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Monday, March 30, 2009

Plodding Along... into... Spring... 

... with ups and downs...

I know it has been nearly a week. Lets see if I can capture some highlights. I slept badly in the early part of the week. My Wednesday class was cancelled. Thursday was some frantic running around to sort things out and get homework done. Work was... work. Business is getting busy again as spring can be officially smelled in the air. The snow is melting! YAY!

Friday I had teaching class where I handed in my syllabus and prayed. I have been loving this class and was complimented by the teacher. I can only hope that one day I get to actually teach at the university level. I feel like I will never get there though. I applied for 2 semesters leave. Maybe that will help relieve some stress and let me get caught up on some things. Taught my Friday class. It was amazing, as usual. Their energy work is coming along real well. And they engage in the cultural art with open minds and creativity.

Saturday was full of art and fun. It started with an art exhibit where my mom had three pieces of her work on display. I loved seeing her stuff there. However, I think she could have put in other pieces that I thought were much better examples of her talent. She wanted to, but could not find frames for them in time. We then took a spring walk in the sun in Point Claire Village! We headed out to celebrate an 80th birthday. HAPPY BIRTHDAY SHIRLEY! Someone mixed me and my hubby up with people they thought we were and asked about us thinking Mark was my son. I am trying not to be upset by it. I am not mad at the person for the confusion. I think I am just feeling insecure about how I look and feel. I am getting old... clearly. It was embarrassing... for us both. We dropped folks off and did a little bit of grocery shopping. We was glad to just relax at home after.

Sunday was a rainy day in PJ's. It was full of movies and lazing about... and baked brownies.

Today I explored bows for archery, cleaned up some coven email stuff, worked on one of 3 sections of the CMS Level 2 second trimester teacher's manual. I hope to finish it this week. The cleaning lady is over and spring cleaning has begun. Today's project is the kitchen. I want to ready the kitchen to be painted and rearranged. Cleaning comes first. And purging. Going to go purge the bathroom and bedroom today. I'll purge the kitchen on Thursday. I will be glad to move to having the cleaning woman here on Fridays instead of Mondays. I miss my meditation routine when she is here on Mondays.

Here is a question to think about.
What do you want to do this spring to simplify and imporve your life?
I want to purge clutter and get back into cycling and rollerskating.
How about you?

Wednesday, March 25, 2009

In Which she :: HEADESKS:: 

I am still up... shoot me now...

Cramped for Spring 

So this month I didn't escape the monthly cramps of death. They came in great and small waves. Excedrin has helped. Now the initial horribleness has passed. Guess what? After three days of being numbly tired and barely functioning, now I am wide awake and insomnatic.

The rp this evening was AMAZING with scenes I hope to one day capture in novel form so the whole world can be likewise creeped out.

I read some fanfics and stared at my own dumbly. I reviewed my CMS notes twice more and then read ahead for my teaching class. I even worked some on another listmania in draft.

3:00am and my focus is finally waning.

Monday, March 23, 2009

Aching Long Day 

So last weeks roller skating with a 30+LB backpack is not killing me.

I slept poorly as this morning I hit broken sleep worrying about the hubby getting to work on time. He shifted schedules and is now doing the later shift. It totally messed me up today.

It was at least a wonderful Monday. Meditation helped smooth the day. I wrote some fanfic and then spent seven-ish hours writing my homework for my teaching class. I now have a course syllabus.

Spring cleaning has started. Bathroom done for now till the reconstruction can be figured out. Kitchen has been started and will be finished next week. Maybe then it will finally get painted? I suspect with my busy schedule, that spring cleaning will happen in little chunks with the goal to have it finished by Beltane.

Sunday, March 22, 2009

Spring Snow 

Ostara weekend madness! It started for me on Thursday. I had to bake Ostara biscuits, drive to the West Island to get Pysanka supplies, drive to Verdun to make a car payment, get to work.

Friday was more Ostara madness. I offered Ostara biscuits to the teaching class I take in the morning. Then I did running around for supplies for the evening class, met with a sales rep at the store and headed out for Ostara dinner with Level 2, followed by their class. This was followed by a coven meeting at 9pm, grocery shopping, busing back to Verdun to get my car and driving home. Once home, I had to do cooking for the Saturday Ostara pot luck lunch. All told, I got to be around 3:00am

Saturday we were awake EARLY, so we could pack for our retreat and finish off last minute pot luck preparations. The day was AMAZING! The discussions inspiring! A dash from the west Island from the retreat to downtown to the store to get the rest of the Pysanka stuff and then to the grocery store for some more actual food and prep for today's Ostara pot luck lunch had us on the move and exhausted. Naps late in the afternoon were perfect. The evening went more smoothly and more relaxed. It involved cuddling and watching Avatar. The cats were bonkers all night. I slept little.... 5th day in a row....

