December

December is here already, I can hardly believe it. Where has the time gone. I know that time flies by when you are having fun, so I guess I must have been having fun. I know, that is not very logical. It is just my attempt to lighten the mood.

One of the, undesirable, side effects of the work that was done here, is that my breathing has been impaired. I have asthma and the fumes from the paint and the new flooring will cause me problems for at least ten days. I even had two windows open yesterday for several hours even though it is below freezing outside. Breathing is good. I prefer to keep on breathing for a few more years.

I was so wiped out yesterday, from the difficulty that I have had with my breathing for about the previous 24 hours, that I turned off the phones and went to bed at about seven pm. I only dozed on and off until about ten when I went to sleep for the night.

So, here I am, it is not even six am and I am awake and have been for a while. The air is a bit better in here this morning. I vacuumed the whole house and washed the tile floor that runs from the back door, through the kitchen and to the front door. I also cleaned the hardwood floor in the living room and vacuumed the furniture and dusted some of the flat surfaces that I had not covered during the work. Maybe it was just the housework that did me in yesterday.

I have one more assignment to do before classes end. It is not very long, but does entail some reading and analysis and comparing and contrasting two different approaches to combating sexism through language use. There is only one copy of each of the books in all of our libraries so they are on a two hour hold. I just missed getting the books two times before I finally got to hold them in my hands for only one hour and fifty minutes. I got gypped out of ten minutes because the person in the library rounded the time to the hour. I got my reading done and then photocopied the two chapters that I decided to analyze. I did all of this the day after the work was assigned. Imagine how I felt, when, as a result of many complaints about access to the books, our prof said he would get the two chapters of the one book and all of the other book scanned and online. There are about fifty people in our class, so I do see why it was difficult for some of my classmates to get to the library and do the reading. I went in the evening and still had to wait.

I woke up to a nice email of support from one of my friends who knows what happened. I had not expected it and was pleasantly surprised. It is especially nice when someone does something unexpected like that. Those small acts of thoughtfulness can make more of difference in other peoples lives than we realize.

It is 6:10 am and the whole day awaits. I like to think of life as being on an adventure. My life has certainly been an adventure since my application to university was accepted. It has been a mix of apprehension, excitement, joy, tragedy, sadness, loss, friendship, acceptance and new beginnings. Maybe next year will be dull and boring.