Summer lovin'

Finally, the summer holidays are here!  Assignments, exams, lectures and tutes are no more for three whole months!!  In the mean time, all I have to do is wait patiently for the results and deal with two moody, hormone-ridden teenage girls and an over sex-educated eleven year old boy. 

After our earlier enlightened conversation regarding orgasms, on Friday night at a family birthday dinner for SH No. 1, out of the blue he proceeded to regale us with the somewhat explicit details of a sex change procedure on a male wanting to be a female.  I thought my mother-in-law was going to choke on her cake!  Yesterday on the way home from school, he informed me that AIDS started because men were having sex with monkeys.  A scientific fact?  I'm not sure.  Something an 11 year old needs to know?  I think not. It might be time for me to take a trip to the school and speak to the powers that be!

Two down - one to go!!!

I no longer feel as if I'm melting under the study load - I just feel exhausted! 

I completed my nerve-wracking New Communications exam on Friday morning and even though I got there in plenty of time, once I sat at the computer I couldn't stop my hands from shaking!  I walked into the room and for the first time in the whole Semester, the tute was full - I think I was the last to arrive for a change.  I had to find a computer that actually worked - well, they all worked but were so slow and I convinced myself they weren't working.  I changed computers twice before I was satisfied I had one that wouldn't freeze halfway through.  Anyway, after the initial 10 questions where I had myself convinced I was going to fail dismally, I breezed through and managed to get 31 out of 40 - in twenty minutes!

This morning I handed in my last Great Books essay after spending all weekend fighting off a urinary infection while trying to finish it.  I'm not all together satisfied with the final result but I'm so tired, I'm beginning not to care.  I felt almost free after I handed it in and really wanted to do something exciting.  I had no idea what - just SOMETHING!!!  God, I think I've become so boring - the only thing I know how to do any more is study!!!  I thought about going into the city but then couldn't be bothered so I came home and printed off my History assignment due on Monday.  See?  Told you - BORING!!!.  At least I have a week to finish it and then I'll be as free as a bird!!  To do what, I'm not totally sure.  I think I've forgotten how to have fun!!!

I'm still melting...

This is where I wish I was at this very moment.  Gliding down the Grand Canal in Venice, the Gondolier (looking strangely like Ricky Martin) gently manoeuvring the gondola through the narrow waterways; the (slightly green) water lapping up around the aging buildings and around the gondola; the occasional warning call of the Goldoliers as they make their way around slender corners, under the little bridges linking one island to the next.  Peace and serenity.  Oh, look...there's Marco Polo's place, the Rialto bridge and the old jail!  I could stay here forever...

Cue the sound of a scratching record...wait a minute, I'm sitting at my (messy) study desk, cramming for an exam I don't want to take; wondering why my TD No. 1 has turned into such a cow (could it be her horrible boyfriend?); asking myself why people insist on ringing constantly when everyone knows I'm studying (again - itsn't that all I ever do?); contemplating my next (and last) two assignments and when I'm going to find the time to finish them and finally, pondering if it's all really worth it and coming to the slow realisation that I'm beginning not to care (obviously, because I clearly wouldn't be blogging if I did).  I was hoping my meltdown of my last post would subside, but clearly, I'm still melting.

Note to self - next semester, two subjects only!

Are we there yet?

Oh God, when's it all going to be over?  I am so tired - I don't want to do this anymore!!!! 

I was so proud of the fact that I managed to write a history brief on the French Revolution AND an essay on Creative Commons, both of which were due on the same day.  I managed to finish them both early in order to enjoy a lovely weekend in Melbourne.  Well, my pride has turned to exhaustion as I'm now faced with an exam on Friday AND a poetry essay on Monday.  How much can one person give?  Like Brandywine, I think I've lost my ability to write.  I've sat here all day and have come up with nothing but notes on tone, imagery, theme, voice, mood etc.  I can't seem to put all these notes into a coherent piece of writing.  And I've done absolutely no study for my exam.  Have I finally become brain-dead?  I literally feel numb.

The only thing keeping me going is knowing that the work I have done has been the best I can do.  I got 95% on part 2 of my blog assessment (which had me laughing hysterically as it was totally unexpected); 87% on my history brief and 89% in my comparative essay, which also blew me away.  I know I have it in me...somewhere.  But not today. Today, I'm done. 

I want to curl up into a ball and pull the quilt over my whole body and sleep...but I can't!!!

Sweet dreams, not wet dreams

No. 1 Son - Mum, we had sex ed. today and I have a question.

Me - Did you?  What did you learn?

No. 1 Son - Well, we learned that when girls are a certain age, they bleed and have a period and have to wear pads and tampons.

Me - Mmm...That's right.  And do you know why they bleed?

No. 1 Son - Yeah, because the egg's not fertilised.

Me - Right.  The egg goes down the fallopian tube and into the womb, and if they're not fertilised, the lining of the womb comes away.  And do you know how the egg gets fertilised?

No. 1 Son - Yeah, you put the penis in the vagina and the sperm swim really fast to get to the egg and most of the sperm dies.

Me - Aha... So every single person is a miracle because one little sperm swam really hard to get to that egg.  What did you want to ask me?

No. 1 Son - Um...What's an orgasm?

It's official, my baby's really not a baby any more :((

Recipe for disaster

Ingredients

1 x 500 word essay
2 x 1,000 word essays
1 x 2,000 word essay
1 multiple choice exam
3 children
1 dog in desperate need of a walk

2 parties (1 tupperware, 1 Hawaiian)

1 black tie dinner
1 Rufus Wainwright concert

1 weekend away

5 hours traipsing around the city looking for outfit for dinner and weekend away
A pinch of housework

Method 

Throw them all into 4 short weeks, mix them all together and voila - a disaster waiting to happen!!

Serves - 1 stressed out lady.

Queen for a day

Yesterday was my birthday.  Yes, 42 years ago I was born at 2.45 am, at 5lbs and with my feet bent back all the way to my ankles.  And as my dear old dad used to say, 'Now look at you'!!!  Now, I'm 60-something kilos (130-something lbs?), still have weak ankles but I've created the most beautiful family.  I know I usually use this blog as a platform for whinging, whining and general complaining (although I do TRY to be some sort of an inspiration!) but after yesterday, I realised once again, how very, very lucky I am.  I can count on both hands the people I love.

Even though we had torrential rain, we went out for an early breakfast where I sat in my 'receiving chair' at the head of the table and opened my gifts.  From TD No. 1 - a gorgeous Japanese bangle; from TD No. 2 - some champagne flutes and wine glasses; from No. 1 Son - the Stephen Fry autobiography and from SH No. 1 - a beautiful pair of diamond earrings!!!  Yes, the gifts are special and every one of them represents a part of me and the fact that my family know me so well is touching.  I'm not materialistic and  that's just a small part of it.  I really was treated like a queen and each and every one of them made me feel so special.  TD No. 1 and I forgot our differences and really connected and No. 1 Son was so excited, it was like it was his birthday.  I had lots of phone calls and texts, ate whatever I wanted and in the evening I had a party with my 3 year old nephew who shares my birthday, where we danced and got to sing 'Happy Birthday' - twice.

I think we become so caught up in our day to day routines - rushing from here to there, we forget to just stop and really appreciate who and what we have in our lives.  Well, I do anyway.