I'm not Down

I haven't posted in a while, due to a crazy last few weeks at work. And just after this week closes, I'm approaching the end of the semester, which means final grades for the classes I teach and final seminar papers due for the classes I take. It's an endless cycle of busyness, and around this time I feel about ready to spontaneously combust. Or, better, to use a baseball card-related simile, I feel like this:

This has always been my favorite Frank Thomas card. My friends and I used to giggle about the pose here, what appears to be Frank the Tank scowling and flipping the bird. I still think he's flipping it, but logic tells me Upper Deck would have edited that out as quick as Billy Rip's bat. Frank just looks so damn mad here, and, thusly, represents my frustration. Thanks, Frank, for relating.

But I need to stop complaining. I love my job, even when it's stressful, even when my students just refuse to use the address comma when they're writing dialogue no matter how many times I explain. And it's been a good week of receiving trade packages, which I'll be posting soon. I've even been able to watch a few Tigers games, so life is good. Really, I thrive on being overwhelmed. Yeah, that's what I'll tell myself. I'm not down, right, Mr. Strummer?

Perhaps best and most exciting of all, I've had an encounter of the Veal variety.

I'm just going to mention a teaser here, but one of Coot's family members found the blog, and it looks like we might be getting some very cool Coot posts soon. Keep checking in, though my posting will be slow for a few more weeks.