Highlights of yesterday: a really delightful long lunch with a friend of Deborah's (who was in the Utah department), Stephanie. She has an MA in English lit. (early Renaissance) and is considering a Ph.D. and just moved to Chicago with her husband who is in law school at the U of C and she teaches online, so she has a very flexible schedule and I like her! So maybe a new friend? Here's hoping. They're hopefully coming to dinner here on Friday.
After that, long drive (45 min?) out to Justice, IL to get replacement part for broken plastic piece of new garbage disposal. Didn't come broken -- we broke it dropping the old disposal (very heavy) on it. Sigh. Repairs still in progress, but at least we're learning stuff about plumbing in the process. And about how to get to Justice. And that the more I drive, the less scary it is. And that the scariest bit is still doing anything where I'm not sure if I'm doing the right thing -- so driving someplace new is always scary, as is any situation where someone honks, possibly at me, plus situations where I have to make a judgment call (i.e., am I supposed to turn now?) and I can't remember what the rule is, if there even is a rule to cover this particular sub-situation. But it gets better. And I'm driving lots, including through pouring rain to get down to Hyde Park yesterday.
In the evening, Kev and I went to see a play at the Goodman. Vaguely amusing comedy about authorship of Shakespeare's plays. Nothing spectacular. We really enjoyed their production of O'Neil's A Long Day's Journey Into Night last year, but the newer plays they do don't seem to be all that well-written. Maybe we need to find a more interesting, more experimental theater to go to.
And last night, I couldn't sleep, for no good reason. Read Duane's new young wizards book, A Wizard Alone, quite good if you like that sort of thing, which I really do. Talked to Jed (he's doing as well as can be expected, poor munchkin). Pestered Kevin until I felt guilty. Around 3:30, let him go to sleep. Went into the tv room and watched some dumb tv. Read some Pratchett. Finally went to bed around 6:30 a.m. Woke up at 11ish, still tired. Been doing laundry and other chores all day, rather slowly. Made Swedish pancakes to help me get through the day -- very yummy with lemon and sugar. The cloudberry jam was a little too sweet on them, I think. Didn't have any lingonberries, sadly. Made tons of pancakes, which seem to be essentially crepes -- might try them with asparagus and perhaps brie for dinner tonight. 'Cause that's what we have in our fridge, asparague and brie. Could be worse. Could be brussel sprouts and Velveeta. :-)