Moments of Delight

Over half my students in each class today; unusual for the day before a break. We are all ready.

My younger daughter invited the YM to stay with her a few days during the break, and she decided to come get him today. She arrived around noon with two of the grandbabies and when she was ready to leave, my husband told her I'd be in my office so she could stop by and say hello/good-bye. This was based on the respectable authority of the schedule I had given him of my classes.

What he had no way of knowing was that we are on "accelerated schedule" today -- a phenomenon we faculty hate because it drops chapel and moves all the classes that usually follow chapel up an hour, and so there is mass confusion from 10:00 a.m. on. So I was heading for class, in a different building from my office, as my daughter left the house to come see me.

Something made me call home from a colleague's office to see if she had arrived and might possibly be detained till my class was over.

"She's on her way up to campus right now," came the answer.

I flung down the receiver, yelled thanks to my colleague as I ran down the hall, scrawled "wait for me" and my initials on the white board in my classroom, then tore down the stairs, across the quad, down more stairs, rolling my eyes at the laughter of students I passed, to arrive, panting ridiculously, at the front of the building just one minute before they did.

So good to see them, even for just a minute. My daughter is simply beautiful, more so every time I see her. Her daughter was in school, but the two boys were with her; the older one said "Hi, Grandma" and "I love you, Grandma" like he really meant it, while the little one eyed me suspiciously and finally declined to let me hold him (though I got in a kiss and a hug anyway).

I miss them. I miss them so much.