We woke this morning to a Spring Ostara Gift... SNOW! Argh! At least it was not a lot and most of it will be melted by the end of the day. We threw open the doors and windows and cleaned house. I made lots of tea and juice. The husband os making little sandwich triangles. We expect coveners soon. Today we will make Pysanka eggs. Tonight the husband and I have a fancy Ostara fish dinner to cook for ourselves.

Saturday, March 21, 2009

Spring 


HAPPY OSTARA EVERYONE!

Monday, March 16, 2009

Weekend Recoup 

So the weekend was not as productive as I had hoped. The husband and i have spent most of it just recouping from the several weeks sick. We relaxed with movies. We went out for brunch with Roo. We discovered a new Tea House.

I got some writing done, but little else really.

Today... wonderful peaceful Monday. My cleaning woman is back. YAY! I squeezed her back into my budget because I need the stress relief. I got some of my homework done, moved the litter box from the hall to the bathroom, and made a list of website adjustments to work on over the week. I reviewed my notes for Wednesday night's Level 3 class on Energy work and Public Speaking. I found my notes for Friday's Level 2 class. I still have alot to do. The sun and spring air was great for the soul today. I turned off the heat and opened the windows!

Now I am returning to my homework which is due Friday morning.

Saturday, March 14, 2009

Book Meme Stolen from Roo 

The BBC believes most people will have only read 6 of the 100 books here.

Instructions:
1) Look at the list and put an 'x' after those you have read.
2) Tally your total at the bottom.
3) Tag others and pass it on. If you want to.

1 Pride and Prejudice - Jane Austen (x )
2 The Lord of the Rings - JRR Tolkien ( x )
3 Jane Eyre - Charlotte Bronte ( x)
4 Harry Potter series - JK Rowling ( x )
5 To Kill a Mockingbird - Harper Lee ( )
6 The Bible (X)
7 Wuthering Heights - Emily Bronte (X)
8 Nineteen Eighty Four - George Orwell ()
9 His Dark Materials - Philip Pullman ( )
10 Great Expectations - Charles Dickens ( )

total: 5/10

11 Little Women - Louisa M Alcott ( X)
12 Tess of the D’Urbervilles - Thomas Hardy (X )
13 Catch 22 - Joseph Heller (x)
14 Complete Works of Shakespeare (X )
15 Rebecca - Daphne Du Maurier ( )
16 The Hobbit - JRR Tolkien (x)
17 Birdsong - Sebastian Faulk ( )
18 Catcher in the Rye - JD Salinger ()
19 The Time Traveller’s Wife - Audrey Niffenegger ()
20 Middlemarch - George Eliot ( )

total: 10/20

21 Gone With The Wind - Margaret Mitchell (x)
22 The Great Gatsby - F Scott Fitzgerald ()
23 Bleak House - Charles Dickens ( )
24 War and Peace - Leo Tolstoy ( X)
25 The Hitch Hiker’s Guide to the Galaxy - Douglas Adams()
26 Brideshead Revisited - Evelyn Waugh ( )
27 Crime and Punishment - Fyodor Dostoyevsky (X )
28 Grapes of Wrath - John Steinbeck ( )
29 Alice in Wonderland - Lewis Carroll (x)
30 The Wind in the Willows - Kenneth Grahame (x)

total: 15/30

31 Anna Karenina - Leo Tolstoy ( )
32 David Copperfield - Charles Dickens (X )
33 Chronicles of Narnia - CS Lewis (x)
34 Emma - Jane Austen (X )
35 Persuasion - Jane Austen ( )
36 The Lion, The Witch and The Wardrobe - CS Lewis (x) [redundant to have both this AND the chronicles of Narnia above, isn't it?]
37 The Kite Runner - Khaled Hosseini ( X)
38 Captain Corelli’s Mandolin - Louis De Bernieres ( )
39 Memoirs of a Geisha - Arthur Golden (x)
40 Winnie the Pooh - AA Milne (x )

