Seismic Twitch

I got up at 7 am. It took nearly an hour just to have the vertigo and disorientation go away enough to approach feeling human. Then Bran drove me to school.

Today was planned to be a busy day. I don’t really like busy days because they usually mean having to be around people. Today was no different.

First was my stats class. After some mad note taking we got a presentation by a couple of people who work in the government publications section of the library. Feature this…we have 6 students for whom English is a second language. Five are from China and one from Egypt. None of them are familiar with the local idioms in our speech. Add to that, the two presenters were also immigrants. Not that I have any problem with them being immigrants. I don’t have much of an issue with accents. However, the foreign students definitely did have a problem, especially with the one man who was from India and had a very strong accent. I had to do a fair bit of explaining about what he was saying to my table companion from Egypt.

After they were done we had a break for lunch. I went to STM for some lunch (chicken Caesar wrap and fruit salad) and went to the Pride Centre to eat. I sat and chatted there for a while and then headed back to the classroom on the 10th floor for the Sociology grad student orientation. I found that to be quite helpful. Right after that was done we headed off to the Faculty Club where a wine and cheese party was being held for all the grad students in the department. This enabled many of the students to talk to professors and try to figure out if who they wanted for supervisors and network some for committee members.

I don’t know about you, but I don’t schmooze well. (My dictionary recognized “schmooze”, interesting.) In fact, I tend to avoid being around people I don’t know, especially the kind of stilted conversation that can happen under such situations. The Grad Student Chair introduced herself and a few of the heads of departments and then we introduced ourselves. Thus far this past week or so I’ve introduced myself 5 times. There were a few familiar faces among the profs and a few among the students. Not that I necessarily know them, but that I’d seen them at the undergrad/grad social function last spring.

Then, like walking into a brick wall, I’d had enough. As I was getting my stuff together to leave my supervisor walked over and sort of semi-chided me about leaving so soon. I guess the slightly panicked glaze in my eyes (or the semi-panicked expression on my face) let her know that I’d had enough and needed to go. She seemed to understand that.

I left through the deck doors. There were a couple of professors sitting out having a drink and they looked at me like I’d invaded their space. However, I just smiled at them and kept walking. Maybe they thought I was a sessional lecturer in the Women and Gender Studies department. Afterall, I was wearing Dawgs (black), sweats (black), Tri-Goddess t-shirt (black) and was carrying a black cloth grocery bag. I have enough grey hair to make them question whether I belong or not. On my way back to the MUB (Memorial Union Building) I checked my phone and found that Bran had left me a message. He just wanted me to call him and let him know when I wanted to come home. I phoned him and waited in front of the MUB and did crosswords.

He and Boy showed up. I kicked Boy out of the front seat (MINE!) and we headed out to figure out something to eat. We ended up going to Tiffany’s Restaurant on Idylwyld. I had the lemon garlic shrimp (buttery and yummy and a heart attack on a plate), Bran had an ok t-bone steak and Boy had a pizza (which gave him leftovers for breakfast). Then we went to the drug store to get some scripts. Oh, that reminds me. I did one more thing. I went picked up some cash, got a money order and paid my drug plan to get Bran covered under the health and dental plan. That was one more “dealing with people” thing I did today.

No, I haven’t forgotten what the day is. It’s been 7 years since that day that altered my world view. I still am traumatized and cannot watch shows about it, look at pictures or read much about peoples stories. I know I didn’t lose anyone that day. I know I wasn’t even directly affected. I have seen more than enough and cannot bear to see anymore. My thoughts are still with the families of those who lost loved ones, who tried to save people and failed, and the brave men and women who sacrificed their health, safety and lives that dreadful day. All except for that one man who sent in a post card to Post Secrets stating that everyone he knew prior to that day thinks he’s dead (though it could be a she). That person has made families and friends needlessly grieve. How very selfish.

I don’t have anything else to add. Tomorrow is going to be laundry day because we’ve all run out of clothing to wear and I work this weekend. Oh, I do have something to add. I watched the new Sweeny Todd with Johny Depp. It’s a great movie. It’s very realistic (yeah, bloody) and the format of the movie made it much easier to understand the lyrics as compared to the stage production. I love having both. It totally rocks.

I have to rip more music and sync it to my player.

