Wedensday

This morning I accompanied Kristie to GF. We are going to her mother's retirement party at work today. She has worked as a transcriptionist at Altru for more than 30 years. She is opting for early retirement to be with her brother, who is slowly dying from heart, lung, and kidney failure. It is a noble thing to do. And if you knew anything about Gail, she is always willing to help.

After dropping Kristie off and navigating my way off UND campus (it was buzzing with students like a beehive) and washing the Trailblazer (damn the beet trucks!), I settled down for a coffee and some free internet surfing at Caribou Coffee. I could drink their coffee all day. Kristie is fond of saying that salads always taste better in restaurants; I think coffee always tastes better when you have to pay for it (or mooch it off a colleague - thanks Jan for the cups of Hazelnut during conferences).

Alas, my essay beckons. It's really rolling now. After 16 pages, I was unhappy. Some parts sounded like me, others didn't. So I ended up rewriting the introduction. I was happy with that. Instead of just bitching about the five paragraph essay, which I've dubbed the McEssay, I started writing about some of the papers I've read in my current College Comp class. That got things rolling. So far I have about 12 pages that I am very happy with. We'll see if I can't get 12 more and call it done.

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On the way to GF, Kristie was filling me in on some of the inter-office politics at work. I am so glad we are able to keep that kind of thing to a minimum at school. Of course, it is always going to exist when you get so many people working together with so many diverse personalities. Through in the human propensity to bitch, and you've got a surefire recipe for inter-office politics.

Yesterday as Mike, Kenny, and I walked back to school from Subway, we were having an interesting discussion as always. I think we were talking about how the liberal media only likes to trash the war in Iraq rather than report anything positive coming out of there) I mentioned that in my senior English class my students had written original satires. In brainstorming topics, one student brought up all the negativity on the news. I suggested as a possible topic, create a news show that reports nothing but positive news. What would that be like?

Mike instantly liked the idea. He said he'd generate the ideas and I could write, edit, and publish them. Hell, we might start a damn revolution (kind of a new "Pay It Forward" approach). But, of course, reporting all of the positive things and ignoring the real issues is just as bad as dwelling on all the negatives (which is one reason I think I got so down last year on teaching).

Then Kenny, with a grin, said, "But look at us! We like to bitch too."

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Well, that essay isn't going to write itself, is it?