~Tuesday~ I caught the Wolfline #9 this morning, on which students were in various states of being ready to leave their house, although it obviously hadn’t stopped them: One girl’s hair was still wet, one guy was tying his shoes, and another guy was unbuttoning the sleeves of his long-sleeve shirt and rolling them up.
At one point, someone boarding wafted moth balls when they passed by. Somebody has gotten out their winter clothes.
The girl to my right had a binder that said “Kevin and Peggy” on its side and “Clear Book” on its top, with a clear sheet of plastic protecting its contents. She studied some math problems that looked like they might have been calculus.
A girl across from me was reading NC State’s 2011 Common Reading selection, The Immortal Life of Henrietta Lacks.
Mid-morning, I pinged a gay colleague of mine to see if she was interested in stopping by the library to see Jeff Sheng‘s Don’t Ask, Don’t Tell photo exhibit, and then going over to the Talley Student Center, where he was doing an “Artist Talk” at 1:00.
There were only four or five of his photos on exhibit, which was a little disappointing, although the ones there were very interesting.
I found his talk pretty fascinating. It was a significant day to be talking about his Don’t Ask, Don’t Tell collection, since today was the offical day of the Don’t Ask, Don’t Tell Policy repeal in Washington. He talked about how this project grew out of his “Fearless” project, which was about out gay and lesbian high school and college athletes.
I found Jeff very genuine (Thanks, Debbie!), articulate, and humble.
On our walk back, Debbie asked me what I thought of the idea of the gay employees in our building, of which there are several, having lunch together one day. I thought it was a grand idea, and when she named people she would invite, I was surprised to find one of our colleagues on the “the list.” I’ve never really had any inkling, in the three years I’ve been working there now, that he was gay.
My sister checked in with me by phone on her way back to Greenville from New Bern after visiting my mom in the hospital after her hip surgery yesterday.
She’s doing well enough physically, but her mental state is not good. She’s having severe hospital psychosis, which is hard to listen to, respond to, and just process in general. But worse than all that is that it’s affecting her ability to do the exercises she needs to do to keep from stiffening up and continuing to have pain.
They are hoping to get her off the morphine soon, which might help with the situation. I’ll be heading there on Thursday to visit her and spend the night with my dad.