Rambling into the void

I took far too long writing a whole navel gaze about why I've been gone and what led me back, and how I found myself reading through my blog today.* You know the drill. I don't know how long I'll keep this up, and I have no expectations that anyone is reading this (but that is a bit of the appeal? It feels a little more like shouting into the void than Twitter does, these days). But I've missed writing. Let's see where this goes.

So: hi, guys! Since we left off, I turned 35, and bought a house for my birthday. (It just worked out that way.) We bought a 1950s bungalow that's walking distance from Chris's work, and now my life is so different from where we were at when I turned 30, that I barely recognise myself. (I think? I was leading into "I sometimes go for days without leaving the house and I bake a lot of bread," but that's exactly what my life was like at 30. It's just now, instead of having angst about failing at academia, I worry that I'm losing my identity into the domestic sphere, and mutter stuff about Betty Friedan and The Feminine Mystique.) (Okay, I guess the main difference is that Chris's commute is now a 5-minute walk instead of a 40-minute drive, and I have to get out of bed before he leaves for work now, because the early hours of the morning are Wild Party Time in preschooler land.) (Okay, and my life involves 500% more Small Person's Bodily Functions, but I'm trying to steer clear of that discussion here.)

Homeownership is exactly as scary as I thought it would be, during all our basement suite years: in the five months since we bought this place, we've spent roughly a kabillion dollars on it, especially on a furnace, a new stove, and an air conditioner (but the last one was technically optional), and when the snow melted and warm weather arrived, it turned out that our house was full of bees. (They had a way of getting in through the walls, and really, really love our house. Nine indoor bees in two days. Chris spray foamed every gap in the house, and now they stay outside and I stay inside.) And we got water in our basement, because it turns out that our sprinklers don't so much run as pour water against our foundation. And I hurt my arm attempting to be a gardener!

So, I think that catches you up. Rascally child, wacky house, and brain that's slowly de-fogging and starting to comprehend the surrounding world again. We'll see where this goes.

* A bloggy friend met up with my IRL friend, on my old university campus today! And then I got reminiscing about my bloggy friends, and then I got updating my blog roll, and then I realised I was blogging in my head while cleaning the kitchen...

On Leave

Last week I received word that my request for sick leave was approved, and applied retroactively to September. The university credited me this year's tuition, and I'll go back in the fall. In the meanwhile, my library card doesn't work, and I'm not supposed to be engaging in any research/academic work. (Ha.)

It's a strange feeling, suddenly having that weight off my shoulders. It's now okay that I've been useless for the past year. I've spent the year doing was doing what I was supposed to be doing: taking care of myself and my family. I was sometimes a little hard on myself about my lack of progress, because I know people who finished their dissertations in the midst of being pregnant and having a baby. Of course, I constantly have to remind myself that it's not fair to compare myself to anyone else, because I've been a rather exceptional case. (So exceptional, in fact, that I was granted leave after the terms of my extension explicitly stated that I didn't qualify for leave!)

It's funny how my brain is more full of ideas and strategies for finishing, now that I'm not registered. I'm going to get myself an alumni library card, since I qualify for one here. I'll start practising my German while the baby's napping, and since it requires the use of a headset microphone, I've ordered a baby monitor, and will watch the little lights for signs of the kid making noise. I'll also take this opportunity to review my primary sources, since it's been a while, and the review will be good for getting my brain going. That's all I'll really do this summer (and meet with my supervisor when we go back to the Island in the summer: he'll want to see the baby, and then we'll draw up a timeline for completion).

But I'm also going to allow myself some space. I'm on leave, and I'm going to make sure that I appreciate that. This is the first time I haven't been a registered student in a decade, and I want to take some time and enjoy being home with Li'l E.

