the late but obliglitory year-in-review

I just realized I’ve never done that survey all the cool kids do, with the beginning of each entry for each month for the year. I’ve done it for years- I can’t skip it now! Who knows what might happen! Besides that, it’s past mid-January and I have not made a single OD entry. Well, actually my New Years Eve entry was technically January 1 because it was past midnight, but oddly it posted as December 31. And I didn’t even change the date. 

I also have to take my mind of the weather. It has poured, POURED rain for Five.Solid.Days.Non-Fucking-Stop. Until today, when the pouring rain turned to pouring snow. Now we have this:

We actually have way more than this now. It looks like at least five inches and it’s still pouring down. Luckily for me I skipped lunch and left work at 4:00, exactly when the snow started. It took awhile to stick since it’s poured rain for five days. I will have to admit that after all this rain, I’m happy to see snow. I’d be a whole lot happier to see sun, but … it’s not rain!!! Yippie!!!

SO. 2012 In Review:

January: madness central
 
I sure will be glad to see 5:00 and the three day weekend arrive. Although classes don’t start till Tuesday and most students are still gone for the break, these last couple of days have been HELL. Not busy so much as just one bizarre situation then another bizarre situation then another bizarre situation then hey, look, here comes a bizarre situation! All of our heads are about to spin right off our shoulders. Well, except for Aggravation Receptionist, who decided suddenly that she was sick yesterday and went home, then didn’t come in today. Frankly that’s just one less annoyance to have to deal with, and Miss Artsy does all her work for her anyhow so it’s really a plus. I know she’s not really sick, because she is an Attention/SympathyMonger and when she really IS sick she will not consider staying home. Because if she is at home she cannot be here, moaning about how horrible she feels and detailing all her symptoms for anyone who will stand still for three seconds and spreading her germs with wild abandon. 

February: wow.
 
 Okay, I know I’m at work and I know I am buried in projects and I know I really should not be flinging all my folders into the air and abandoning my duties in favor of OD…. but hey, I am. I am also very very very happy that it is Friday afternoon. And I get to escape for two days!

March:  randomy randomness
 
I keep wanting to make an entry, yet I do not. What is up with that? I really have not abandoned my dear OD. Not in the least. I’m just…. I’m not sure what I am, honestly. I seem to be at some sort of strange…. crossroads. OOoooOOooo! No, I don’t know exactly what I mean by that either. I just seem to be perpetually cranky and restless and dissatisfied. With, oh, EVERYTHING. As usual, I blame the weather. Which is warmish (a plus) but grey and drizzly (a minus). This time of year is rough. It seems like spring, yet the weather can turn in an instant. We’ve had our biggest snows in March, and even early April. I don’t trust this place. I have to be on my guard! I can’t appreciate the non-freezing, almost-springlike weather, because it may go away!

April: oh, look who showed up! 
 
 I thought doing The Scintilla Project would give me all sorts of motivation for writing EVERY SINGLE DAY!!!! Ummmm….. no. I did enjoy it immensely, though, and was really glad I got as far as I did with it. I think I missed the last two prompts, but no big deal. I appreciated all the comments even more immensely. What it did do was make me realize how much I miss serious (well, kind of serious) writing. And how I actually CAN sit down and do it daily. Even if I don’t. 

May: currently I am boooooooored
 
 In fact, I am so bored that I will do May Currents! It’s very strange to be bored at work. We have been working like mad, hardly taking a breath, all semester long, then suddenly…..WHAP. We’ve hit the Wall of Nothing To Do.  Finals run this week and grades don’t post till next Monday. I had a ton of work to do with the graduating students (or NOT graduating students) up until, oh, today.  When grades post we’ll have plenty to do again, but until that happens we are just sitting around. Well, I’ve got things I can do that are not urgent. I’ll do those things later. This is much more fun that updating the substitution memo book. 

June:  apparently I’m staying up all night. Wheeeee! 
 
