Sunday Night

I finished all my grading, all of it, by Friday afternoon, so for the first time in many weekends, I'm grading free.  After grading, I went by the recovery place, I don't know quite what to call it, but they seem to be all over the place these days, a sort of not quite hospital, and not a nursing home, for people who are recovering from surgery.  They stay and have help to recover, lots of physical therapy, and so on.  One of my friends is recovering from a knee replacement, and so was there since the last week. 

I didn't visit long, because my friend was tired and another friend of hers came to visit.  As I was walking out by one of the lounge areas, I saw the TV.  President Obama was speaking, but of course the sound was off, and the scroll said something about the President speaking about Paris.  I felt that sort of sick when you know something bad has happened, but you really don't know. 

I turned on the news while I drove home, but NPR was doing some other report, and the drive was short, so it wasn't until I turned on the news at home that I found out.

I really have no idea.  I'm sad, but empty.  My facebook feed showed me a flashback of a picture I took just over a year ago in Versailles, but I didn't put it up.  I didn't change anything on my facebook.  I just don't feel like I can make a difference that way.  I don't know how I can make a difference.  Such violence is beyond my comprehension. 

The next day, I saw something in the news that used the word "massacre" and I thought of the St. Bartholomew's Day Massacre, and I wondered if people in France think of that when they see the word "massacre" now?  Or has it lost that allusive sense for most people?

It's been a quiet weekend, without the usual drudge of trying to grade everything.  I've read in preparation for the coming week, prepped classes (I had prepped some on Friday, too).  I've mowed the lawn one last time, and done some of the fall garden clean up I need to do.  (I have plenty more left to do, but it's a good start.)  I visited with my friend, now moved on to her sister's home for further recovery (unfortunately, her sister lives 25 miles outside of town via rural roads, so it's not going to be easy to visit).  My friend's making a very good recovery, walking well, feeling good, and happy to be improving.

And now, I'm going to finish reading M. Butterfly again, and then take a shower and go to bed early.  Going to bed early is an amazing luxury sometimes.

And tomorrow morning, I get a new stack of projects to grade.

Counting tomorrow's stack, I have two big grading piles for each of my three courses over the next month.  In five or six weeks, the semester will be over, and all the grading must be finished.  EEP!