This has all coincided with the good news that E won't need surgery (there was some concern, but it has thankfully turned out to be unfounded), and so we now have fewer health professionals in our lives, which means fewer appointments. (Okay, in the next few weeks, she has a physical therapy appointment, 6-month checkups with both her family doctor and her pediatrician, and then her next round of shots. But then we get a break!) More importantly, we no longer have that anxiety hanging over us, and we can just move on with our lives, dealing only with normal baby stuff.

And so I'm grateful for this bit of respite from all the craziness of the past year. Normal is a nice change from the usual.

I'll admit I've been keeping my cards close to my chest lately

Well, I didn't intend to disappear for such a long time! At first, right after I wrote that last post, I got very sick (as part of a series of stress-related illnesses), and stayed sick until the New Year. (Also, I got to try all kinds of powerful antibiotics, and may have experienced some rheumatic fever! Fun times at Christmas.) (As another aside, I am your perfect sick party guest: hobbling around, whining about "my rheumatiz." You guys missed a magical time.)

After I got home from that second trip home, my life was divided between the Bloggable But Stressful (Get the crazy chapter under control and come up with a workable plan for finishing soon!) and the Very Unbloggable Thanks To IRL People Reading This Blog (Let's apply for work closer to home! What if we start a family now?). Some days, it felt like every decision we were facing were some of the biggest decisions we'd ever made in our lives. And somehow they seemed so much scarier than the Big Decisions we made before (or maybe we were younger and more flippant than we are now.) Get married? Sounds like a wonderful plan! Move across the country for grad school? Hey, why not? Sounds fun. (Oh, to be 24 years old again.)

But now, we've made some decisions, finalized plans, and have even announced them on Facebook (you know, after I told people in person first, because I'm not a monster). We're moving home, and I'm pregnant!

Dear goodness, those words are simultaneously exciting and terrifying.

I seriously can't believe this is all happening. And I know that "I'm pregnant and we're moving home to the prairies" sounds like the beginning of a novel about giving up on your dreams, but both of these really feel like the fulfillment of life-long dreams for us. We got Chris a good job in our hometown, in the same city as our entire families. And, barring something major happening, we're staying there. I'm insanely determined to get this dissertation finished, and then I'll figure out what I'm doing. It's been years since I realised that I wasn't cut out for the tenure-track life, but I'll carve my own path. I love working with students, and I'd love to do something university- or research-adjacent. There will be something for me (and it's not urgent for me to find it: the top priority is finishing the dissertation and having this baby; Chris will be making enough to support us until I find something).

There's this part of me that fears some people will think I'm crazy for having a baby right now (well, at the end of December), or that I'm somehow wasting all this education by not aggressively pursuing a tenure-track position. Or that I'm crazy for having a baby at a point when I don't qualify for EI maternity pay. (But do you know how long it would be until I would qualify? And seriously: we'll be financially fine.)

Okay. Enough (heading-towards-an-outie) navel-gazing. I'll save the crazy medical details (How I've Spent The Past Month In Doctor's Waiting Rooms, and Why I Keep Baffling Medical Professionals*) for another post.

In honour of the move back to the homeland, let's finish off with an old school Question Time!

Time? 1:39pm

Surroundings? I'm in my office, surrounded by dirty dishes, kleenex boxes, and scraps of printed off translation material. (By the way, I have a cold, and the inability to take cold medicine: pure torture.)

Tea? Murchies Library Tea. (Why no, I haven't completely cut out caffeine. Why yes, I do know about the risks, but I also have read a terrifying number of medical journal articles and stay well under the safe limit.)

Wearing? Pyjamas, rubber-soled slippers, TARDIS bathrobe, hair that is standing straight on end. (It might be time to bathe soon.) (Uh, you guys, I just found out how much my sister spent on my new bathrobe...)

Stuck in my head? "A Hundred and One Pounds of Fun" from South Pacific. Because I forced Chris to watched the movie with me this weekend, and this is what I get in return. Mitzi Gaynor's voice in my head for the rest of my life.

What am I most thankful for? My Christopher. He's been phenomenal lately, doing all the cooking and cleaning (in addition to dealing with the madness of the end of the school year), since I've been so sick, sore and tired for the past couple of months. He's a good'un.


