School is Hectic but Good

School has been very busy and the assignments just keep piling up and I'm loving every minute of it. I have frustrations with profs, group assignments that never seem to end and a reading list that goes on and on and on but I really do enjoy being back in school. I love studying and learning. While I may not always like the hectic pace I don't think I'd change a thing about my life right now. I thrive in academic settings and quite enjoy it. I just haven't been able to find a church yet but I'll keep looking. I don't have a lot to say right now i think because it's all going into my papers right now. Almost all of my courses ask us to keep reflective journals on what we're learning so I'm cranking out about 10 pages a week in just journal entries. So if my posts are a little sparse I'm sorry. :(

Happy Birthday!!

Well I'm another year more experienced and what a year it has been. I travelled the globe and ended up here in Regina. I started school again after being out of school for years. I've made many new friends and enjoyed lots of time with friends of old. My life is unrecognizable from the life it was a year ago but some things will never change. I've identified what is truly important to me and weeded out the excess. I've reached a point where I am very content with my life. I had a great weekend visit home with my family, and I went to celebrate a dear friends recent wedding and had a great time catching up with longtime friends. It was the perfect way to celebrate my birthday and I got the present I wanted which was a drill. I know it pained Mom to have to buy her daughter a power tool but I love it and have used it already.

My days here are finding a pattern. Mondays and Tuesdays are very long days I'm in class from morning until night but then I have two short days and no classes on Friday. I devote Friday's to running errands and studying. Saturdays I head to the coffee shop for a location change and to get a lot of studying done without the distractions of home, then grocery shopping and cleaning. Sundays I go to church then if my readings are all done I relax doing crafts or reading for fun. It's not very exciting I guess but I'm content and I'm very on top of my readings and schoolwork. I sure like patterns and this works well for me. I've learned so much already and it's amazing to learn how to put into practice the critical theories I studied in my English classes. There's a lot to be said for coming back to school as a "mature" student.

I fell in love today...nope not the cute Johnny Depp barista, although he's good eye candy....my love is my new vacuum! I did the math, I researched and I bought a Dyson. It is well worth it although I almost changed my mind several times but after using it once I think every penny was worth it. My yucky carpet looks better than when I moved in and I love the mini beater head for cleaning the furniture. I think if he'd let me there's even a tool that could clean Tybalt :D but he's worried he'd be bald.

Tybalt is loving all the extra attention and while we miss Adrianna he's become a new cat. He is now quite bossy to me and meows to scold me when he doesn't get his way. He's also a lot more playful but this means his water dish gets dumped at least 3 times a day the upside of this is the bathroom floor is quite clean. When it's nice ie. not raining he sits on the balcony and watches the traffic, people and pigeons below. I'm a little worried he's getting an elevated sense of self but then I remember he's a cat he already thinks he's the top of the world. As long as I keep feeding him, petting him and supply him with toy mice he's happy.

When you need it most...

Let me tell you about my day. I got up bleary eyed and tired because I didn't sleep well last night but had to get downtown by 10am for my hair appointment. Thinking to cheer myself up I put on my lovely new fluevogs and decided to leave early and walk. I made it the 9 blocks to the salon which really isn't that far unless you are wearing new shoes...stupid me. I get in and go to the desk and the girl searches for my appointment...nowhere to be found. But I booked over the internet I said and got a confirmation email. She looks in the email...you booked for Oct. 10th she says showing me my email...I sigh...she kindly looks at the schedule and says well I have an opening at 2pm....I thank her greatly for her kindness in fitting me in. Now I'm downtown, my feet hurt and I have until 2pm...hmmm. No problem I think there's that coffee shop with the awesome tea latte's just go there. So I do I go there order my london fog and find a seat, I sit down and note the table wobbles but no problem I think I'm just getting a drink. They call my drink and I go pick it up, hmmm it's in a travel cup instead of a coffee mug should I grab a lid...nah I'm staying here. I put the drink on the table and go to sit down...somehow in this process I proceed to tilt the entire table which causes my drink to flip in midair and pour all the tea all over me, my new shoes and the floor. I think every lady in the place rushed over with napkins while I stood in stunned silence to help clean me and my stuff off while the barista grabbed the mop. The kind barista remade me another london fog for free which made me throw an extra 3 dollars in the tip jar above what i'd tipped earlier and more effusive thanks. I carefully put a travel lid on this time sat back at my table and proceed to read my ebook and drink my tea. Well that took me an hour still more time to kill. I thought about going to the farmer's market but while walking there found a beautiful park and thought, my feet hurt I'm going to sit here in the sunshine read my book and try to avoid any more catastrophe's today. So there I sat reading in the sunshine and actually quite enjoying myself while I dried out from the tea spill. Suddenly I feel a gaze on me and I look up at a little old man with a cane standing there, he asks is that a book or a computer? I answer a book. Well whatcha reading? We start to chat well actually he chats at me while I smile nod and listen. I learn that we are all descended from the mongolians and those gene things prove it, so inside we're all the same so why can't we get along better. I learn he's hungarian and 89 years old, I learn he had 18 brothers and sisters but only one remains, I learn that he's a great grandfather and proud of all his grandkids. I also learn he's catholic and that it's okay that I'm lutheran his sister married a lutheran and nothing bad came of that. Before leaving he painfully gets up leans on his cane and looks at me and says "The most important thing I've learned is never give up your faith." the he slowly starts to walk away saying goodbye and god bless. As he left I thought about how I needed that message more than ever today and thought maybe I was wrong maybe God does send angels still today when you really need it most. My day went on I had lunch at a cool little place that makes an awesome vegetarian pizza, I got a great haircut from a very nice girl and walked painfully home but none of that really matters just like none of the bad things I've been through matters...as long as I never give up my faith.

