implosion

Work got exciting yesterday. Some of you may recall my lamenting the debacle that was our search for a new faculty member in Arabic. Most of us thought we had found someone terrific only to be torpedoed by the Middle East Center who opted for a less-qualified (less-threatening?) candidate. The search was scuttled due to lack of agreement. This past weekend as a result of some "reassignments" from higher up, the director and associate director of the center resigned. Everyone is high drama mode - personally I hadn't expected such a shift, but think we might actually be able to work at bringing the place into the modern age. I am at work bright and early to meet a former student who is coming in to do a recording for me to use in my phonetics class. This meant I actually laid eyes on Catherine before she went off to catch her 7am school bus. Last night I popped in to her room to say goodnight and make sure she knew her lunch was in the fridge. Her response: "Go away, mom. I don't need you anymore." I thought this day would never come -- those of you who know her well, remember the years of her being the extreme cling-on child.