But it'll be here soon!
(This is one of the brightest posts I've ever written. Please don't be shocked by its cheerfulness. It will pass, I'm sure.)
Today is the first day of spring, and I can almost feel the buds of May blooming in my spirit. If only the snow would stop, we’d be in good shape.
I have a bunch of work to finish, but I have no doubt it will all get done. I’ve had some good reviews from profs, and I am anxiously looking forward to comp work. The dreaded and dirty Ontario Tuition Hike of 2006 has turned out to represent a grand total of 104 dollars per year, so I am not complaining. Compared to what the pessimists were predicting, that is barely a financial sneeze.
And compared to tuition in the States, I would blush to whine.
We are currently facing a summer of minor fiscal uncertainty, in some ways, as I don’t get funding for the summer (our funding is all pooled in the 8 months of school), and I am prohibited from working. However, there is the loan application and the bursary system, and John will be looking for work. We have a little by way of savings, so we have until May before things get too grim. I am sure he can get a job before then, as every shop window here as a "help wanted" sign up.
Besides, the whole thing is only until September when my funding starts back up, and his begins. All in all, survival seems likely.
I have received feedback from my Groucho presentation, and it turned out to be an acceptable A-. Not super-great, but better than I had anticipated from the post-presentation blow back. (And the prof's feedback was quite heart warming, as he seems to think I am way beyond my level at public speaking - nice to know.) Now I just have to kill with the paper, and that class should turn out OK for me. But, either way, it will be done, and that will be enough cause to celebrate.
I emailed the prof to gripe about the grade, and he called me an over-anxious worry wart, and told me that if an A- wasn't good enough in my books I could kiss his ass. So I told him to rotate on his A-.
All tongue in cheek, of course. My profs love me, and, as I said, no one ever takes my complaints seriously. Oh well, if that is my role in life, I can live with that.
(Now if I could just finish my RE700 paper notes, I'd be in truly good shape.)
Sunday has been spent listening to Smokey Robinson and Mary Wells, decompressing from presentation feedback, editing up Mark’s magnum opus, watching a flick, and doing my readings for Monday. All in all a nice prelude to the end of term rush starting next week.
I don’t teach today, and have only the RE700 seminar and the undergrad lecture that I TA for. Thus, it is only a semi-busy Monday, but still a pain...
Just have to remember: After today, there are only two more hell-Mondays left. Two! I think I can manage that.
Everything from this term should be dead and buried by the 18th of April. Less than a month to go before summer "vacation." That's something to focus on, despite the fact that my colleague Andrew is off to Paris for a vacation, and I will be stuck here with my French grammar books, comp list, and my dissertation proposal drafts.
Still, summer will involve lots of pajama time, and no bumming around Hamilton, so it is a vast improvement from where I was last year.
And I prefer reading to France anyway. Riots and peeing in public never did appeal to me, anyhow.
So I will live. Especially since it appears that this month is my last month EVER in normal classes. Sure there may be a language class sometime in the future, and the non-credit four week courses in university teaching and computer technology that I have to take before I graduate, but I will be officially done all my "real" classes, for the rest of my life (it seems).
So, all in all, some clouds in, upon, and over my horizon, but the spirits are rising. Optimism even occasionally wins out. If only the snow would leave for different pastures, I would be in fine shape.
Oh well, you can’t have everything.
In most other respects, life is pretty damned OK.
(P.S. Happy Meatout Day - do yourself a favour, and leave the colon cloggers behind for a day.)
No comments:
Post a Comment