Of camels and carnations

My birthday passed very quietly on Monday. The one lovely thing that did happen was that someone from church had arranged for flowers for the altar on Sunday to celebrate her son's birthday. Monday morning, Celeste called me to say they had TWO huge flower arrangements of bright yellow, pink and orange flowers at home and would I want one? I was so pleased to get flowers and she was so thoughtful to even think of me as I never get flowers these days unless I buy them myself.The Saturday before, a kind friend drove Veeka and I plus her daughter to the Memphis zoo where we ran about. It was cloudy but not too chilly and it was fun seeing the pandas again plus getting Veeka up on a camel. She shrieked a bit but ended up really enjoying the ride. We then went out to Red Robin, a gourmet hamburger place in a Memphis suburb. It was so nice not having to drive and having someone do something for me. This friend is married, but her husband is working for the military in Afghanistan, so she functions as a single mom for much of the year. And our daughters really get along. Veeka finished school this week, for which we are grateful.No word on my job future yet. However, I continue to talk with real estate agents and one couple who might want to buy the place because the moment I know where I am going, I need to do something about the house. Tomorrow (Friday), we head east for a week in the mountains south and east of Knoxville. There are several things going on in the area I wanted to be at, plus during my two years here I had not ventured into the Smokies, which is probably the prettiest part of Tennessee.  One nice piece of news I got this week is that an academic paper of mine: Facebook and revival in Appalachia: Some quantitative analyses of attitudes toward serpent-handling, just got accepted for presentation at the mother of all conferences for journalism instructors. It's called the AEJMC conference and thisyear it is in Montreal the second weekend of August. I attended the same conference last year in Washington, DC. Must say, this isn't bad for a graduate student. There are tons of journalism profs out there who'd love to be presenting at this conference. Ordinarily I would have been very joyful; but this time I wondered what might I do if I am in the middle of a move and I have to jet off to Canada? And flights to Montreal are notoriously expensive. Sooooo....that's one more adventure I will be cramming into my summer.