Sorry but...

I am taking advantage of a rare snow day when the college was closed to stop by here.

I really needed this day off, but it comes on the day I have two classes that only meet once a week. That is a lot of material to try to make up.

My absence can be explained by the following factors:

• I am teaching four courses this semester. I have come to learn that my limit is probably three.
• I had to give a lecture to the college, which was a bit time consuming.
• I got news that my father, who as most of you know lives in Mexico, had a brain aneurysm. He got to the doctor quickly, had surgery, and seems to have pulled through.
• The news unleashed a flood of emotions stemming from the strange relationship (or one might say lack of relationship) with my father. This is much too complex to go into in a bullet point.
• Dogs.
  
• Developing my urban anthropology course. It has been a trial and error process. For the most part I think it has gone well, but it is time consuming. Last Sunday I took about half the students into New York City.
• Learning how to use a Mac and some of the pitfalls of making the switch from a PC. Overall I am still quite pleased with my choice.
• Grading.
  
• Participating in college meetings, committee work, etc. Even though I am not on tenure track now, it is looking likely that I will be and I need to be active on this front.
  
• Sleep.
• Trying to design a small research project here in New York City.
  

During this time I have missed interacting with online friends. Sherri had a birthday, Frankie had a mini-crisis, Scott might be earning what he really should, Oso has gone intellectual, Red Robin has found good fortune in a job switch, Kelly ran off to an interesting conference and came back sick, heliosphan saw one of my favorite movies and got hit in the head, cindylu went through her own family health stress, and Beaver has been making the world a better place in India. While I shared the experiences, I wasn't able to respond in the way I would have liked.

Maybe I will have carve out a little more time (and energy) to spend time interacting with these friends. It probably will be hard to do. I am thinking of you all, I really am.