Five days to go

The utter disarray and total demolition of tidiness continues.  I tackled the kitchen this afternoon, with another hour after Thai food tonight.  The kitchen is mostly packed. 

I spent 45 minutes today at the recycling center, paying $15 for about 100 pounds of papers to be shredded.  Then I sold some DVDs to a second-hand store, and cashed in the gift certificate the church gave me yesterday.

The rest of the week finds a wealth of activity.  I have lunch with the office staff tomorrow, then the afternoon off to continue here at home.  Band rehearsal is followed by dinner with Adam and his family, then my last visit to the Heorot, where I’ve spent so many happy Tuesday nights with Bell’s Two-Hearted Pale Ale.

On Wednesday, I’ll have lunch with a former student, chair a doctoral oral exam for one of my students, conduct on the summer band concert, then be the guest of honor at the final going-away party, this one with a guest list of about 75 friends, students, and colleagues.

I have two more oral exams on Thursday, one of them for my current (and best) TA.  That’s also my last day in the office, so I’ll finish packing that afternoon and prep for loading my office items into the truck on Friday.

The cable is disconnected this Friday, and guys from Muncie Mission are coming to collect a number of things I’m donating to their thrift store.  I have to have everything else packed on Friday, because the movers show up at 8 a.m. Saturday.

Swan Lake revisited

Thanks to Dick Woodhouse of the Gateway Men’s Chorus for sending this link yesterday.  I’ve seen plenty of Chinese acrobats, but never anything like this!

A run?

I’m drenched in sweat right now.

I was on my regular afternoon walk.  Eighty degrees, high humidity, clear skies at 4.15 p.m.  By 5 p.m. a major thunderstorm had rolled in.  I had to outrun it, but I didn’t quite make it.  The last two blocks, at a full run, were quite wet. 

Perhaps I should have just dealt with the rain, rather than work up a self-imposed lather?

Travel reminiscenses

As I prep to leave Muncie, I’m reminiscing on all the opportunities for travel I’ve had here.  Here are links to various trips:

Germany and Prague this year: http://wordpress.com/tag/europe-08/. 

China 2005 with University Singers.

A short-term field study in China 2006.

Paris last year.

Malaysia 2003.

I wish I had a Brazil 2001 website set up, but that will have to wait, as will Scotland 2002 and the visiting professorship in China 2005 and the London 2005 trip. 

Five days to go, and I’m anxious in all the right ways!