Ups and Downs

There have been a lot of those lately. Let me list a few:

1. The Tour de France. Yesterday, Floyd Landis completely blew up on La Toussuire. I mean, he might as well have gotten off his bike and pushed it the rest of the way up. Well OK, not really, but he did lose 8 minutes and fall into 11th place, giving up almost all hope for victory. But then today, out of nowhere, he opened up his suitcase of courage and blew away the entire field. Now he's 30 seconds out of first place.

2. My mom's flight. She was supposed to leave LAX this morning at 10:59 on a flight to Chicago. First that flight was delayed 4 hours. Then it was cancelled. We thought she wouldn't make it. But she got on a different flight, and now- finally- she's on her way here.

3. The weather. Tuesday was gorgeous. But today it rained so hard I nearly slipped out of my water-logged shoes walking across campus. Luckily, tomorrow's supposed to be beautiful. If my mom actually arrives, we should be in for a fabulous weekend.

4. German. It's finally over (well the class is, but there are still a few assignments to turn in) and boy did we end with a bang: a doozy of a translation test which nearly wiped me out. And during the test, my phone was blinking wildly with various messages reporting the status of the infamous flight.

So I've had about all the stress I can take. I'm sure it's nothing a nice ride out to O'Hare won't take care of. There is, however, one "up" with no corresponding "down" (at least none that I've identified so far), the publication of my latest article on the Digs website. It's a light, fluffy piece, but it was fun to write. And trust me, after reading it, you will indeed be able to throw a killer housewarming party. So don't say I never teach you nothin'.