The good life

Yay, mid-semester break and a chance to take a breather for a week.  I was so close to chucking it all in about two weeks ago.  However, amid tears and tantrums there was SH No. 1, egging me on and encouraging me I could do it.  After two weeks of incessant reading, researching and finishing three 2,ooo word essays, I've come out the other end, jubulant and so proud of myself for not throwing in the towel and a little exhausted after the adrenalin wore off.

Apart from having two novels to read before I go back, I can enjoy my family and catch up on the dreaded housework.  Today after doing all the floors (sadly, I get such enjoyment from seeing the floorboards all shiny and clean!), hubby and I went for a bike ride and found a groovy coffee shop where we sat and had an iced coffee with a double shot and talked without interruption for about an hour about the kids.  The double shot gave us the energy we needed to zip home where we had lunch followed by a nap.  Feeling re-energized, my 16 year old daughter and I took the dog for a walk in the park where we were followed by four skateboarding, wolf-whistling youths, all calling out for 'beautiful's number (ah, sweet youth - I remember those days!). After coming home and washing the dog, I enjoyed a delicious vegetarian curry prepared by, yep, possibly the best husband in the world - supportive and an excellant cook (although he doesn't clean, but I can forgive him thatl).

As my husband and I acknowledged while we were quietly sipping our iced coffee earlier that day, we're going to be great retirees. Case in point, I'm up at 2.45am watching re-runs of  'Everybody loves Raymond'... and my knees are killing me!

April Fool

It's 3.00pm.  It 's almost the end of an absolutely beautiful weekend, which I've once again missed - sitting at my laptop, frantically trying to spew out another assignement and I've only JUST realised it's April Fool's day!  I feel quite sad that I've managed to miss another whole day, not having any idea of what's going on around me.  Last weekend was equally as beautiful and I was equally as absent from my surroundings in my efforts to finish a literature essay. 

Yep, it's the end of term.  However, learning from previous mistakes, rather than throwing my laptop out the window in frustration (not literally, just really, really wanting to) and dropping a subject or withdrawing from the course altogether out of pure irritation, I've stuck with it.  That doesn't necessarily mean it's a good thing. 

On Thursday, I finished a 2,000 word literature assignment which was due on Friday; at the moment, I'm trying to finish a 2,000 word essay on media law for Thursday and at some stage I will have to complete a draft for an Australian history essay due also on Thursday.  Now, anyone who has been following my blog will probably know I'm a little highly strung, so to have all this to do and to still be able to write about it is a huge feat for me.  I don't know how I sound but I feel rather overwhelmed but determined to to do my utmost. 

Unlike previous years where I've managed to complete all the course readings and allow myself two weeks for essays, this time round, I'm behind in most of the readings and am stuggling to keep my head above water.  But I have a new outlook - I think I had an anxiety attack last week and felt as if I couldn't breath.  That was an eye opener for me and I've come to the conclusion that if I try my best and don't do as well as I usually do, so be it.  As a friend recently told me (Nicki from Diaries fo a neurotoc non-trad) after my meltdown over Summer semester exams (for which, by the way, I received a Distinction and a High Distinction!), 'acknowledge your worry, wrap it up and send it out into the universe' -  or words to that effect.  Anyway, it's my new motto - yes, I'm extremely busy; yes, I'm feeling slightly overwhelmed but it's almost Easter and I get a week's break and next term, all this stress will be forgotten as I make way for some new ones!

Think I'll take the dog for a walk and enjoy what's left of April Fool's day.