Weekend Coffee Share

Weekend Coffee Share is a time for us to take a break out of our lives and enjoy some timely catching up with friends (old and new)!

Happy Chinese New Year/Spring Festival

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If we were having coffee, we’d probably be sitting by a window where we could see the snow softly falling outside. I’d share that this week has been pleasant, but nothing special. It’s been cold and the snow is piling up. So much so that I think I’ll cancel my daily walk around the mall. I doubt I’ll venture out other than to get the mail.

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This week I’ve got both my online book club meetings. Wednesday’s group discussed Thoreau’s Walden. I’m not a big fan. I think I read at least portions of this in junior high and high school and I wasn’t a fan then either. While Thoreau has some important insights like we mustn’t become “tools of our tools,” I find that much of the book plods along. Other writers use his pithy statements more effectively. Also, Thoreau comes across as a revers-snob and criticizing everyone for their materialism and as an ungrateful sponge. He got to use the land by Walden Pond through the generosity of his friend/mentor Ralph Waldo Emerson and other friends supported his efforts. Yet he never thanks them or even mentions these thanks. Since the group consisted of people who liked and disliked Walden, the discussion was interesting.

Today is my other online book club, which a friend’s mother invited me to. We’ll discuss three short stories by African American authors.

I spent a good chunk of yesterday organizing documents for my small claims court proceeding next Friday. It’ll be on Zoom so I don’t have to travel. The whole matter revolves around how Clark University refused to reimburse me for travel expenses, but did reimburse my colleague who was in the same situation when they let him go after they said he could teach in the fall. We both had to organize and ship our belongings back home. Pray this goes well. It’s at 2pm Eastern Time on the 19th.

My unemployment claim has gone through and I think all’s well. Still I got a letter from the Unemployment office on Thursday saying I’d get X amount every week and then Friday I got another letter saying it would be Y (yes, Y < X). Nothing changed on my end that accounts for the difference. So another call to the office, and another long wait. Bureaucracy.

I have started watching The Crown’s 4th season, which features Princess Diana and Margaret Thatcher. I’m pretty well versed in Diana’s life, but I’m learning a lot about Thatcher. I certainly know of her basic philosophy and have general understanding of her accomplishments, but I’m enjoying getting a closer look at her life.

I did learn that I didn’t get that job I interviewed for two weeks ago. You win some; you lose some.