlist needed for today. And sorta seriously planning a trip to Sydney, Australia for July 2028's eclipse, 2 days before my birthday.
It's going to be chilly the next few nights. Which is perfect for pulling soup out of the freezer for dinner. In this case, turkey soup made from the Thanksgiving turkey carcass.
Today I got to sit in on a call with a Danish astronaut on the ISS. He got his PhD from UT and wore a nice Longhorn ASE department tee shirt. Took a number of questions from students. Showed us a small piece of the ISS exterior. It was night so couldn't see Earth. Sometimes my job can be really fun.
For the last few weeks I've been working with Chris Barkley @cmzhang42.bsky.social of @file770.bsky.social on a report about censorship in the 2023 Hugo Awards.
Leaked emails and files indicate authors and works deemed “not eligible” for the awards were removed due to political considerations. 1/3
I had a brief meeting this morning with one of our faculty who teaches the Space Systems senior design course. When he travels he usually brings me goodies. Today he brought me a couple of cool stickers. I need to figure out how to display my small but interesting collection of stickers.
There are about 83 million reasons why Trump may not be having a good evening. And I have one goofy one why I am. (Plus maybe 83 million schadenfreudes.)
23 currently and it won'tget much warmer today. Tomorrow will be in the teens to start then up to 32. Thursday will be 70. And then Friday mid 40s. Because that's how Central Texas does weather. But all is well at Casa Renegade, so I'm heading downstairs to put my electric kettle through its paces.
Home sick all week, but I finally feel human. Covers on the outdoor faucets, will drip internal faucets tonight. Plenty of food and tea. Charging my kindle and battery pack. Dorian is enjoying porch time while it's still warm out. Watching the NFL playoff games, awaiting the coming winter weather.
Let it be known to all far and wide that today, on the 6th day of January, in The Year of Our Lord 2024, I went into Target and spent no more than $6.50.
Surprise to me. Getting new gutters today (I didn't know they were coming this morning). But I'm not mad! The sooner this is done, the sooner I get money from my insurance company. So I'm off in a coffeeshop for the next few hours to read in peace.