It’s ten till two in the morning. I am not the least bit tired. That’s a little weird, even considering what a night-owl I am. Two is usually my bedtime on weekends. Good thing I have no big plans tomorrow. I think I’m having a reaction to visiting my dad. I went down last night after work, and spent the night. Which always results in massive overcompensation. Like staying up all night and drinking porter and eating salty chocolate caramels and listening to music and writing angsty meandering OD entries. Well, I’m listening to shuffley iPod music at nearly two in the morning because Baker B spent the night with HIS mom tonight. At least I certainly hope he did. He called me at 6:30 as I was driving back up here and asked where I was and I said, "I’m just now in Marion!!! I won’t be home till 8!!!" And he said, "I’m STILL IN MORGANTON!!!!! I may just spend the night!!!!!"  He said he’d call me back and tell me for sure if he was staying. And he didn’t call me back. But there is a looooong stretch of road between where I was and home that has no cellphone reception, so he probably tried to call me, couldn’t get through, and then forgot to call again. By the time I realized he’d never called it was 10, and I didn’t want to call his mom that late. 

July: CRASH!!!!!!!!!!!!! waaaaaaaaaaaaaahhhh!!!

 short entry, typing with 1 hand – old man ran out right in front of me in Lenior last night, CRASH!!!!!!!! i am fine other than fractured arm from wonderful airbags, old man and passenger not hurt, but my lovely little car,,,,,,,waaaaaaaahhh!!!!

August: improvements all around
 
 Allowing me to salvage some of my summer at last. When I went to the orthopedic follow-up visit last week, I expected to get the half-cast off and be given an arm brace, like they use for Carpal Tunnel Syndrome. But no— they took off the half-cast, and that was that. I have my arm back!!! I can type again!!! I can DRIVE again!!! This was allvery very exciting. The ligaments in my arm are very tight so I have to work on range of motion- I can’t turn my palm so it’s facing completely upwards yet, although it’s better in this last week. I also have to work on wrist movement. Physical therapy was mentioned if I can’t get the range of motion back myself. So it’s kind of painful — oddly more painful now than it was as a broken arm– but I am so grateful to have nearly full use of it that I am okay with a little mild pain. 

September: home again
 
That was a really quick trip. And overall it was a very good trip, although a little weird. For one thing, it was very hot. Very very very hot. Which of course is not unusual at all — Charleston is on the South Carolina coast so of course it gets extremely hot in the summer. What was unusual is that I am rarely bothered by heat- I looooove heat –  and Baker B doesn’t mind heat either. Yet it seemed like it was at least fifty thousand degrees and we both felt as if we were going to collapse of heatstroke. Even in the evenings it was like being in a blazing furnace. I can’t imagine why this trip was any different from any other trip — we go to Charleston all the time, and July and August are very common months for us to be there, and it’s ALWAYS hot. Maybe the humidity was higher than normal? I can’t figure it out. We soldiered on, and walked and walked, but we didn’t walk nearly as far at Folly as usual and most of our historic district rambling was in the evening. In fact, we were walking around till 11 pm both nights. And I was still drenched in sweat and near collapse. : 

October: currently in ednaland   
 
 First of all, thank you all SO much for the notes about Stella. Nothing really makes you feel better… but that made me feel better. If that makes sense. We’re still sad and moping around and Eddie goes downstairs and calls her, which is just the saddest thing ever. But at least she wasn’t in pain and we had her months longer than we thought we were going to when she first got sick.
 
November: Can’t.Put.Down.iPad
 
 I am in loooooooove!! Maybe a little overly in love- I have hardly let it out of my hands since Friday night.i am VERY pleased, although the little on-screen keyboard is not very conducive to a lot of typing. Meaning this will be an unusually short entry. I’ve been doing the 750 words thing since the beginning of October and it usually takes me 15 minutes- on the iPad it took FORTY FIVE MINUTES. However, I did notice that it was getting a lot easier by the time I was done. I think it will just take practice, and I also may invest in a little keyboard eventually. Once I can afford more financial damage. So if this looks weird, that’s my excuse. Still adapting to on-screen typing.

December: currently in EdnaLand

 I keep swearing I’m going to start writing regularly. Instead of once a month or so. Then OD goes down and I can blame it for awhile. But now I have no excuse and I am at work and not at all busy. And I can always count on Currents to make a long-overdue entry easier.