Ta-Ra

Being around people sometimes sucks.

What I didn’t get around to talking about yesterday because I was so very tired, was that school was a zoo. Really, it was. This is the first summer I’ve had away from school since 2004. In past years it wasn’t a whole lot of adjustment from the end of summer term to the beginning of fall. Sure there were more people around, but it didn’t seem that hard.

I told y’all about the broken car window, after that I had to take the bus. The bus was crowded, but that’s not unusual since most of the people got off downtown on their way to other places. There were only two people who got off the bus at the university. From there I walked over to the Arts building for my class. I walked through the small entrance that leads to the elevators and rode all alone up to the 10th floor where the seminar room was. I knew the class would be small because I had a class in that room before. It only seats about 15 people at maximum.

So up until I got off the elevator from my class I had not really encountered much in the way of people. When I rode the elevator down I was accompanied by a professor and a workman who’s working on the asbestos removal from the Arts Annex. Then I got out at the basement level (which is also the level that the Arts tunnel is. At that point I realized I was not in Kansas any more.

There were people here. There were people there. There were people every-fucking-where! There were balloons on the floor (all over the floor) from the vendors in the tunnel as they tried to sell their goods to the students. There were various clubs (most notably the various sects of Christian clubs) vying for members, offering free treats, invitations to pizza meetings and so on. It was hard walking through all that…and the noise, noise NOISE!

When I finally got to the Pride Centre I was totally overwhelmed by the sheer volume, both of numbers and sound. I complained and another grad student (he’s in his third year) reiterated his proposal that all grad students be issued with cattle prods to clear the way in the halls. I like that idea a lot. I wonder how that would be received by the administration.

What I found to be particularly annoying were the first year students who were walking around like kids trying to play grownups. You knew who they were immediately because they were the ones screaming expletives across the campus. The were the ones yelling “WOO!” as well. They were also the ones trying to get into the beer garden (drinking age in Saskatchewan is 19 and most of the kids coming in as first years are 16 to 18 years old). For them I wanted a set of bolas that would wrap around their mouths and keep them quiet.

I think I’ve finally got my body off of graveyard shifts. Last night I stayed in bed despite waking up and going to the bathroom at about 3 am. Our neighbour accidentally set off his car alarm which caused Bran some alarm since our Jeep had only plastic over the window. Happily it wasn’t anything to worry about and we both settled in to sleep more.

The car is in the shop now and will have the window replaced tomorrow morning. It’s nice to have the window place so close to our house. There was some kerfuffle regarding the installation and the two insurance companies. We deal with two insurance companies for our Jeep. The first is the government insurance which provides basic coverage for all licenced cars. In this way we avoid having licenced but uninsured cars on the road. Additional coverage for us is brokered by CAA. In this way we manage to avoid paying any deductible for windows (which is usually either $500 or $200). I like not having to worry about a deductible.

Canada will be going to the polls about 3 weeks before the USA is. Steven Harper, despite his own rules, has called an early election to be on October 14, 2008. The hope I have is that the backlash against the Bush administration will be reflected in the election and that Harper and his Conservative Party will be tossed. Heck, I’d prefer the Bloc Quebecois to the Conservatives. I was hoping that it wouldn’t happen. I really dislike elections.

Well, I’m feeling somewhat peckish and Bran and Boy brought home a village Greek salad for me so I’m going to eat it while I read about other people’s lives.

Ta-Ra

I just had the most glorious nap. It feels so good to not be feeling like my body wants to drop.

Ok, let’s get you updated on the Dykewife life events.

Greg, this is a roll up keyboard. I’m working on getting used to it before school starts. That way I’ll be ahead of the game. its not ergonomic, which is what I really grok on (I can’t believe that “grok” is in my system dictionary!) It’s really cool and not just in a neat way, but also cool as in temperature. I don’t have a hard drive under my palm or a battery or any other heat creating devise that the notebook has.

The keyboard rolls up like a sleeping bag. There are bright red lights on the far right hand side to indicate the lock buttons (caps, numbers, screen). I like that because it’s really easy to accidentally tap the caps lock, in fact, I’m finding it’s much easier to do on this keyboard than on any other I’ve used. Another thing is the backspace key is small. I do prefer the larger key style, but I’ll get used to this. It is really awesome though.

