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Pass the catch-up

Last week was March Break, so I didn’t teach my Monday and Wednesday class. I did, however, still have my private students, on Wednesday morning and Saturday afternoon. Both these students are doing very well, and I’m enjoying the exercise of coming up with new concepts and ways to make the learning interesting.
Thursday evening, Mum came in and Dr. T and I got to go out! It’s never easy for us to get out, since most babysitters cost money, and our free one, my mother, already comes in most Wednesday nights so Dr. T. can attend his Scrabble club while I’m teaching. Since there was no teaching this week, Mum very nicely agreed to switch nights, and off we went to see the second installment of The Lord of The Rings. Very, very good, especially in the IMAX theatre. Contrary to my usual preferences, we sat toward the back of the theatre, which was a good decision. All those panoramic sweeps would have been a little too vertiginous were we any closer to the front.
Saturday evening I went out with a couple of friends. I’ve known both these guys for millenia, but we rarely get to see each other, for various reasons, so it’s always great to have the chance to get together, get drunk, and get caught up. One of them is going through kind of a rough patch – almost ten years ago, his Dad suffered a stroke that left him partially paralysed and kept him in and out of the hospital. His Mum, despite the strain that she must have been under, kept herself in great shape, and managed to be optimistic and cheerful.
About a month ago, she went off to B.C. for a skiing holiday – not bad for a woman in her 70s! Unfortunately, while there, she suffered an aneurism and died pretty much instantly. The shock of losing his wife was overwhelming, and my friend’s Dad passed away three days later. Thankfully my friend and his sister are choosing to focus on whatever postive elements they can – no doubt their Dad would have been miserable without his wife, and now they’re together again. As well, because the deaths were so close together, the family was able to arrange a double memorial service, which I was graciously invited to, and which was a beautiful event that celebrated not only two people as individuals, but also a couple who were devoted to each other and their family.
Now, of course, my friend is up to his eyeballs in settling the two estates. Hooray for tax season.
Last night was the (ir)regular meeting of the Million Book Club. We got together at Dina’s to discuss Graham Greene’s The Power and the Glory, which we all seemed to enjoy, and which prompted more that the usual amount of in-depth literary analysis. We even discussed the concept of the anti-hero.
Thankfully, we quickly recovered, and just to balance the intellectual scales, spent a good deal of time talking about the latest version of Survivor. Irene made me a happy woman by confessing that she, too, has managed to completely avoid each and every Survivor to date. I’m not alone in my cultural abyss!