Glad things of the week

I'm finding it necessary to focus on the positive side of things during these times when work has increasingly become stressful. I'm a pessimistic person by nature so it's quite a challenge looking for things to be happy about everyday. But looking back this past week, I'm delighted to report more than three things that have given me pleasure:

1. Classical music radio. One of my favorite classical music online radios is back! I discovered 90.1 WETA based in Washington, DC a few years ago (while I was in Singapore, I believe) while looking for a good classical music station to tune in to--that is, one that broadcasted a wide variety of classical music and didn't repeat their music too often. I also began looking forward listening to one of the talk programs they broadcasted WGBH's "Says You" even if it was aired in the wee hours of the morning Singapore/Manila time. Hence, I was dismayed to find sometime in 2005 that WETA had switched to an entirely different format, one of news and talk shows. But for some reason, they've decided to switch back to an all classical music format (at the expense of another classical music station in DC tho) just this year. What a blessing that I decided to check back on it this past week. Now I can enjoy my classical music once again whenever I get bored with listening to my mp3s.
2. One last iteration. I've already mentioned that I'm in charge of assigning teaching load to the instructors of my department. The stress of the past week has been partly due to this responsibility but I think that will be over soon since I believe I've more or less finalized that bit. A few details have been on the air for quite sometime since there were still a few people who were seemed interested in joining our teaching staff but couldn't come to a final decision. But after one finally confirmed he was eyeing a job in Singapore instead (lucky guy!) and a former student applied for a teaching position at the last minute, I reshuffled the teaching assignments one more time (changing the assignments of the least people possible) and am now convinced that this is the final set of assignment.
3. Federer vs. Sampras. This morning, I made it a point to wake up early in order to watch a short feature film produced by Wimbledon about that famous match between my favorite tennis player, Roger Federer, and another great one (not my favorite though), Pete Sampras. It was of course that match played in the fourth round of the 2001 Wimbledon tennis tournament where Federer defeated Sampras and prevented him from taking a fifth straight Wimbledon title. The film was appropriately titled "Changing of the Guard". I had already downloaded an 18-minute video of highlights put together by a tennis fan (obviously a Federer fan as well as it mostly included winning plays by Federer) but it was still pleasure to watch the highlights of the match on tv.
4. A bigger home. We moved our "pet" pigeon to our old dog's big cage this afternoon. My father had found a white pigeon (not really pure white, so I don't think it's a dove) on the driveway a few days ago. It seemed weak and didn't attempt to fly away when my father picked it up to put it in a safer place (our cats were starting to stalk it). So for the past few days, it had been confined to one of our small pet cages (about 2'x1'x1') as that was the one my father could put together in so short notice. The poor thing (probably somebody's lost pet, it was so tame!) happily took to his new home and eagerly drank the water and rice grains we provided it. But then I was worried that it would languish in such a small dwelling and suggested that we use our dog's much bigger cage (about 3'x2.5'x2.5'). The pigeon seemed happier with the new arrangements now that it has more room to flap its wings. I've also observed that it seemed much stronger and alert. We plan to provide it soon with a perch and a small box.
5. Rain! It's finally began to rain more frequently. We had a shower or two today and now (he-he, I'm still jetlagging obviously) there's a steady rain. It's rather inconvenient having to bring out umbrellas everytime we have to go out but at least the rain has helped cool things off by two to three degrees. A definite relief from the 30+ degree weather we've been having these past few weeks. Phew!