Boy’s recliner is in. It’s HUGE!!! It’s gorgeous, but it is huge. He and Bran went and got a lovely acrylic throw in a very vibrant scarlet colour to brighten up the dun brown of the chair.

Day before yesterday…I guess that’s Saturday now… someone tried to break into our house. We have two windows that aren’t like the others (Sesame Street, here we come!). They’re ones that crank open so that when they’re open, they’re like having no window in the hole at all. They’re designed to allow egress of any person of any size in case of emergency. The other windows are of the old fashioned lift variety, but they’re not 1/2 and 1/2 but 2/3 on the bottom and 1/3 at the top. This means that neither Bran nor Boy would be able to get through if there was a reason for them to be crawling through the window to get out.

Anyway, at night we open (or rather we used to) the window wide in our bedroom to capture any nice night breeze into the fan and blow it onto the bed. I got up in the morning to get ready for work. I was sitting in the living room, working on the necessary oomph to get into the shower, Bran noticed that the screen was gone in the window. It had been taken out of the window and laid against the house. I’m almost certain that it didn’t happen in the night, because I have a sense of remembering that it was there when I walked by it when I got up. However, I’m not totally certain. What makes that possibility even more concrete was that though Bran didn’t sleep that night, he did spend time reading on the bed.

Bran reinstalled the screen into the window. You can see where the person tore the light plastic screen to get to the two small knobs that pull out and allow the screen to come out of the window. The top part of the screen where the top knobs were is still intact. Because they were still in the frame, whoever it was had to warp the screen frame to get it out. Bran then did a walk around the house to make sure that the rest of the house was secure. Happily enough, it was.

That created a certain degree of paranoia in the family. I mean, it’s most likely that the person tried to get in while both Bran and I were awake. I’m pretty sure that was the case. I’m also sure that he/she wouldn’t have been able to get into the house without making our fan, a directional fan, tilt with its usual loud clicking ratchet sound. That means they didn’t get right into the house. The fan is extremely easy to have it tip with that loud sound, you can do it just by turning the on/off knob and put ever so slight pressure on the top of it.

Boy is very reluctant to open his windows more than the amount to the locks on the old fashioned types. Then again, he has a large number of expensive and easy to transport electronics. Of course, that also means that his room gets quite warm. Poor kid.

Saturday night was a very restless sleep for me. My dreams were extremely active. Most of them weren’t bad dreams, but I was on the run from the time the dreams started to the time they ended when I got out of bed. Active dreams like that wear me out. I don’t feel rested at all.

Bran had something similar except he left the sleep part out. He spent a lot of the night pacing about the house being on alert. By the time I got up for work, Bran was ready to collapse. Luckily he didn’t until after he’d taken me to work.

Saturday was an ok day. It was quiet, but it was ok. I mean, Bran and I went to Tim Horton’s and picked up a triple/triple extra large coffee for me and I drank a 5-Hour Energy drink, but I felt reasonably not too bad. My co-worker had a quiet night shift (her first – quiet night, not first shift). I cooked lunch and supper and then got off work. I’d spent the down time of the day (of which there was a lot as usual on the weekends) watching murder and mayhem that I’d been recording for the past several months. I left them there for my co-worker to watch on the night shift.

Sunday was my drop-on-the-spot day. Despite the coffee, despite the 5-Hour Energy drink, I was dragging my ass all day. In the morning, despite having a very healthy breakfast of soy milk and honey nut Shredded Wheat, I had a very significant blood sugar drop. I was shaky, weird headed and sweating. At first I thought I was becoming ill. I mean, this doesn’t happen very often. However, my body, in its fatigued and stressed state, was reacting. It took a while to figure things out. It was just before lunch, but I had a small snack of some saltines. Within about 10 minutes I was feeling more stable. I had lunch (a very healthy sandwich and bowl of soup). An hour later I was totally recovered and it didn’t happen again.

That brings us up to last night when I got home from work exhausted and not wanting to be awake. I was in bed before 10 (I think, I was too tired to see the clock). Now I’m awake, it’s nearly 3 am and I have to work at 4 pm today.

