11:06 a.m. - 2005-02-16
Dad is out of the ICU
My Dad has been moved from the ICU (which he was only in because the hospital had no other beds, or so I am told) to a regular hospital bed. My sister tells me he looks tired, but ok.
I haven't been able to call him because the hospital phone system is on the fritz. This is so incredibly frustrating. Maybe it's better though - I don't want to interrupt his sleep for a phone call.
I guess I'm just trusting the universe to make the phone line available when the time is right!!
*************************************
Bruce called me just now. "I have a funny story" he said.
It seems he was talking to one of his students and she shyly asked who the red haired woman was that the students had seen him with.
"Some of us think she's your wife and some of us think she's your daughter!"
It seems one of the lab sections actually had a betting pool going based on whether I was Bruce's wife or his daughter!! You know, I have been feeling so physically used up and crappy lately, there is nothing I needed more than this!!
It is also one more weird reminder of the strangeness of being a "faculty wife". I remember when I was in art school being sort of interested in the various instructor's personal lives - wondering what their houses looked like, how many kids they had. For me it was just a vague curiosity, but for other students it was something of an obsession.
I'm always acutely conscious of how students are looking at me when I'm with Bruce. The first year we were here I took an art history course, and it was bizarre how I was treated when my fellow students found out I was a professor's wife.
I got special smiles, and they all made sure to introduce themselves and make little chit chatting conversation. It's not because I'm such a lovely person. Nope. I'm convinced they thought I could somehow strongarm Bruce into giving them all A's.
Fortunately they didn't find out my connections till late in the semester. Their fates and grades were already sealed! I haven't been able to gear myself up to take another course.
Bruce and I were walking through the library on Monday. I was feeling ill and dizzy and he was holding my hand.
"Should we not hold hands?" I asked. I didn't want to embarass him by being seen as overly lovey in front of his students.
He shrugged and squeezed my hand harder. We walked across the campus like that, to the parking lot.
And now I think it's funny. More fodder for the betting pools!!
0 comments