* Working title.

Today I got stuck in a rose bush

I can't believe how much I've done since I last posted.

First, Chris got sick. In true Chris fashion, he became spectacularly sick within the course of a couple of hours on Thursday, becoming the second sickest I've ever seen him, and then was nearly better by Friday evening. (The sickest I've seen him was when he hallucinated that his blankets were Russians revolutionaries who were trying to overthrow him.) I got to go guest lecture at his school on Friday while he stayed on the couch and watched Wrath of Khan.

Then, I did the two guest lectures on Friday and Monday. The kids were excited and so fun, and asked better questions than a lot of university students do. And when I brought up the slide with the most important words that we were going to recite together ("HITLER WAS NEVER ELECTED"), they (and Derek, their teacher) all shouted out the words that Chris taught them: "Hitler was elected in a free and democratic election!" As revenge, I told them to tell Chris that they don't believe in photosynthesis.

And THEN, Chris's brother (who I fondly call "Geoffy") has been here since Saturday morning and is leaving tomorrow. His visit has been simultaneously hilarious and exhausting, especially since he's here for such a short time and he's never been here before. I'm not used to doing more than one thing a day anymore, and we've been booking ourselves solid. (They were whale watching within a couple of hours of Geoff's arrival.) Today's probably been our most relaxed day (Geoff and I spent half the day watching the Olympics), and even today we went walking to Willow's Beach, a walk which resulted in us getting a wee bit lost because we thought we'd explore a bit, and then I got stuck in a rose bush in a park that was much larger than I thought it would be.

It's not a proper visit unless I get you completely lost somewhere within walking distance of my house. Apparently.

Printers and Seals

Last night Chris ran by London Drugs and picked up the Canon printer that I'd picked out. It was neat reading all the different thoughts that you guys have on printers, because they reflect a lot of what I was wrestling through, in trying to decide on what we should get.

Our conclusion, in the end: stick with colour inkjet for now. If the only printing we were doing were black-and-white documents (which is most of what I do) we'd switch to laser, because monochromatic laser is much cheaper than colour inkjet. However, we need something a little more multipurpose than that, especially with Chris teaching grades 6-12 science. He doesn't do as much printing as I do, but he needs to be able to print in colour. (And we only have room for one printer.)

On the other hand, we're also going to get the cartridges refilled at least once before replacing them, and I'm following Gillian's advice and I'll keep emailing drafts to my supervisor, so that we don't have to deal with quite as much printing costs.

At the same time, we've been having fun playing around with the 4x6 photo paper that came with the printer (and the photo paper we have kicking around the house), and have been printing off a few wedding and family pictures to frame. They're turning out amazingly, even though the photo printing is just an (admittedly expensive) added bonus.

***

In other news: Huzzah! Hurrah! I took the afternoon off and hung out with Bronwyn today, since she's in town. We even went to the Oak Bay Marina, and their gigantic seals decided to all make an appearance for us today. They heard us tromping down the walkway and all came over to make eyes at us and do little tricks, in hopes that we brought them food. I apparently should never make plans to go see seals, because on those occasions I can never find any; today we just went on a whim while driving past, and they were all out and being cute.

Sometimes I go for weeks without going to the ocean, and then I forget that I even live on the West Coast. And sometimes I get to see mountains and seals and driftwood, and it feels like I'm on vacation. Four and a half years living in the city, and I still feel like I'm on vacation if I leave the house. (Especially if I go somewhere that isn't just the university or church.)

New Printer!

Yesterday, I sat down Chris and all but gave him a PowerPoint presentation on "Why We Are Buying A New Printer This Week." I showed him exactly the one we should get (and that it's on sale this week), showed him that we actually can afford to buy one right now (thanks in part to our recent frugality with food, and in part to some extra paycheques he just got), and told him that if I have to print off multiple drafts of my dissertation using his old printer (which he got for pretty nearly free six or seven years ago), I'm going to throw it through a window.