Good bye dear friend

It was a sad day today, after being together 10 years lovely Adrianna had to be put down. Two years ago we were a family of 2 humans, 3 cats, 1 dog now it's just Me and Tybalt...sigh I'm beginning to wonder who I angered up there. This goes beyond ridiculous I feel like I'm stuck in some sort of sick melodrama and I'm tired of feeling like all I do is tell people sad sob stories when we talk. I'm tired of crying and saying good bye. I feel really bad like the stress of moving was the cause of her illness and that makes me feel guilty but the vet said this could have happened anyways. I'm going to miss my little mousie but I'm glad she didn't suffer too much and at least I know Armin will take care of her now.

The hard thing is my first week of school was great. I've already met a few people so I feel like I see a few friendly faces as I walk around campus. UofR is small in comparison to the UofA and it's kind of nice that way. My professors have so far been very approachable and good instructors in fact my only complaint might be they do more handholding than I'm used to. Even the readings I've been doing have been interesting...so far most of the stuff is going to need adapting to fit my future goals but knowing where you want to go really helps you while you're studying and working. This is a very different feeling than my first degree where I didn't know what I wanted and it didn't seem applicable to real life.

Home Sweet Home

Tonight the cats and I celebrated, they had some wet food, I had a dream soda and some cheesy dip with nachos, it was wild. What were we celebrating? We are officially unpacked!! A few things need sorting but I'm declaring us moved in. It's a very nice feeling and it is fabulous to be in a new place. So much emotional baggage was left behind and life feels fresh and exciting.

It's a little lonely being in a new place but I've already made some contacts in the local board game community and we're going to go for drinks and I've already been invited to join a poker group. Also I've been up to Saskatoon to visit some friends there and we have plans to get together a lot more. Orientation is on Tuesday and classes start Wednesday so I'll be meeting people there.

I really like my apartment building it's about 15 minutes to anywhere in Regina. I've found a grocery store I like too. I just need to find a good place for chinese delivery and life will be complete. The area I'm in is very multiethnic which is cool I suspect some people would think that was a bad thing but I'm happy with it. There's a very cool coffee shop just a few blocks down, the farmers market is 5 blocks away, and I can't wait to explore the bakery cafe down the street. I'll be going to the university tomorrow to get my textbooks and my student id, hopefully the lineups won't be too bad.

The cats are mixed about this change in their home environment. Tyb has settled in pretty well he misses having room to play but he likes being able to look down on the world and watch cars and people. Adrianna spends a lot of time in hiding and I'm worried about how much weight she's lost but she's started bossing Tyb around and peeing on the bed to prove how mad she is at me so I think she'll be okay.

I've even started crafting now since I'm partcipating in a craft swap on craftster.org that I'm excited about. But since my swap partner might be checking up on me I have to keep the details hush hush so she'll be suprised ;)

So life is pretty good here in Regina it's far from the people I love but it'll be okay!