• A coworker’s party.

    The life of a married couple, as experienced by me and my bride, is not one fraught with the kind of excitement you might read about in the news. We find pleasure in the company of each other and others. Well, maybe not as many “others” as we would like, but that’s o.k. The highlight of our social calendar is usually the occasional coworker party or get together. One such even transpired this weekend, and it was nice. This week, it was Cheryl’s turn to introduce me to her new coworkers. It turns out that one of her coworkers lives right down the street, so we probably didn’t even need to drive (we did anyway – it’s summer in Florida for crying out loud!). A half dozen or so of her coworkers and their spouses got together for a nice lunch. Avoiding the pitfall of many such events, topics of conversation tended to avoid work specific items, so it was easy to feel included. I probably didn’t take advantage as I should have, but that’s just me. It’s nice to put a face and a personality behind the names I’ve heard about.

  • Another day at the office.

    Naturally, some of the more interesting discussions we have in the office have nothing to do with work. This week was no exception. We were discussing teachers involved in scandals and I recalled a teacher from my past that recently committed suicide due to an unflattering allegation. I recalled that this person was a very good teacher, pointing out the interesting year end project that our class was involved with. Then, I commented that many people I’ve talked to have said, “you know, it doesn’t surprise me….” My coworker was incensed. My coworker wondered aloud where all of these people were when he was “the good teacher?” We hear an allegation, the accused reacts, and we all assume the worst. Granted, it doesn’t look good, but who really knows? The accused and the accuser know, but who else? I don’t. They don’t. Maybe we should all be a little less quick to judge. Strike that, there is no maybe…we all should be a little less quick to judge.

  • Insomnia and the weekend of sleep.

    When I left off last week I was only beginning a stretch of wide awake nights and nearly comatose days. There are many frustrating things in life, and insomnia is one of the classics. Those who have never spent an entire night waiting to fall asleep, knowing the whole time that they really are going to need it the next day, just don’t know what they are missing. Thankfully, the weekend brought a reprieve and restful slumber.