Tag Archives: Holidays

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April Fools

It’s been so long since I posted that this post showing up probably seems like an April Fools joke to my regular readers. I apologize for the absence, but sometimes life just gets in the way. After making it back from my trip, I started to prepare for next week when I will once again be road-tripping across several states. Wednesday night, my parents and youngest arrive from south Florida, and on Thursday, we’re all  headed to Michigan to see my other little brother. Then, we’re packing up and heading to Chicago where we’ll pick up my older brother (who’s flying in from Orlando) and head over to see my grandma, aunt, and cousins for Easter. It’s been so long since I’ve seen them that I can’t even remember exactly how old I was the last time. Then, my parents and younger brother are heading back with me to spend a few days exploring my little university town and its surrounding areas. It’ll be so nice to show them around.

However, in the midst of trying to get all my work done so I will have time to enjoy my parents’ visit, I came down with a second bout of the plague. I’m usually never sick, but the crazy, temperamental weather we’ve been having has been wreaking havoc on my immune system.

Anyway, I’ve also been busy busy busy with some exciting developments. My two conference presentations are coming closer and closer, and I recently interviewed for a teaching position for next year. It would be a delight to get the job, and I can’t wait until I hear back (which should be sometime in the next week). Lastly, I have an interview on Wednesday for an exciting tutoring position with student athletes. It would be great to add both of these experiences to my work with Disability Support Services, and I am anxiously awaiting the day when I know if they will be mine. Keep your fingers crossed for me, ok?

So, it seems I’ve finally returned to simply say I’ll be gone for a while again. I’m not sure how much access I’ll have to my computer during my travels, so by the end of the week, I may disappear for a few days again. Please stick with me. I’ll try to make my posts until then especially fantastic. No promises, though. :)

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Thanks for that, Chaucer.

Some believe that Chaucer is responsible for first associating Valentine’s Day with the lovey-dovey context it has today. His “Parlement of Foules” was the first love poem to suggest this day as a day for lovers. Here’s an excerpt:

    A gardyn saw I, ful of blosmy bowes
Upon a ryver, in a grene mede,
There as swetnesse everemore inow is,
With floures whyte, blewe, yelwe, and rede,
And colde welle-stremes, nothyng dede,
That swymmen ful of smale fishes lighte,
With fynnes rede and skales sylver bryghte.

On every bow the bryddes herde I synge,
With voys of aungel in here armonye;
Some busied hem hir bryddes forth to brynge;
The litel conyes to here pley gonne hye.
And ferther al aboute I gan espye
The dredful ro, the buk, the hert and hynde,
Squyrels, and bestes smale of gentil kynde.

Of instruments of strenges in acord
Herde I so pleye a ravyshyng swetnesse,
That God, that makere is of al and lord,
Ne herde nevere beter, as I gesse.
Therwith a wynd, unnethe it myghte be lesse,
Made in the leves grene a noyse softe
Acordaunt to the foules songe alofte.

Th’air of that place so attempre was
That nevere was grevaunce of hot ne cold.
Ther wex ek every holsom spice and gras;
No man may there waxe sek ne old;
Yit was there joye more a thousandfold
Than man can telle; ne nevere wolde it nyghte,
But ay cler day to any mannes syghte.

(Need a modern translation?)

So, thanks for that, Chaucer….

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He loves me. He loves me.

I’m pretty sure that having a pet is one of the greatest things ever in this world (or any other).

I flew home to Florida for Thanksgiving and was gone for about five days. My friend and neighbor offered to feed Clark for me, so I left him here under her care. At the last minute, as I walked out my door at four in the morning to catch my flight, I almost scooped him up and took him with me. He gave me one of those “You’re leaving?” sad-eye looks, and it took all my resolve to close and lock the door with him on the other side.

I missed him the whole time I was home. The whole time.

I wondered if he missed me too, if he was lonely or cold sleeping alone in my apartment for the first time in his short life. Returning home last night, my questions were answered.

He missed me. He missed me a lot, and he’s determined to never let me leave again.

Clark hasn’t left my side since I came in the door last night. He’s almost tripped me a dozen times because every time I get up to walk anywhere, he follows so closely I can’t help but tumble over him. He even refuses to leave my lap to eat unless I sit on the floor next to him the whole time. Last night he slept on top of me – literally. Not next to me, not snuggled super close to me. On top of me. Today, he’s either been sitting on my lap or lying right in front of the door, stretched out to cover the whole space I need to be in to open it, as if he’s guarding the only exit.

If anyone wonders if animals have souls, I’m here to say they do. Clark wants nothing more than to be with me, and lucky for him, I feel the same. Our relationship has no complications, and he never tells me to come back later. When I need him, he’s there by my side, on my lap, purring and snuggling. No matter how many times I ignore him in an attempt to complete my homework, he always comes back, no holds barred, full of love. It’s kind of magical.

One more reason I know Clark loves me:

He even wore a Christmas collar with jingle bells for me.

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Snowfall and Mental Health.

We got our first snowfall yesterday! I couldn’t believe it: snow for Halloween. Craziness, but the whole town looks really pretty now. It makes me want to sing Christmas carols all day despite my vehement anti-Christmas-before-Thanksgiving stance.

My neighbor and I trekked to the grocery store this morning.

I’ve decided that I kind of hate the weekends now. During the week I have places to be, things to do, thoughts to keep my head on straight. Over the weekends, I tend to fall into bad places. I get all twisted up in my head. Maybe I should blame it on cabin fever. Without a car, I really don’t have any means of getting around (on the weekends or any day for that matter). I think I might start going to the library and sitting around reading just to give myself something to do and a place to be. I’m kind of sick of feeling lonely and lazy on the weekends. My neighbor and I usually go downtown for some breakfast, some coffee, and some grocery shopping. It’s great. I really enjoy myself every time, but as soon as we get back, I’m always staring down a long weekend with very little on my to-do list.

Distractions have been very important for me lately. I’ve needed to get my mind off things, to move forward and stop looking back. So, on that note, I’ve started doing some reading “for fun” – aka I’ve been looking up interesting articles in the MLA International Bibliography database, reading them, and then looking up their authors. I’ve begun to craft a list of schools I want to apply to for my PhD study. This strategy has led me to some crazy schools in some wild places that I never would have considered, much less put on my list, before, but I’m excited.

My question/assignment for you all is to help me in this search. I start my application process this summer, and I need all the help I can wrangle up. Know any schools with great English Departments or professors with a love of all things medieval? Let me know. Have a school you love or your family loves or you think is kinda cool for whatever reason? Let me know.

My last foray into the world of graduate school applications was quite the wild ride. Stressful. Terrifying, but in the end successful. Let’s hope this time is the same (although I could do with a little less stress, a little less terror, and a little more success overall).