total: 22/40

41 Animal Farm - George Orwell ()
42 The Da Vinci Code - Dan Brown ( )
43 One Hundred Years of Solitude - Gabriel Garcia Marquez ( )
44 A Prayer for Owen Meaney - John Irving ( )
45 The Woman in White - Wilkie Collins ( )
46 Anne of Green Gables - LM Montgomery (X )
47 Far From The Madding Crowd - Thomas Hardy ( )
48 The Handmaid’s Tale - Margaret Atwood (x)
49 Lord of the Flies - William Golding (x)
50 Atonement - Ian McEwan (X )

total: 26/50

51 Life of Pi - Yann Martel ( )
52 Dune - Frank Herbert (x)
53 Cold Comfort Farm - Stella Gibbons ( )
54 Sense and Sensibility - Jane Austen (x)
55 A Suitable Boy - Vikram Seth ( )
56 The Shadow of the Wind - Carlos Ruiz Zafon ( )
57 A Tale Of Two Cities - Charles Dickens (X)
58 Brave New World - Aldous Huxley ()
59 The Curious Incident of the Dog in the Night-time - Mark Haddon ( )
60 Love In The Time Of Cholera - Gabriel Garcia Marquez ( )

total: 29/60

61 Of Mice and Men - John Steinbeck ( x)
62 Lolita - Vladimir Nabokov ( )
63 The Secret History - Donna Tartt ( )
64 The Lovely Bones - Alice Sebold ( )
65 Count of Monte Cristo - Alexandre Dumas (x)
66 On The Road - Jack Kerouac ()
67 Jude the Obscure - Thomas Hardy ( )
68 Bridget Jones’s Diary - Helen Fielding (x)
69 Midnight’s Children - Salman Rushdie ( )
70 Moby Dick - Herman Melville (x)

total: 33/70

71 Oliver Twist - Charles Dickens (X )
72 Dracula - Bram Stoker (x)
73 The Secret Garden - Frances Hodgson Burnett (x)
74 Notes From A Small Island - Bill Bryson ( )
75 Ulysses - James Joyce (x)
76 The Bell Jar - Sylvia Plath ( )
77 Swallows and Amazons - Arthur Ransome ( )
78 Germinal - Emile Zola ( )
79 Vanity Fair - William Makepeace Thackeray ( )
80 Possession - AS Byatt ( )

total: 37/80

81 A Christmas Carol - Charles Dickens (x)
82 Cloud Atlas - David Mitchell ( )
83 The Color Purple - Alice Walker ( X)
84 The Remains of the Day - Kazuo Ishiguro ( )
85 Madame Bovary - Gustave Flaubert ()
86 A Fine Balance - Rohinton Mistry ( )
87 Charlotte’s Web - EB White (x)
88 The Five People You Meet In Heaven - Mitch Albom ( )
89 Adventures of Sherlock Holmes - Sir Arthur Conan Doyle (x)
90 The Faraway Tree Collection - Enid Blyton ( )

total: 41/90

91 Heart of Darkness - Joseph Conrad ( )
92 The Little Prince - Antoine De Saint-Exupery (x)
93 The Wasp Factory - Iain Banks ( )
94 Watership Down - Richard Adams (X )
95 A Confederacy of Dunces - John Kennedy Toole ( )
96 A Town Like Alice - Nevil Shute ( )
97 The Three Musketeers - Alexandre Dumas (x)
98 Hamlet - William Shakespeare (x)
99 Charlie and the Chocolate Factory - Roald Dahl (x)
100 Les Miserables - Victor Hugo (x)

47/100. Heh... Not too bad. Some I don't consider classics and some... I never heard of ... ever.

Looking back thru the week 

It kinda sucked some. Well, not really. I just had poor sleep through most of it. I wanted to get so much done, but gah... bad sleep equal dysfunctional.

Friday went much better as I slept Thursday night. My Level 2's were great as usual. We had a few moments of staring thrilled out the glass balcony doors of the 17th floor of the apartment we teach/learn from. It was after 6pm and the sun was still out!! It was amazing! The migraine that hit me last night was not so great. Stupid air pressure change. At least I slept last night.

Today the hubby and I have two dates! We are going out for breakfast with Roo, then we are going out to a new tea house in NDG called Cha Guan. I hope it is good. Then we have to stop by my mom's to drop of Chinese Calligraphy stuff for her.

My evening goals today are to do some general house cleaning, continue updating my website, and work more on the CMS L2 Book 2.

It looks BEAUTIFUL and sunny out, but the temp is 0 degrees C, so... chilly. Not quite bike or roller skate whether. Soon... soon... I feel spring fever already!