Dad was up on Saturday for someone’s wedding. I have no idea who the people are, but whoever they are they’re important enough for Dad to drive 2.5 hours to attend it. However, because I was working it was Bran and Boy who entertained him while he was not at the wedding.

Oh, a new commenter asked what my work is. Everyone say, “Hi!” to Janice.

Janice, I work at a half-way house for federal offenders. Canada has a slightly different justice system from the USA. The Criminal Code of Canada is a federal Act. It is Parliament who creates new criminal laws. The provinces has a certain amount of jurisdiction but it has more to do with by-laws, such as speed limits, parking and the like. Criminal law, such as those dealing with theft, rape, murder, prostitution, and so on, are all federally legislated.

The corrections system is divided up into two types of offences and two systems of corrections. Summary offences are considered “less” and therefore don’t have heavy consequences to them. They are likely to be fines or fine options (doing work for non-profit rather than paying a fine or serving a jail term). The jail terms that summary offences incur are always less than two years less a day. Sentences are served in provincial jails. Community release is called “probation”.

Indictable offences are the more serious type. These offences will garner sentences of two years or more. Indictable offences are further divided into two more categories, indexed and non-indexed offences. How these categories are defined is somewhat of a mystery to me, but I do know that index are nearly always violent offences. Whether or not a crime is an index offence or not determines whether a person would be eligible for accelerated day parole or not.

Persons convicted of indictable offences are sent to federal penitentiaries. Nearly every province has at least one for male offenders and a much smaller one for women. Penitentiaries, like American prisons, have various security levels from minimum (frequently a “farm” or “camp) to our supermax in the Prince Albert Pen to the facility in Quebec where the most violent persons are sent.

There are two levels of parole, or community supervision. There is day parole where a person can be in the community to work, visit family and such, but they have to return to a secure facility at a certain time (latest for regular curfew is 11 pm). Statutory release (full parole) means the person can live in the community with everyone else, but is still supervised by a parole officer.

Most of the people who live where I work are on day parole. It’s a sort of graduated release system designed to help men and women gradually adjust to being out of prison and in the community. Prison is extremely regimented. That structure quickly becomes ingrained into a person’s psyche and suddenly removing a person from that can be devastating. So Canada has a system of gradual release.

Before a person becomes eligible for day parole, they will have already gone on escorted leaves (like going to the mall with a corrections officer or two – depending on the offence, two with people who were convicted of an offence involving sexual assault or death), unescorted leaves (ranging from a few hours to a few days). Depending on the success of these leaves, then day parole is considered. Day parole isn’t always granted. Sometimes offenders are kept to their statutory release date when they leave the prison on full parole. Whether or not that happens depends on their conduct in the pen, whether they’ve taken programming related to their offences and so on. Sometimes people released on full parole have a residency requirement where they are required to live in a half-way house. Those people usually have unresolved issues with addictions related to violence.

The half-way house I work in accepts people on day parole and statutory release, with or without residency requirements. Most of the people on full parole who come to live where I work are only there until a community parole officer can do a community assessment of where the offender proposes to live (with family, friends, or spouse) or until they are able to become financially able to get their own residence.

The vast majority of people who live there deal with addictions. The addictions are most often the reason they committed the crime that sent them to the penitentiary. Frequently the person was drunk, high or hurting for a fix, when they committed the crime. Right now we have people who will always be on parole (first and second degree murder are offences that have lifetime supervision requirements) to drug possession and trafficking.

We can also house offenders who are sentenced to provincial jails. They spend time in a provincial facility and are then sent to the half-way house instead of being put on parole. Provincial facilities don’t have the same supervisory or graduated release system. In the case of a provincial offender residing at the half-way house, a special arrangement is made. The offender will be supervised by a parole officer and living at the half-way house is an alternative to being in jail. The offender can work, visit friends and family, but has to abide by the decisions of their community parole officer. The offender will live at the half-way house for an indeterminate amount of time prior to their “warrant expiry date” or WED.

Day parole is most often for 6 months, though it can be extended for people who are needing more structure in their lives or shorter for those on accelerated day parole. Offenders convicted of indexed crimes or who are serving their second (or more) indictable offence conviction are not eligible for accelerated day parole. So most people we see there are going to be gone after 6 months time. The director works hard at ensuring men and women who come to live there are not risks for violence. This means that someone who was convicted of a violent index offence, who hasn’t taken programming in the penitentiary, and who has been a discipline problem, will not likely make it to our facility. If (and the if is very small) the person is released on day parole, they will be required to live at a federally run half-way house. The place I work at is privately owned.

