It's a small world after all.

I love the small world of the internet. Today I happened to read an internet listserve message of a listserve I happened to find through another listserve, through a course that I found out about through . . . god, the world of coincidence is paved with other coincidences. And there I found that my old friend Sarah, whom I'd lost touch with, is writing for the blog of the Arete Youth Foundation in Bulgaria now. Now all I have to do is put fingers to keys and I'll be back in touch with her. :)

Otherwise, today wasn't such a spectacular day. I was doing a little stretching to try to ease the pain in my neck, which has given me pain fairly consistently for about a year now. (It goes back to a rainy day in the fall last year when a speeding car rammed an SUV into me after I had to stop suddenly in response to congestion ahead, and the impact of the fender-bender brought an immediate headache and then, a few months later, excruciating and puzzling neck pain.)

So, anyway, there I was, doing a forward bend in the grad lounge while chatting with a couple friends in the department about the vagaries and stresses of academic performance evaluation, when -- what is happening? I was there, all the way on the floor, and I had the sense: I shouldn't be sleeping here now. One friend said: "Did you do that on purpose?" And I had to ask: "Do what?"

When I realized I'd fainted, I tried to gather more information: how long had I been out? What had happened? I was confused and a bit upset. So, I spent the rest of the afternoon in the university health center instead of at home grading papers and writing, where I'd planned to be. A kind, dear friend walked me over to ensure I didn't fall over on my way there.

I went, prescription in hand, to the Kroger pharmacy after my UHS excitement (I lay under a white blanket in a quiet, private, white room for a couple hours, reading celebrity gossip rags and National Geographic, listening to Glenn Gould play the Goldberg variations on my iPod while waiting for the doctor to arrive), only to be told that my health coverage had been cancelled effective 12/31. I was offered the option of buying the drugs for over 100 dollars a pop, and I was less than enthusiastic about this option, so I'll have to wait until Monday when the benefits office opens and I can ask WHY THE ^&*()_ isn't my health insurance card active?

Last night, after a glorious reading from Gary Snyder, a lovely visit with Katie & John, who met up with me at Rackham auditorium to hear the fabulous reading, and a happy, serendipitous visit with my other friend John, who happened to be on his way back to write an abstract after an evening visit to the gym, I arrived to my truck only to discover that I had left my lights on when I moved from one lot to another between administering an exam and going to union contract bargaining, so I had to call AAA to get a jump start.

Thank goodness for weekends. I don't think I could face the world tomorrow if I tried. And tonight, I am hiding away in the comfort of the cottage, eating mac & cheese, internet chatting with friends, and watching Lost and Battlestar Galactica: Razor from the lazy softness of the couch and my own bed, contemplating baking hermit cookies and instead lazily licking sticky, thick blackstrap molasses straight from the spoon.