I don't know if I've stated this here before, but I hate our current printer. (Actually, I usually refer to it as "Chris's printer" when it starts acting up.) It can hold roughly 15 pages at a time, and every five pages it accidentally grabs two pages and then prints part on both of them. And goes out of alignment frequently. And its default is set to "A4" instead of "8 1/2x11", and I keep trying to change the default, and it keeps going back. And replacing both cartridges costs more than the entire printer originally did. I used this printer to print off my complete MA thesis, and it took me a full day and ruined several pages. And then my department secretary deemed the whole thing to be unusable, had it printed off professionally and made my mom (who was dealing with things on the Regina end) pay for it.

So far, I've been emailing my work to my supervisor, but then he prints it off and makes comments by hand, and then I feel guilty about wasting his ink and paper. I'd rather submit hard copies to him, if he's going to be commenting by hand. I know it's using a lot of paper, but I sometimes also like to edit using a hard copy; I catch more mistakes when I'm not staring at a computer screen.

When I went looking at printers, I discovered that most companies have been phasing out their single-purpose inkjet printers, and replacing them with multi-function units. I used to have a multi-function Canon; when the printer broke, the scanner became all buggy because the whole unit was freaked out about the printer. I already have a new scanner that I like, and I'd rather have my components separate. (It drives me crazy that everything's moving towards multifunction units. If I want to spend a hundred dollars, I'd rather have one good printer than a sub-par printer, scanner and fax machine.) (Sorry about that rant.)

And so I did some phoning around today, and now have a Canon Pixma iP4700 set aside for me. It's funny to me that I ended up picking out a photo printer, but it's competent with document printing and has a duplexer, and so I'm going to be able to do double-sided printing for my drafts. And it holds significantly more than 15 pages at a time! Huzzah! (As a bonus, I'll be able to hook my camera up to the printer and print directly from the camera, if I was so inclined.)

As another bonus, Chris completely agreed with me that it's time to replace the printer. I didn't even have to bust out the PowerPoint slides.

Also, I rescued orphans from a burning building

My day, in order:

I woke up just after 6am after a very busy and late-night weekend. I was in the library basement by about 7:45.

I dressed up today, because I would go straight from my research to our fundraiser auction. Because of that, plus the fact that I was sitting at the big microfilm scanner computer, and the microforms librarian was gone for the day, I was repeatedly mistaken for a librarian. I spent the whole day with people asking me for help loading their microfilm into the readers, or to find a specific roll of film.

Okay, and then I somewhat pretended to be the librarian to make a loud study group go away and actually use a group study room. (The library basement is a designated silent study area and it's full of grad student carrels, so I wasn't just being a jerk.)

But I still managed to read more than six months' worth of German newspapers. Brain doesn't function. Accidentally said "unpossible" because the German word is "unmöglich."

Made a copy of an article from 1931 because its headline was "Beer for Babies." (But in German.)

And then went straight to the auction, where our band raised $800! (The reserve price we were looking for was $300, and for $350 we would add in an encore; for this amount, we are now committed to playing at the conference itself and taking requests). It went well, and the World's Best Kid played egg shakers and did a crazy beatnik dance for us during the encore. Those of you who know me on Facebook should go and watch the videos. You'll also see me dressed as a librarian.

Today's been nuts, and I don't know why I'm still awake. Tomorrow will be here so quickly, because I need to now turn around and read at least eight months' worth of newspaper.

Giant-Proofing the House

Meg and Karl are on their way over tomorrow, and we've been preparing ourselves for how much the "wee" Andrew has grown since August. So, you remember roughly how big he was when he visited? (Go and check that link. You need to prepare yourself for the comparison.)

Meg just posted this picture of Andrew in his Halloween costume (so, two months after my picture?):
(I've been hearing rumours that he's already hit three feet tall, while still two and a half months away from his second birthday!)