Monday, March 09, 2009

News of the Day 

Several things occurred today. First of all... I got a TON of sleep and feel so much better compared to the Flu-ridden week. I started spring cleaning and attacked the bathroom. The husband has to tackle the ceiling and tub. I rearranged things too in preparation to move the little box into there.

I sent off my blurb for the Beltaine Fair. I prepared my money Magic Workshop, my CMS L3 class and reviewed my teaching homework.

Then I watched the video below again and lit a candle in hopes that Prop 8 gets tossed out the window and forgotten ... or remembered as one of the stupider moments in US legislation that ought to never be repeated.

News that just came to me... North Korea might declare war on the US.... well, on South Korea, the US, and Japan. Kinda stunning. Here are some news links:

- http://www.voanews.com/english/2009-03-09-voa16.cfm

- http://news.xinhuanet.com/english/2009-03/09/content_10972181.htm

I wonder what that means... and if it will happen... and how the world will change.

Because Sometimes Some Things are too Important to Overlook 


"Fidelity": Don't Divorce... from Courage Campaign on Vimeo.

Wednesday, March 04, 2009

Improved somwhat 

Today I felt considerably improved from yesterday. I sounded worse, but felt much better. I was just really tired. I worked all day, had soup and salad for lunch, then taught incense making all night. The next few days will be insane. I hope I survive them.

Thursday:
Clean and prep for the Friday stuff
drive to Roo's and leave car
Bus to work for 3pm
work till 9pm
Review mini-lesson I have to give
overnight @ roo's

Friday:
Bus to my teaching class for 9am
teach my mini lesson
lunch
observe others teaching in the afternoon
prep meeting
dinner
teach Asian religions and art
meeting with covener
prep morning meeting
bus to Roo's (or hopefully get a lift)
drive home
prep for Saturday morning's meeting

Deep deep breath. 48 busy hours ahead. I can do it. I hope it doesn't land me ill all over again. I also pray that the hubby doesn't fall ill.

Tuesday, March 03, 2009

Alive-ish? 

I worked today. I wasn't sure if I was going to make it through the day. But I did.

Got home to a tiny dinner, which was fine because I felt like royal crap. I made the cookies I have been craving for weeks. And now... I can smell and taste... NOTHING! ARGH!!!

Wasted 

I was so looking forward to a four-day weekend to get so much done. Now it feels like a WASTE! I have been stupidly and brutally sick all weekend. Nothing got done. I don't get colds often. But DAMN when I do.

I have no idea how I will function tomorrow. Not like I can get a replacement either.

Monday, March 02, 2009

Still awake... 

Still ill. Can't sleep. More like won't. I hate feeling crappy and lying down just makes it all worse.

I spent the day in my jammies reading other people's fanfics and writing more of my Epilogue fic.

I can add fevers to the congestion along with a slight cough. The day has been full of ups and down. Appetite is kinda nil. The congestion headaches at least are gone. I am trying to stay awake just a little longer till I can take more meds so I can sleep hopefully at least 4 hours instead of 2 here and 1 there and maybe a few minutes on and off later.

Aww... hell. It is almost 3:30am. I can't stay up any longer. Off to read the bottle to see if it says every 6 hours or every 4. If it says ever 4 then I'll take it now. It will be 3.5 hrs since the last one. *looks* Bugger! Every 6-8 hours. I give up. I need to sleep. I'll pray I sleep till 7:00am.

Sunday, March 01, 2009

Still... ill... 

So.... I finally crawled into bed around 5:am when I could no longer see straight. I managed a few hours of sleep. Then it was on and off for like... hours, feeling like death warmed and cooled and warmed over again. I just gave up being in bed. Nibbling breakfast and hoping to manage to pretend to be somewhat alive.

Ugh... 2:00am 

Still sick... for the record... I hate this. I too bloody sick to think clearly, too bloody sick to be comfortable , too bloody sick to eat, and definitely too bloody sick to sleep. I'd on;y suffocate in my sleep.

... ... ...

Hmmm... that would be a relief...

... ... ...

At least I posted another fanfic epilogue bit and wrote up my mini-lesson for Friday morning's class.

I've spent the last 5 hours staring at a blank document file trying to think of the next epilogue bit. Then I gave up and read some online fanfics.

I am still awake. I feel like death. The universe could stop dropping metaphorical pianos on my life any second now. Thank you.