I have a shiner. It’s a beaut, too. Now I look like some Fight Club freak. (Which, I guess, I am.) I was training last week, and this big wrestler guy kept picking me up and slamming me on the mat. When I got home, I saw I had a black eye.

I’m only sorry I didn’t get it before the end of the semester. Now it’ll be gone before school starts back in the fall.

Straight after graduation, I went to Alabama with my parents to spend the better part of a week helping my sister work on her cottage. We got her porch painted and screened in, as well as fixing screen and rabbit wire under all the eaves to keep the critters out. While we were there, we celebrated my grandmother’s 95^th birthday – I saw more of my relatives in one place than I’ve seen in a decade.

Last weekend I went to a conference in Atlanta. I saw several friends of mine, some from Kansas City, and some from Athens. I hadn’t seen them in years, and it was good to reconnect.