My Stuff

Yes, I am borrowing from Sue's Just Stuff, as a matter of fact :)

Gather

I too am finding it much harder to stay connected around here.... really not liking this Hawthorne thing even one tiny bit better than I did when they dumped it on us. HAWTHORNE SUCKS :(  Doesn't even matter that I have found ways to work around it and so on for the most part - unless & until everyone does the same, what difference does it make?

Gather is so much less fun now... it makes me sad.

Work

I caved and am doing the drive 80+ km every blasted day for 3 hours of (half-the-pay) work 4 days a week right now. I really did want to tell them what to do with some of the courses ... (not the Communications one - I'm THRILLED about that one)..... but with paying off the OSAP loan in one big chunk like that, our line of credit is up higher than I can cope with, and I want to contribute to paying it down as much as possible so that we'll have a bit more flexibility around the move to Peterborough thing. And while Tamara got a great placement at Durham, and is going to be graduating at the end of it - it is an UNpaid placement.... and even though she isn't asking me for money, I do try to help both kids out some....   turning down the extra money just didn't seem reasonable.

Oh, and about that huge payment re: OSAP, it still has not, apparently, gone through, and that person at Nor-den took the confirmation number when I talked to her on Monday and promised to find out what's up with it and call me back yesterday - and didn't....  and today, can't get through again and it is IRKING ME BIG TIME right now. I hate waiting for other people.

*** Update - it has been received and the necessary letter is on its way to stop #1 (with a copy to me)...so now I can move on and start annoying people at the next stop on the get this through in a hurry way

Teaching is going well so far.... I've taught Microcomputer Applications so many times that it really involves very little prep/work on my part...but this semester, because I have so much more time to DO it, I'm already doing some things differently. I always do an All About Me powerpoint with them the first week... but this time, I took in my camera and got pictures of everyone that was willing .... they included them in their powerpoints, so I can go through them all again before next class and hopefully do a much better job of learning their names quickly - at least that is the plan.  I also took the time to upload a ton of resources for each of the programs we cover for them - something I've never done before. Don't know if they will find them useful - but they are there...and I have the tracking set, so I will know how much they actually use them...so we shall see.

School

I've signed up for my next course - am doing one which won't count much if at all, but which will support my next round of applications, for a Phd program and for scholarships for that.... all of which has to be done early next semester.  I'm taking Adolescent Psychology through Athabasca U - so another correspondence course. It's an undergraduate level course - but I'm also looking at the possibility of - once that is done - seeing if I can take some of their graduate level courses .... working towards an MA in psychology to go along with my eventual grad level degree(s) in English. I don't know that I will have much time to do that while I'm in school - but if I can plug away at one course at a time during the less busy times, it might be worth it.

And my final marks for this semester showed up .... along with my 90 for the Honours essay, I got a 94 in Theory & Criticism (the other 4th year course). My history marks are a bit lower than I expected, given the marks I got all the way through, but are respectable A's as well, at 85 and 87. Am tempted to ask to see my graded exams, just because....  but probably not worth the hassle - and that particular prof takes weeks to answer a simple email... by the time she got back to me, I'm sure I will be over it :)

Married life

I'm loving it :)

Honestly, given that we've been together so long, I didn't expect there to be much of a difference... but there is....  I don't know that I can 'splain it ... but for me, there has always been a knowing... somewhere ... that he didn't really trust me ... or believe that I was different from 'them' ....and it hurt.... That he finally got past it and made the commitment to me ....publicly - and that he is happy about it, and likes to call me his wife - regularly :) - that matters.

Renovations

They continue...although these days, it's not really stuff that is good for photo essays... mostly he's been under the house, jacking up the floors and trying to make them level. Once that's done, the plan is to do the trim.... and then we'll move curtains and so on. We're also making some headway at getting the garage, bedroom and hall (the places we put all the junk so that it wouldn't be visible for the wedding) sorted out .... well, he is, mostly

Moving

The one problem with having things so much nicer around here is that we are both becoming increasingly resistant to the thought of actually moving to Peterborough. We don't WANT TO move - we likes our house...and our dog.

Most rentals want a one year lease - and no pets. That doesn't work for us.

We could buy - but we already don't like where our debt is now - so really, we aren't that enthusiastic about the thought. If we sold John St.... the house we don't live in now... maybe... but it, while it has good tenants, at least, is more than paying for itself.... so....

We could commute - he says.... he would drive me and just hang around while I'm in class (we are clear that it wouldn't work to have ME drive it all the time). A lot depends on the schedule ...which I don't have and won't have until who knows when.... but... it could work, I suppose ..... when you figure how much it would cost to rent a place and pay for cable, internet etc... especially if we were keeping all that here ...and we'd pretty much have to if we were coming home every weekend ... it might be cheaper, even.

But it would make it a lot harder to be part of the whole university culture... and it would suck to go to a U in part because it has such an excellent Writer in Residence and creative writing program and not be there enough to really take part in it..... but then, if the MA program is as heavy as the co-ordinator and Melinda, among others, have suggested...am I really going to have the time & energy for that stuff anyway....?

Anyway... at this point, we don't know what we're going to do ... and some of it will depend on what happens re: Ross & work. He got a call on Sunday asking whether he'd be interested in a full time job with the concrete co. he did some work for last year.... would possibly even come with a truck... if that comes through.... we'll have to see what happens.

Writing

I REALLY want to get moving and doing some writing this summer. I have a novel to finish, and another book (creative non-fiction) that I need to finish if I'm going to. I also want to get back to writing (and submitting) short stories and so on.

And I want to write a paper for next year's Human Condition conference - I figure that it would be best to get it done this summer, since I'll have enough to do once I'm in grad school full time.  Oh, and I have a ton of academic reading to get through in preparation for my MA MRP (Major Research Paper) .... I don't HAVE to get that all done ahead of time ...but life will be so much easier if....

I have a decision to make. I have been toying with the idea of starting a writer's club/workshop at school over the summer.... ~god~ supports the idea... I know there are other students who would participate..  and I would set it up so that it would be after one of the classes I'm teaching already ... so that it wouldn't involve another stinking drive.  It is something I have wanted to do ...and would look good on my resume (since I want to teach creative writing someday) ...and maybe it would provide me with the sort of deadlines and due dates I need to actually finish things sometimes....

or it could eat up time I could/should be spending focusing on my own writing rather than on other people's.

Oops

I started running a bath and forgot about it! My bad.... got there seconds before I had a really big mess to clean up! Time to go soak.