Y9 D230

I am sure you've heard the phrase/song lyric/axiom "Everything can change in a New York Minute"? Boy howdy it can. You might notice I am writing this at 2:27am. Why? Because in about an hour I am headed to the airport. Not for me, but for B. When I finished teaching yesterday, she was on the couch and the minute I saw the Kleenex box next to her, I knew what was about to go down. She has two family members who are not doing too well. On her father's side, her grandmother has been in and out of the hospital the last few months. On her mother's side, her 97 (!!) year old great grandma is just getting old. She turns 98 in Feb, but... She got the call from her mom yesterday that she needs to come home. Her great grandma is just about done. Hospice has been coming 2-3 times per week, they have her on massive morphine, she has been hallucinating due to not being able to get enough oxygen, and other indicators that it could be very soon. So at 1:30pm yesterday we booked a one-way ticket for B back to MI. Her flight leaves at 5am. I am just glad that we have reached a point where I can buy a ticket like that without stressing. I am not happy about spending $600 so soon after just sending her back there in December, but it is what it is. Depending on the timing, I may have to go back myself for a funeral. I am talking to my boss today about other stuff and will see what him and I can do to minimize the impact if I have to go back. I will teach out of hotels if needed to make sure I am there.

Speaking of work, my third day with the group went better than expected. So well that they actually wanted to know if I was available to come on-site and build reports for them. I politely told them that was another group but someone would be in touch with them. This by the way, is the kind of shit I talked about in my document. How we don't get credit or recognition for these kinds of projects that are a direct result of my work.

Also, the folks in TN want to do 5.5 days more with me on site with 2 more groups of people. That would be another $30k brought in specifically by me. So yeah.

Back to the B issue. After making the flight plans she then went into packing mode. I was pretty proud of her. It required me hitting the store for some last minute stuff, but otherwise she was ready to go by 5pm. I made us dinner, we tried to relax. I went to bed around 8:30 because I need sleep. She has been up all night due to stress.

We don't know how long she will be gone, but this is important stuff. All we can hope is that it is quick and with as little discomfort as possible.

Now to drive to the airport.