Chris and I were looking around the house and realising that this kid can now reach almost everything that's breakable or dangerous. We're just going to have to play this thing by ear this weekend. Because Chris predicts that Andrew will now be able to reach the knife block on the counter, while I think that's crazy talk. It's a good thing that Chris is planning on wrestling the wee giant all weekend.*

I can't believe it's been a full week since I last posted. It's been a pretty busy week: I met with my supervisor and he helped me figure out how to streamline the research I've been doing. I've also been putting together a clear chapter-by-chapter overview of the whole dissertation, which helps sort out my thoughts. Also, today I went straight from yoga class to McDonalds, which might be defeating the purpose.

Finally, anyone who hasn't seen Chris's House Hippo Adventures needs to go check that out. I have the sweetest, silliest husband ever.

And now I'm going to sleep. (Can you tell that this started off as a coherent blog post and then went ramble-y and sleepy? I've been awake for a very long time now.)


* Apparently the kid really likes to wrestle now? How has he grown up so much? He's this visual reminder of how long it's been since I finished comps, because remember when he was this big?

A different sort of week

This is the first time I've stopped running around since Sunday evening. Jen's grandpa got into a car accident on Sunday evening and passed away on Monday morning, and since he was one of the seniors from our church, with no family living on the Island, I got to launch into Deacon's Wife mode and make calls and send emails.

You know, it never gets easy being the one who goes through the church list and breaks it to every member that someone has died. No one ever wants to be the bearer of bad news, and there's never a good way to launch that conversation. (The worst was when I called Jen to make sure that someone in her family had called her.)

I'm now settling into a new normal for this week. Jen's coming from Edmonton to stay with us (she should actually be on the ferry now, but I probably won't see her until supper). I'm glad that Chris and I have something like this to do; I like being in Comforting Hostess mode. I have a good example to follow: I just have to remember how I felt having Vic and Barb take us in during our Worst Month Ever. I'm glad I have a chance to pay a bit of that forward.

And so now here's my week: spend more time at home than usual, but try to get to the library and get through some more microfilm. Put off having any meetings late this week, because I don't know when the funeral will be. Do a little more baking and having people over than usual, but also finish polishing my CV (I need to apply for sessional teaching work by Friday).

Depending on how the week goes, the posting might be a little light. But you do have to go check out the new masthead that Bronwyn made for Chris. It's pretty well the best thing ever.

Newsy

I've been silent on this blog for the better part of a week now. Partly, it was in the wake of hearing that Glenn Dynna (whose son commented in the previous comment) suddenly died of a blood clot during physiotherapy on Thursday. It was a pretty big shock for his family, and I think I was having trouble putting it into words. (I'm sending so many hugs out to you, Mark and Terra.)

There have been other things going on around here that have been keeping me busy. We took part in our neighbourhood watch's garage sale, which gave me the opportunity to finally meet some more neighbours. We had a barbeque at the end of it, and it was lovely. We live on a good block, one that feels like a small town even though we're in a capital city, one where you talk with your neighbours over the fence.

Finally, in other news, I'm going to be going crazy reading microfilm for the next few weeks! I thought I had another week, because I'd only ordered it a week ago, and then had heard back on Thursday that they hadn't sent off the order yet (because they got confused about my order, even though I filled it completely according to their directions). But it's here from Illinois, and I have a couple of weeks to get through 21 rolls of microfilm. Whee!

Another funding agency looks fat in those pants

I just heard back from [German funding agency]. And...it's a no. I made it to the last round (which is always nicer than being filtered out at the beginning), but today I got the "we regret..." email.

I'm weirdly okay with all this. So, this means I'm not gone for Christmas (if I'm going on my own dime and we can't afford to fly out Chris for the holidays, there's no way I'm spending Christmas on my own in another country). I'm only going to go for two months, and order microfilm of all the newspapers I need to use. This also means that I no longer need to apply for a visa. And I just did the numbers and figured out that, if I go and get a bank student loan (which I needed to do anyway), I can afford this trip and still have available money to fill in the gaps now that I'm a fifth year student and no longer get scholarship money from the university.