So there you have it. A shortened synopsis of the Canadian corrections system. Wasn’t that fun?

I like the people I work with, both staff and residents. The residents really are just ordinary people who made some bad choices. For some, those choices involved the lives, or deaths, of other people. When these people are sober they are nice. Were it not for the influence of the drugs or alcohol, these people wouldn’t have committed their crime. So it is at our place where they learn to live in the community and avoid the people, places and triggers that would send them back to using. I like to think that I have a small part in helping them learn to make better choices.

Now. It’s time for me to eat something. I think I’m going to have one of the pizzas that are in the freezer. After it’s done then I can get the ones I really like.

Ta-Ra

Today I was made aware of a situation. A blogger that I read (past tense since he’s shut down his blog again) has been found to be a plagiarist. He stole his entries, his poetic writing from another blogger.

The one who created Cooper’s Corridor and then Nico’s Niche is that very thief.

He has been stealing, not just entries, but photographs from Sweet|Salty from the outset of his writing his blog. She confronted him once and he quickly shut down Cooper’s Corridor with the excuse that he was being victimized by some right wing yahoos. He made it sound like his own life and the life with his children was endangered because another blogger mentioned him in his blog. He blamed it on someone else.

He then created Nico’s Niche and invited a select number of people to read. However, as with all things internet, word got around to the author of Sweet|Salty that he was doing it again. Now Nico’s Niche is shut down and gone from the internet.

This whole thing leaves me feeling angry, sad and more than a little nauseated. I despise being lied to and worse, I despise having been taken in. It’s just another lesson for me that the internet can be a very nasty, low-down place. This man, Nico, or whatever his name really is, is one of those low-down people.

Today Bran phoned the credit union and then recieved a phone back. They were extending the time it’ll take to get the bonds back to four weeks. He let them know he was very unhappy and wanted them to locate where the bonds are. Then he received a call back with the news that their head office is talking about it taking 6 weeks because according to them the bonds have to go to the Bank of Canada, get retyped, and then they get sent back or some such nonsense. So we’re in an even deeper hole than they previously dug for us. You can bet that no one in this house is happy. At least we have my paultry pay check to be able to whittle down the rent, take care of a bill and get us groceries. They are so losing our business.

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With that news, I slept most of the day away. That’s because I was awake until all hours (wee hours, late early morning) reading The Chamber of Secrets. I finished it. Next is the first of the extremely thick books, Goblet of Fire. I’m probably not going to start that until either later tonight or tomorrow sometime since it’s Thursday and that’s murder and mayhem night. Tonight three shows will be recorded.
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I have to figure out something for supper. Bran’s out depositing my cheque so I need to figure out what to make. Right now Boy is making some tuna salad for he and I to have as a snack while we wait for Bran to get home. I have no idea what to make but for not it’s going to have to be a tide-over situation.
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Anyway, that’s it for today. I’m going to start folding laundry because I said I’d do it today. At least this way we can get the livingroom somewhat tidy.
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Ta-Ra
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This is just a statement of what has happened to us today.

Today, while I was at school, completing the investment in education I’d made starting in 2004, Bran and Boy went to our branch of Affinity Credit Union here in Saskatoon. We made a decision as a family to cash in Boy’s bonds, reinvest three of them and Boy would contribute one of the bonds toward family expenses as well as Boy related expenses such as braces, a new bed, clothes and shoes.

So, because the bonds were still in the name of his Oma and despite him being named as as co-owner, they found it necessary to send them to Calgary where their only bond centre is. The bonds will be reissued under Boy’s name and be returned here. This process is going to take a couple of weeks. Is it inconvenient? You bet. However, it is possible that it would have happened regardless of whatever bank we went to. We don’t know that.

Because of this delay, Bran requested a short term loan to cover current expenses that include rent, utilities and groceries that would be repaid when the bonds were cashed and reinvested for him. They knew that this was going to be the process and therefore knew that they would get the money back in less than a month. However, because Bran and I have no credit record (we haven’t started paying back student loans and have no credit cards, etc.) and that Boy cannot provide collateral (because he’s a minor) they turned us down.

