Tag: 1-4-365-4-40

Even on the Worst of Days …

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… my wife is a better person than anyone I know.

Saturday was supposed to see us handing off the kids to their biological father for a week with us picking them up on Christmas Day in New England. The intervening week was supposed to have us traveling north, seeing family and friends along the way, then spending time with the kids and extended family in Massachusetts and New York, then back home around New Years.

I won’t lie: I was really looking forward to this trip. While my mother was here in September and my brothers surprised me with a birthday visit earlier this month, I haven’t seen my sister since here wedding 15 months ago. Same for my sisters-in-law, brother-in-law and nephews. For some of my northern friends, I haven’t seen them in over two years.

But the boy child has been sick and his doctor recommended against his flying this weekend. Then the girl child caught the flu and, in a manner only a tween could manage, did everything she could to hang on to it for a few extra days. So they didn’t leave, we aren’t leaving and all the travel plans have been scrapped.

Their father decided to change his plans and pick them up on Christmas Eve and take them north for a week or more, leaving my wife without her kids on Christmas for the first time ever. We won’t see any of her family, any of my family or any of our friends this break.

It just sucks.

She’s been running the boy around to appointments for the last few weeks while working through her busiest time of the year. (Including staying up all night with him during a miserably failed “sleep study.”)

Still, when I said I was heading out on an errand, something in her brain clicked and she said wait, she had some things for me to donate to Toys for Tots. She dug through her gift closet, pulled things she had picked up cheaply on clearance and deep discounts, and we filled the back of my car with toys.

She’s not seeing her family this holiday season. She’s not seeing my family, any of our friends or her own kids on Christmas and yet she remembered she had these things to give away, to give to those whose need is greater still than hers.

Even on the worst of days, she’s a better person than me.

Going Dark

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Going Dark, originally uploaded by MarkEJohnson.

Today was the day … shortly after 5 p.m., I pulled the last images off the server, shut everything down, killed the lights and pulled the door shut: the Photojournalism Lab is closed for the year, my teaching wrapped up until January.

As I was driving home, my boss called me, which was a little odd as we’d talked earlier in the day about a bunch of different things. He wanted to let me know right away that the President of the University of Georgia had signed off on my promotion to Senior Lecturer. Which is … cool.

Also, a little daunting as it means I’ve held a job long enough to get a promotion … it’s been a long time since that’s happened. Because, well … when this semester wraps up I’ll have worked here for more than twice as long as I worked anywhere else. In my life.

And I’ve only been here for five and a half years.

Of course, the promotion doesn’t go into effect until August when my contract cycles around again. And, with the current budget, there’s no raise involved.

Seven kids finished the emphasis today, five of them will don the funny gowns later this week and wander off into the "real world." Some are scared–it’s a hard time to enter the workforce. But they’re all prepared, they’ve proven to me they can think and, really, that’s the best thing I can bring out in them. Everything else comes after that.

Kind of a good day on the work front.