Free Beer!

Actually, it's more like "beer-free". I got an email from the new hockey team today letting me know that season ticket holders will have a special entrance for future games; this will allow them (us) to get into the arena an hour earlier, and that special entry will include a wristband -- good for one hour of free beer. I won't say there haven't been times in my life when I could have consumed a lot of beer in an hour, but those days are long past. Even before I was told this week that I shouldn't drink alcohol, I may have had a few beers a few times a year. Ironically, when I drank more I weighed less, but I'm sure that wasn't the only variable. In the end, I'm not planning on going to tomorrow night's game anyway, so drinking definitely won't be a temptation.

On Wednesday I saw the gastroenterologist. He scheduled me for an endoscopy the following morning (yesterday). He's still not exactly sure what's going on; he found a lot of irritation and inflammation, but he's not sure what it's from. One spot in particular was more irritated and inflamed, likely the culprit area of last weekend's stomach bleed. He sent in a biopsy. All I can do now is wait and see. In the meantime, I'm returning to work on Monday, with another new class. My bosses at both institutions were very nice and concerned about my health, and if I had really needed them to, they could have found someone to pick up my classes. But I do have bills to pay, and aside from that I really care about my students -- and I don't want to burn my bridges at every college in town. I'll teach less next semester; for the next seven or so weeks, I'll deal.

I know it was rude to mention being ill and then go away for two days! I'm working on getting back to every day. Today I have two "big accomplishments": writing here and -- this is dumb, but it's kind of a big deal -- returning two Redbox movies on time after actually watching them. Woohoo! I hardly ever rent movies, but when I do, they usually sit around the house for an extra day or two, often without my ever watching them. Oh, and I've lost six pounds. That's kind of a big deal too.