Now I can understand this business decision. However, the fact that I have banked with this particular branch for over 23 years and already repaid a student loan makes no difference. The last I heard credit unions were supposed to value their more close community and customer relationships, at least that’s what they advertise…it’s all about being local. During that time I have paid exorbitant service fees because of my commitment to my community and to the old tenets that credit unions were founded upon – investment in people.

So when the bonds come back with Boy’s name on them, we are going to take them and walk out of the credit union and go across the street to RBC (a branch that was extremely helpful and bent over backwards when Bran’s mother died to make the entire painful process of closing accounts, cancelling credit cards, etc so much easier than it could’ve been) to open up chequing accounts for Bran and I, for Boy as well as investment accounts for Boy with the other three of the savings bonds.

Today Affinity Credit Union managed to create an enormous amount of ill will with the Dykewife family. We will maintain the account at the credit union only so long as the cheques to our landlord are used (we gave them a year’s worth of post dated cheques) which will be done in August then we shall close all accounts with Affinity Credit Union. They managed, in one fell swoop, to offend me, Bran and Boy severing a long term business relationship that could have been quite beneficial to them in the future.

I figure that if they’re not willing to invest in us, why should I be willing to invest in them? I don’t care if they consider it sound business practise, last I heard, creating ill will wasn’t a part of that.

…with the beginning.

Tomorrow is my first final. It’s my research methods class, which should be relatively not too bad. I just have to remember to throw in words like, spurious, inverse relationship, dependent and independent variables and hypothesis.

Then on Saturday is my Endangered Languages final. That should be interesting considering that he said he’d email questions to us and he still hasn’t done so. There is some panic amongst the populace (but not me because I don’t know anything regardless).

I have to go and read everyone else so that I can get back to learning about research designs.

Oh, and I made the most delicious chicken, rice, veg, noodle, etc soup. Nice and stoupish.

Ta-Ra

My tooth wasn’t getting better and the pain was getting steadily worse. Last night I think I managed to score only about 5 hours sleep because I kept getting woken by the pain. Ibuprofen wasn’t working very well, only cutting the pain for about 2 hours. I was taking Bran’s codeine and heavy duty NSAID. Needless to say, this was a huge problem.

So Bran and I headed off to back to the doctor’s office. We had a bit of a long wait. While we waited for the walk-in patient, on-call doctor Bran read the newspaper and I leaned against him and semi-dozed. He gave me some of his pain pills earlier and the codeine left me feeling sleepy. Eventually I was called in to see the doctor.

His name was McDonald. He was a very swarthy McDonald. Anyway, after we got the talk of not being able to afford the dentist, I gave him a rundown of the events as they happened with my tooth and told him what the other doctor had prescribed. This new guy looked into my mouth and poked at my tooth. At the second poke he struck pain dirt and left me with a throbbing mouth. It also confirmed for him that it was an abscessed tooth and would need some extra effort.

He then prescribed a much stronger antibiotic called clindamycin. He also prescribed some Tylenol 3s for me to take through the day (of course with it having codeine, I’ll probably end up napping some) and twice a day I take a slightly smaller dose of the same stuff Bran was giving me of his called diclofenac. Hopefully this will control my pain well enough to make my life a little easier and the antibiotics will get rid of the infection.

After Bran went to the drug store for me and I headed home. When I got there I started cutting up onions and garlic to make a curry. I gathered together the canned potatoes (really, they’re cheap enough, why do they supply them canned here? Weird.), tomatoes and the tomato soup that was left. I also cut up green peppers that were needing to be used and sauteed them with the onions and garlic and grated ginger. Then I added the spices, tomato, water, tomato soup, chicken soup mix, cut up the potatoes and lentils. I let that all cook together. Bran made rice (the microwave just beeped). I just added the cut up spinach that needed to be used. We’ll be eating in about 5 minutes or so after the water in the rice bowl is absorbed.

I hope the drugs work. I’m sick of hurting.

I saw plants sprouting! I don’t know what they are, but they are distinctly planted type plants and not “weeds”. While I was out, I wore only a sweater and carried my coat. It made for a handy warm pad to hold to my face. My face doesn’t like cool right now.

