I have a friend who will be visiting today. While the picture above is of two guys, that will not be the case with this friend. She’s a former curator who moved away, and while I talk to her regularly, it’s been a while since I’ve seen her. She’ll be at the museum this morning, and then we’ll go to lunch. I’m planning to take the afternoon off to just hang out with her and catch up. It will be a nice end to a long, busy week.

Today is going to be a busy start to my week. I’m teaching a class first thing this morning. The class is supposed to last all morning. I was supposed to have a co-teacher for the class, but she tested positive for Covid over the weekend. Luckily, I have a contingency plan. If teaching has taught me nothing else, it has taught me to be flexible and adaptable.

After this morning’s class, I have to grab a quick lunch before I have to interview a job candidate. After that, I have at least three more job applications to look over. There are a few more things on today’s agenda, but needless to say, it will be a busy day.

Tomorrow, I will be working from home because I need to be at the museum on Friday when a former coworker will be coming by. At least it will probably a less hectic and less stressful day tomorrow while working from home.

It’s a new work week, and sort of a new era at the museum. My new director has her first day today. While she’ll probably spend most of her time with onboarding procedures and paperwork, she should be in the museum this afternoon. I initially had trepidations about this new era. I usually do not deal well with the anticipation of change, but once it happens, I generally go with the flow. With a new boss, I was worried about someone coming in and being a micromanager. 

However, a few weeks ago, I had a long meeting with her, and we discussed the museum’s educational activities and our public programs. At that time, she reiterated that she was there to help not micromanage or change anything. My former director had already told her that I was very good at my job, and she was lucky to have me. I don’t expect a lot of upheaval, but I do expect a more competent director. 

My previous director was a nice guy, sometimes too nice, and a good friend, but he was never cut out to be a museum administrator. I’ve always felt like his wife pushed him to pursue the position, and he was just not ready. That led to some issues, and there were times when he would hide his head in the sand instead of effectively dealing with issues that arose. I am hoping that our new director is a stronger person and a better advocate for her employees, and I hope she’ll take on problems that come up and handle them competently.

Of course, only time will tell how she will perform as director, but what I’ve seen so far, I am optimistic. I am not always the best judge of character, nor the best at recognizing red flags. I was in the hiring committee for our new director, so I hope we made the right choice. In the last two hiring committees I was on, I think we made mistakes and missed the red flags. So, I worry that I may have missed any red flags; however, I hope I learned from my previous experiences. In the song “Feelin’ Good,” Nina Simone sang:

It’s a new dawn 
It’s a new day
It’s a new life for me, ooh
And I’m feeling good

I guess we’ll see how it goes, but as of now, I’m feeling good.

After five days at home, I have to go back to the museum today. Friday and yesterday, I worked from home, so technically, I went back to work yesterday. However, this will be the first day back since last Thursday. This Thursday and Friday, I will be the only one at the museum. We have two work study students who might be in, I never know their schedules. Because we are a university museum, we don’t get a lot of visitors in the summer, so it’s entirely possible that I could literally be the only person in the museum on Thursday and Friday. Honestly, I don’t mind being there by myself. I can be more relaxed and even do some reading without being disturbed. I may do some filing that needs done, and I have a class to finish preparing for. Otherwise, there is nothing pressing that has to be done.

You’ll probably be able to tell very quickly from this post that I don’t have a lot to say today. It’s been kind of a boring week. That being said, Vermont is beautiful this time of year. Most of the trees have their leaves back, and those that don’t are full of budding green. There’s even some flowers beginning to bloom. While Autumn is my favorite time in Vermont because of the leaves changing color, it’s always nice to see green return to the Green Mountains after a barren winter covered in snow.

I don’t often remember the dreams that I have, but I was having a very sweet dream this morning. In the dream, I was in high school and did  something I’d have never back then. There was one particular guy I had a “crush” on in high school. Thinking back, I know I had several crushes on different guys, but I wouldn’t let myself think about it that way, but it was these guys I was thinking of when I jerked off at night. There was one particular guy that was in more than his fair share of fantasies, he was who this dream was about. 

I dream went something like this:

I was standing with my back to a wall, and he asked me, “What are you doing tomorrow?” 

I replied that “I didn’t have any plans. Why?”

He said, “I’m supposed to go pick up some guacamole but was wondering if you’d rather play soccer instead.”

(This was a really strange part of the dream because I hate guacamole, and I doubt either of us actually would have known what guacamole was back then. Also, he would have probably asked me to play football or basketball, not soccer.)

I replied, “You know I’m not good with sports, but I am good with balls.” 

(Cheesy, I know, but we were in high school and this was a dream.)

“Really,” he said with a sexy smile.

I sort of stammered, “W-w-well, I’ve never actually played with anyone else’s balls, but I’d like to.”

“Really. Well, that doesn’t have to wait until tomorrow,” he said and leaned in to kiss me.

I asked if he had somewhere private we could go, and I remember he nodded and started motioning me somewhere…

Just then, I heard a cat meowing. I rolled over hoping to get back to my dream, but as I was still half asleep, I never could get passed the part where he leaned in to kiss me before I heard a cat meowing again. Isabella wanted her breakfast, and she was not going to let me go back to sleep and finish my dream. So, after a few more starts and stops to my dream, I finally opened my eyes and got up and fed her. No matter how much I’d have liked to have finished that dream, I knew it wasn’t going to happen, so I got up and fed her.

Ugh, cock-blocked from such a sweet dream by a cat. So frustrating…