The card this week, The Tower, is sitting on my desk. Since I pulled it, all I can think about is how the image so aptly describes the chaos that is my life at the moment. I squeezed a trip back home to bury my Grandma in between wrapping up classes and finals week. I got stuck in El Paso, TX when lightning storms shut down the aero-hub in Dallas, along with hundreds of others. As the semester winds up, I have been bombarded with students, coming out of the woodwork, to (in some cases) demand exceptions to the syllabus that’s been in place since before the semester started. They’re entitled to a better grade somehow, simply because they want it. To say it’s stressful to be put into that situation is an understatement. Add trying to plan a vacation (also squeezed in between the end of the semester and start of summer classes), a possible reduction in pay over the summer months, interviewing for a long-term instead of adjunct position, getting final grades in, car issues, and house hunting, and you have a perfect storm of imperfect circumstances. Yes, I feel like I’m drowning. Yes, my tower has been struck by lightning and is burning. Yes, I’m jumping without a parachute.
Anyway, if you wondered where this week’s story is headed, this is it. It’s headed into chaos.
If you smash turnips with a hammer, then mix them with vermouth, that’s supposed to be good for life chaos. The hammer is also made of turnips.