There are no pics this week.
Danita’s stress level is quite high. Retiring is a big change for her, of course. She’s only had two jobs, and she’s had this one for 16 years. It’s also a big change for her subordinates. These are people she cares about. She’s hired all of them. She’s worked with them for quite a long time. They had a staff meeting Tuesday. After several months of knowing Danita is leaving, the center directors presented their plans for how the organization will move forward. And they blew it. They still don’t know what they want to do. Some of the things they have started just don’t make sense. When asked (several times by several different staff), the directors gave non-answer answers. There was angst rolling on the floor Tuesday afternoon. Friday Danita had a clean-up party. The office staff go through paper files, sorting everything into Keep / Discard / Shred. This is basically an all-day party, so things were a little better going into the weekend. That’s good because it made our Friday evening neighborhood party more enjoyable. Besides the Friday party, we also hada Circle dinner party yesterday and a BSO concert today.
Next week is spring break for the university. Danita will work during spring break, swapping those days to take a couple of days off for our road trip. One of the things Danita will work while alone in the office is her application for emeritus status. It’s unusual for administrators to get emeritus status, but she was the acting center director for JCET and was recognized as Presidential Award winner one year. There is precedence for administrators to get emeritus status at UMBC. She has a pretty good chance.
The road trip should be fun. We’re going to see Jul, Pat, and the grand kids. We’re leaving Friday the 18th and returning Monday the 21. There just might be some pics next week.
It seems so banal to write about the weather week after week, but our weather continues to be so — un-banal. After our dusting of snow last week, we switched to unheard of warm temperatures. We had two days in the 80s, crushing all previous records for high temperature. The forecast is for temperatures to drop a little, but stay well above normal. It makes for great bike riding, and it’s nice to be able to open the house up during the day.
That’s it for this week. I hope this finds everybody doing well.