And that gigantic, insane application was not a waste: it forced me to improve my German skills, make contacts in Germany (who I will still visit, even if I no longer have to), and helped me to make sense of my research project.

So, I'm weirdly relieved right now. And have now started making active plans for my research trip. At least my life isn't on hold any more.

(The title is taken from the always-wonderful LynnieC, who decided to make me feel better about losing [Shirk-alike] by insulting the funding agency Mean Girls-style.)

Back online

Oh sweet, precious internet. Never go away.

It turned out to be a broken DSL modem. Now everything's back to normal, and I've been getting myself caught up on all the nonsense that's happened in the past half-week. And I didn't die without the internet this week: I made apricot freezer jam (using fruit I bought in the Okanagan), experimented with Hollandaise sauce, tended my landlords' garden in their absence, and am now watching football. So, it hasn't been so bad.

(Okay, I spent every evening at Ky's house, using her wireless while we watched So You Think You Can Dance.)

Lessons Learned

So, we're going in the way-back machine right now, but do you remember the whole "Chris got his identity stolen and a collections agency was convinced that we owed them 18 months worth of cell phone bills for a company we've never had a cell phone with" situation of 2007? (I wrote about it here, here and here.)

Way back then, we thought it had been resolved: we talked back and forth between Telus Mobility and the collections agency, and after Telus did an investigation, they established that it wasn't Chris at all they were looking for: there's some dude out there with the same first and last names as Chris, who lives in Ontario, but then totally disappeared off the map with a ton of unpaid bills two years ago. When the cell phone bill went to collections, they couldn't find this dude anywhere, and did essentially a Canada 411 search and the only person listed with that exact first and last name was my dear husband. (I'm seriously going to have that changed soon, because I'm tired of people assuming that Chris is that other guy.)

So, a cell phone company and a collections agency, based only on someone having the same name and making no effort to confirm that Chris was actually that guy (you know, Social Insurance number...), decided Chris was the guy they were looking for, sent him the collections letter, and managed to have this all put on Chris's credit report. Wow, is that ever sketchy of everybody.

Once it was all ironed out that Chris wasn't the guy they were looking for, everyone promised that this would be taken off of Chris's credit report.* But then, several months later, we got another letter from the collections agency, saying we still haven't paid this bill. Chris called them, with all the original numbers and stuff, and they were all "Sorry! My mistake! We'll have this taken off your record immediately."

Right. (Lesson #1: ask for written confirmation of everything. Never trust spoken promises from businesses.)

Today, we finally signed up for Equifax and took a look at Chris's credit report. (Lesson #2: Seriously, sign up for Equifax now. This frequently the only way you'll find out for yourself that something sketchy has been happening.) We were shocked when we saw how low Chris's score was, and as we looked through the report, at first everything looked good. And then we got to the bottom, and saw the report under "Accounts sent to collections." Yup, there was that same Telus Mobility account, still tied to Chris's name, nearly two years later.

Cue a ransacking of the house, as we try to find that original collection letter. And then an hour on the phone back and forth between the agency and Telus, as they all try to dig up their files on this stuff. (Lesson #3: Keep a copy of everything. This collections agency's filing system is terrible.) And Chris, all over again, had to demonstrate that this cell phone account didn't belong to him, that it was just a coincidence of having the same name.

(Lesson #4: Learn how to advocate for yourself and hound everyone until situations like this are fixed. It turns out that the system with most credit-related businesses is weighted strongly against the victim. You are constistently guilty until proven innocent, and then have to prove your innocence over and over, as everyone assumes that you somehow forgot that you had a cell phone or something.)

So, we're going through the process of having this removed from Chris's credit report, again. At least this time we've learned a few lessons.

(By the way, the best thing I did back then was blog most of the process. I was able to track down dates and specifics, thanks to the record I kept here.)

