An intense time

The next couple of weeks promise to be eventful.

My father is in the hospital. It’s serious, but it’s under control. I saw him yesterday, and I’ll probably see him tomorrow.

This afternoon, I’m going to give my talk on the history of Nevis to the Irvington Historical Society. There’ll be two sessions, at 4PM and 5PM. Both are “sold out” with a waiting list.

I’m not worried about my ability to give the talk, since I’ve done it before. I’m concerned that I’m going to be talking about history, a subject that’s not my area of expertise, to a group of people who know more about the subject than I do. It helps if I think of it like my Ph.D. defense.

On Tuesday and Wednesday, I’m teaching a class on ROOT to the summer students in the Nevis REU program. Again, this is something I’ve done before; I’ve taught this class annually since 2001.

My issue with this class, as with the history lecture, is that I’m the only one who can do it. If something were to happen with my father, I couldn’t set aside the responsibility. I’ve known Melissa Arleth for too long: “The show must go on.” (She never says that, but I got the message.)

The following week, I’m going to the Free Spirit Gathering in Maryland. This will be the first time I’ve gone to FSG in three years. I used to go every year (since 1995, excepting 1998 when my cat passed away), but I had to stop due to health issues.

Now I’m going to find out whether I’m healthy enough to return to FSG. I usually am a bit apprehensive before I go to an outdoor festival, and this is no exception. Already I’ve started to overpack! But I made a commitment to go, and “the show must go on.”

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