URBANA BLUES

I'm back in Urbana for a couple of weeks (March 22-April 5) to get as close to done with my dissertation (AKA the "old ball and chain") as possible. Two VIPs I have to impress while I'm here:

- Johnna Parker, the College of Education's format checker (on my side, really)

- Gary Cziko, my dissertation committee chair, who'll want to check up on what I've edited since my defense last July. If he thinks I've successfully incorporated the revisions they suggested, he will "sign off" on a special form, one of the official ones that allow me to graduate. The head of Educational Psychology then has to sign it.

My first big deadline this trip was today, Monday March 28. I had a meeting with Johnna to go over all the bits and pieces of the dissertation. We've already done a preliminary format go-over, so this time it was different issues (and fewer, fortunately). It looks to be in pretty good shape by now - format-wise. We'll meet again Wednesday to check whether I'd done the corrections she suggested today.

My next deadline is Friday, April 1, when I meet with Gary. He's really a relaxed guy and really WANTS to sign off. I just have to keep from giving him a reason he can't in good conscience do so!

STUDENT HEALTH PLAN

I also plan to use my student health insurance coverage while I still have it. I've scheduled an annual check-up with my internist here, Dr. Muthekepalli (she's from India) and the dermatologist. There always seem to be new bumps cropping up on my face that have proven to be early skin cancer in the past, so I can't be too careful. That's next Monday after the academic storms have (hopefully) passed!

DEATH IS ENDED

It just so happened I was in Urbana for Holy Week and Easter. Since I'm staying with one of the pastor's and his wife (their kids have grown up and flown the coop), I got roped into playing for an Easter anthem at the last minute: an African-American gospel piece called "Death is Ended". I've played for a couple of Easters now, so it was a reasonable thing to take on. Charitable folk at church invited me for Easter dinner afterwards. One woman made a solid chocolate cheese cake (solid, that is, except for the cream cheese). I forced myself to try some ... for her sake, naturally!

L.A. WIMPS

I've only been away a few months, but everyone here in Illinois seems to be treating me with either envy or profound pity at my (supposed) inability to handle the late-winter weather. So I wear mittens to ride my bike to campus early in the morning; so what? It actually is COLD (and not just those frigid 50º "cold" temps LA people complain about) that time in the morning!

CONDO FOR SALE - ONLY $480,000!

While I'm gone, Ann is busy at work getting her condo ready to put on the market. (She kindly put off selling it for a while while I was still there this January and February.) She has two whip-crackin' real estate agents with Sotheby’s working for her. (Sotheby’s has apparently entered the real estate market in LA.) They've set an asking price of around $480,000 for her 3-bedroom 3-bathroom 4th-story condo; she bought it for $175,000 in the early '90s! (Don't blanch. Little boxy houses in her quiet Westchester neighborhood are going for $600,000 and up!)

She's had one early potential buyer, a couple who are relatives of one of the condo owners just below her. They offered Ann a bit lower price than she wanted, but they seem interested in her counter-offer of $465,000. Both have stopped by to see the place (and haven’t found anything comparable at that price in a wide area). But interest alone doesn't sign the sale documents. So … meanwhile, she and her agents are going ahead with prepping the place for an open house the first half of April. Ann's kind of hoping the first couple will make a serious offer, since that would save her from having to pour a lot more time and money into improvements. They would pretty much agree to buy it "as is" for the lower price. That's definitely worth a little drop in price!

more news later ...