GiST: Day 9, Packing for Conference Edition

1. Much as I get stressed out that I'm going to forget something, and then over-pack to over-compensate for that fear, I love packing a suitcase. I like exercising control over tiny spaces, where things can be perfect. I get to roll and fold everything up and make it all fit into the suitcase. For this short time, and in this small space, everything is orderly. (Lynniec knows what I mean.)

2. I got paid today. And then Chris gets paid in one hour, and then I get my fellowship cheque on Monday, and then on Friday my TA money arrives. This is bliss. I'm finally going to go and get that haircut I've been needing.

3. We went grocery shopping immediately after I deposited my cheque, and I got to go and get whatever I wanted. We mostly kept to the shopping list, but we also got ice cream and a bag of chips. And Chris even let me come along to the grocery store (when money's tight, I'm not allowed to come grocery shopper, because he's good at budgeting, while I'm an impulse shopper and a wheedler.)

4. I just talked on the phone with my beautiful friend Kara tonight and found out she's pregnant! (And that I'm allowed to tell people.) This will be the first Teen Girl Squad baby and I'm so excited for her and Greg. (And hi, Kara! She said she's been reading the blog.)

5. By this time tomorrow, I'll be in a resort by the ocean, surrounded by crazy historians, at my favourite conference. These sorts of weekends remind me of why I love my field. (Even if the illustrious C won't be there, for my first time since I started going to the conference. And she's making me socialise with strangers and not just hide in my room!)

Updates all over the place

Update 1: I have a good department. They had already planned out what to do if my prof had her baby early; they extended the sessional's contract so that she can start on Monday instead of after Spring Break. My job is not any more complicated than it was before, other than the fact that the sessional and I just spent the past hour going over the prof's plans for the first half of the semester, trying to parse what some of her intentions (particularly for assignments) were.

Update 2: Have I mentioned that whenever Chris has a fever, he hallucinates? And that he specifically hallucinates that his blankets can talk and are out to get him? The first time it happened (years ago), they were Russians who were leading a revolution against him. Last night, they were mathematicians that wouldn't cooperate (read: cover his toes) unless he solved their equations.

In other words, my husband is sick.

This semester just got more interesting

So, I'm TAing for one of my favourite profs for half of this semester. It's only for half because she's in the late stages of pregnancy (her due date is at the beginning of Spring Break), and after Spring Break a sessional's taking over for her. (And that sessional's contract only starts after Spring Break.) She's been preparing us for the "What if I go into labour early, or end up on bedrest, considering the fact that I'm due in three weeks." The plan involves closely-related DVDs and the other TA and I not lecturing, but we hadn't gotten to the place where we'd gotten any of the materials yet.

So, I just got word that the prof went into labour today and is now in the hospital.

My thought process, immediately following this news: 1.) "I hope she and the baby are okay;" 2.) "Oh my goodness, I think I'm temporarily in charge of a course that's outside of my field;"
3.) "It's sure a good thing that I've already scheduled a meeting with the sessional for tomorrow morning."

So, I'm sure the department has some sort of contingiency plan in place (I really hope that the plan is "start the sessional's contract three weeks earlier than expected," since she's taught the course a billion times before, or maybe the prof has already gotten this set of DVDs together and this is what I'm going to be doing twice a week for the next few weeks), but dude. Dude.

Five Days Without Update

The past few days, in bullet form:

• We pretty much replaced our wardrobes, thanks to birthday/Christmas money and Boxing Day. It's kind of exciting to own pants that fit and shirts that aren't t-shirts. This took up a surprisingly large part of the week.
  
• On Saturday we lost one of the best old ladies I've known. Anna, my friend Rebecca's grandmother, was one of the first people who really made us feel at home and like family in Victoria. And she was one of those people who held everyone else together, even though she was quite unwell for the whole time we've lived here. Her death was unsurprising, and yet hard. And it happened when most of our church people were away for Christmas, and so it fell on Chris and me to contact everyone. It's all still sinking in.
  
