February 23, 2016
Normal morning routine- up at 7am, get coffee brewing, take medicine, let the dogs outside, WBST on the radio with Stan Sollars making gleeful predictions of snow later this week, shave, shower, dress, let the dogs back in, kiss my wife goodbye and drive the 2.5 miles to work. Started mentally running through my work agenda and what needs to be accomplished.
Saw my co-worker walking to work and once again waved at him.
Arrived at the office a little after 8, golden sun streaming through the window next to my desk, a nice treat on a February day in Indiana! Snacked on a whole wheat bagel, plain, while responding to the most pressing emails in my inbox. Ate a banana for a snack at 11am, and also took my morning meds part 2.
Typical project work today. I have multiple initiatives in the works right now, I enjoy the challenge.
Touched 5 different projects during the morning. Multiple phone calls and emails with project participants. 2 project meetings.
12 noon I headed home to let the dogs out and fix myself lunch. Baby spinach, green pepper and fresh cut mushroom salad with oil and vinegar, plus some vegetarian buffalo wings (they taste better than they sound). While eating, I sat at my home computer and worked on a letter of recommendation for one of my BSU students. While at home I double checked to make sure I have packed in the car all the materials I need to present to my class at Ball State this evening. That includes, flash drive, camera gear, notes for presentation. My wife T. called, asked me to put a date on our shared calendar-one of our friends has a daughter getting married in November. My own daughter is engaged, with an autumn 2016 date yet to be set, I hope it’s not the same day as this one. 12:45pm, out the door and drive back to work.
3pm I had a meeting at Minnetrista with staff members there to talk about a collaborative project we do together in the summer. Minnetrista is such a top-notch facility, and is testament to the spirit of philanthropy and access to artistic endeavors that I often brag about Muncie possessing.
4pm, check in back at the office, then 4:30pm depart for Ball State to teach my class at 5pm. Parked in the BSU parking structure near Emens, the same one I parked in back when I was an undergraduate student 1979-1984 and commuting to school from home. It’s deteriorated a lot in the intervening years. Payment for parking has seen techno advances though- several spots in the garage have pay-stations that allow me to use my credit card to pay by the hour. Back in the day, there was a police officer stationed in a shack next to the entrance to the garage. You would pay the office a dollar to park, or if he was off-duty, feed a dollar into a machine at the garage entrance. This usually led to massive lines of cars trying to get into the garage. If you were late to class, that really was frustrating! Now I cruise in the entrance with no waiting, park, then pay at one of multiple credit card machines positioned conveniently around the garage, much more efficient. I remember someone blew up that shack (when it was empty) with a concussion grenade back in the early eighties as a gag. Seriously, blew it to smithereens. Nobody thought it was a big deal. The DN covered it with a photo of the pieces lying all over the ground. I can remember driving by the carnage on my way to class one day. Parking was free that day. Can you imagine the hoopla if that would happen today? We’d probably make national news, CNN would be doing live satellite remotes and the dept. of Homeland Security would be on the scene.
5pm to 7:40pm, conducted my class in the Arts and Journalism Building. It’s enjoyable to see how enthusiastic students are about learning. I find energy in that enthusiasm. Although some look like they could fall asleep, ha!
8pm I picked my wife up from her place of business (she is self-employed) and we went out to eat at Savage’s Ale House in downtown Muncie. We much prefer local restaurants than large chain stores. We are able to develop relationships with the owners and staff. While at Savage’s we ran into several people we know through long-term patronage of their own businesses in Muncie- a couple that owns a local restaurant, a couple that owns a local small business retail establishment, and an individual that owns an advertising business. Great to see all of them and I appreciated the fact that this is something that happens on a frequent basis to us in Muncie as lifelong residents. Had a salad with grilled chicken, and a side of veggies and hummus. We watched bits and pieces of the movie Terminator 3 on a tv in front of us. Sound was turned down, but captioning was on. Found myself quoting some of the movie lines to my wife right before the actors said them…guess I have spent way too much time watching sci fi movies.
Home by 10, let the dogs out and in, gave the big old dog his medicine (he’s 14 and on thyroid meds just like me, ha) took my medicines, prepped the coffee maker for in the morning, hopped into bed with my ipad, scanned FB and replied to a couple of messages, scanned my personal email, replied to a couple of messages. Looked at some prices for camera equipment on ebay, just wishful thinking. Set the alarm for 6:50am. Lights out at 11. No workout today, but that’s typical on the days I teach, just no time to squeeze it in.
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