So now I’m watching Autopsy on the Documentary Channel and will be reading blogs soon. One that I’m reading the archives of is the Pioneer Woman. She’s a very popular blogger and periodically runs contests for excellent prices so check out her “Confessions” blog. She’s not only interesting, but she’s a talented writer and photographer. So, if you have time on your hands and want to read, go read her blog.

That’s about it.

Ta-Ra

That’s pretty much what I feel like right now. I have to stop doing this to myself. I start every single semester with the firm avowal that I will do my homework in plenty of time before the class. I promise myself that I will make sure to keep up with my reading and take copious notes. I always tell myself that I’m going to start my essays at least two weeks in advance of their due dates.

Thus far, I’ve done it once.

I pulled off an all nighter of finding articles, reading the articles, doing a synopsis of each article, writing my own thoughts and making sure I didn’t screw up the bibliography. After that I had to read 3 chapters and write a discussion paper on them. I didn’t write up any notes, but damn! I’m done!

I’m so tired that my brains are 3/4 asleep. But I’m done.

Don’t expect an entry later. I have a feeling that I’ll be retiring to my boudoir in order to renew my acquaintance with my pillow.

I’m too old for this nonsense. Too bad I’m too dense to learn…or too lazy to care.

Bran is ill. He’s spent time this morning being very intimate with the toilet and a pail. Does this mean that I’m going to be next on the pukey pail brigade? I most sincerely hope not.

We sold the car back to Bran’s ex. She sold her more valuable car because she needed the money and we can’t afford the upkeep of the car. It was draining over $100 a month that we could ill afford. This means that grocery trips will involve the bus or cabs or both. Oh well. It was nice having a car while we had one. It certainly came in handy for the move and such like.

Hey, maybe we’ll win the lottery and we can get a nice new car. Yeah, I know. I live for my delusions.

I want to have my banner centred, but I can’t do that. I think it would look significantly better if it were centred. Drat.

Yesterday was a lost cause. I think I was awake for about 3 hours before I needed to sleep again. Then I laid down for 5 more hours. I got up for a few more hours and then went back to bed and got up at 3 pm. I’m approaching feeling rested.

Hmmm…how long does one have to stay awake to be considered having been up. I figure that if one can make it from the bed, to the bathroom and then to the couch and stay awake for 1/2 hour, then one has been awake an adequate amount of time. But hey, that’s just me. I prefer sleeping.

I want cheese cake. I want cheese cake a whole lot.

Dad didn’t come up again today. He didn’t sleep well last night and he didn’t want to take the chance of falling asleep on the road. So Bran put the ham in the oven, I peeled potatoes and prepped the cauliflour and that’s what we had for supper. It’s a good thing because we were getting extremely low on things to eat as a family. I hate being poor. I think that Bran’s going to be baking bread tomorrow, or possibly some bannock so that we have something to make sandwiches with.

Supper was yummy. The ham bone will be used to make soup. I’m not sure I want Bran’s pea soup though. It’s not that it’s not a tasty soup, it is. But I think I want bean soup this round. I think that’s what is going to be made this time.

Tonight is murder and mayhem night and for some stupid reason the DVD recorder turned off part way through a program. I’m going to have to try again later. Boooo!

That reminds me. I read A Christmas Carol on the 25th. Scrooge’s love is named Bell (no “e”) not Alice ( as it is in the Sim movie) and the book has her having reproduced like a bunny not working with the poor. I watched the movie that night. Now that I’ve read the book again, compared it to the movie and then nattered on about it to Bran, I should remember what happened in the book. The movie took great sections of Dickens’s writing and plonked it into the screenplay making it one of the best. However, one of the most endearing parts, the interaction between the maid and Scrooge after his reclamation is totally wonderful but doesn’t happen in the book at all. “A shilling? What for!?” “Can’t you guess what it’s for?”"To keep me mouth shut?”

I love that scene. The next is the totally gobsmacked look on the face of the actor who plays Cratchet. It’s one of the best I’ve seen.

That’s about it. I’m going to go and shower. I’ve been neglecting myself of late and I shouldn’t do that. Not only is it a bad example to Boy but it’s giving into the depression when I could easily not.

Ta-Ra