• It's crazy how busy the holidays are, even though we stayed in Victoria. Little Christmas Eve, and then Christmas Day, and then Boxing Day busyness, and then Anna stuff, and then a Hanukkah party, and then dinner with a family from Chris's school, and then New Year's Eve, and then Derek's birthday. Then Chris goes back to school.
  
• Not that I haven't spent all my spare time watching Food Network marathons.
  
• This is how scattered my brain is right now: I spent part of the day feeling draggy, and trying to figure out why I felt this underlying sadness. And then I remembered: oh right I lost a friend this week, one who figured pretty prominently in the last three years. Also, since all the snow melted, it's really dark outside and I can never handle that.
  
• You know, tonight was really nice. One of the teaching assistants from Chris's school, whose kids are also at the school, had Chris, Ariann, Derek and me over. I like collecting good people.
• Have I ended this on a positive enough note? I feel like there's been a melancholy/whiny edge to this blog lately.
  

Bits of Thoughts and News

• I ran a fundraiser auction this week (the same one as last year, and yes I did dress as Vanna again) and it went really well! We broke last year's record-breaking fundraising, which means that it'll be even cheaper for the students from my department to attend our conference. It makes me happy to feel like I've done something well.
• Canadian politics are suuuuper-interesting right now. I'm even letting Chris listen to all of the CBC program The House right now. (By the way, it's driving me nuts to hear the Conservatives saying that the forming of a coalition would be going against democracy, and would going against Canada's wishes based on how they voted. If you're a minority government, it means that the majority of the country voted against you, which theoretically means that the majority of the members of Parliament could form a majority against you.) Maybe it's the German historian in me that just loves the political potential of coalitions so much.
  
• The one thing that stumps Chris and me is who ought to be Prime Minister, if a coalition is successfully formed. This conversation has led to a lot of discussion of the hilarity of The Moustache as Prime Minister.
• I'm still figuring out what I thought of Baz Lurhmann's Australia. I definitely liked it as I watched it, three-hours-long notwithstanding. It was emotionally satisfying. But on reflection afterward...I'm not sure. I'm going to have to see it again. (I read Ebert's review and found myself agreeing a lot, even if Ebert did get some of the details of the movie wrong.)
• What should I do for my birthday? I'd like something special, but I don't want anything where I'm having to do a lot of work and planning, because those are the birthdays where I get stressed out and then cry.
  

Teatime of DOOOOOM

I apparently have gained a reputation for adding "of DOOOOOM" to mundane concepts. Styleygeek has even taken to quoting me (I think Anastasia has done it too).

And now, if you'll now excuse me, I have to go do some final work for next week's fundraiser auction... of DOOOOOM. I've totally been an Auction-Organising Superhero this week: I stood up to student government bullies who were using our auction as an opportunity to shake down our department's grad students for a whole lot of money (in exchange for "waiving our fees" for booking a room in their building, because "waiving our fees" by charging us more money makes sense). I then got that same student government to turn around and kick in some of their own money for food for the auction! All it took was a bunch of running back and forth between university buildings, camping out in a director's office, and calling some bluffs. (I spent a lot of Monday using the word "non-negotiable.")

(I need to stop resting on my laurels after that one success: I find I've been procrastinating more than usual because I feel so pleased with myself.)

Because sometimes I use this blog for conveying news

My friends Mark and Terra had a baby girl yesterday, named Elora Ruth! (Her name is Hebrew for "heavenly light," I think? Isn't it pretty?) She has a full head of dark hair, was born quickly without complications, and she and her Mommy are doing great. Also, it sounds like her 2-year-old big sister is pretty pumped about it!

This has been another installment of "This blog is the fastest way that I can spread news." We'll now return to our regular business of analysing my neuroses.

Update: I snagged this sweet one off of Brandy's Facebook! (It's from this evening.)