the obligatory year in review

 I’ve done it for years. Can’t skip it now!

Of course the very first one is an England Entry, because it took forEVER for me to finish those. But that’s okay!

January: Walking to Long Eaton 
SO. We decided that our first Marina Day would be easy. And stress-free. We’d just hang out on the boat, take a little walk perhaps, chill out. Watch the DVD about Canal Boat Operation and determine whether setting off in the boat would be lots of fun or completely insane. We had gone non-stop while in London, walking like 12-15 miles a day, cramming all we could cram into each 24 hour period, so we were a little ready for some relaxation. 

(Well. Make that the first TWO.)

February: The Barge, another horse, Marborough

Part ten zillion, five hundred and twelve of The England Chronicles. After sadly leaving Avebury, we headed to  The Barge. Baker B kept telling us we HAD to go see The Barge. The Barge is a pub on a canal outside Alton Barnes, and is a hotbed of UFO and Crop Circle activity – so of course we were not about to miss that! We drove south from Avebury — it’s not very far at all, and our BFF the GPS took us pretty much right there. I think we did actually think to put the zip code in after we’d wandered around the teeny town of Alton Barnes, and that took us to a point where we spotted a sign directing us to The Barge. It’s very much out in the middle of nowhere. Gorgeous lovely Nowhere, like all of Wiltshire. 

Okay, I can see what the entire year focused on:

March: The ten zillion entries:
 …. are just me changing the name of all my England entries so that they will, oh, make a teeny bit of sense. So now if you go to the chapter view they have sequential numbers instead of the strange, apparently random numbering/naming system I had before. This was suggested by Baker B, who could not figure out how exactly my entry numbers worked. Imagine that.  

April: Captain Cranky is quite cranky:
I could not print this morning. I didn’t even get print options when I tried, and then the entire program would lock up. So if I tried to print an email, my email would, instead of printing, lock up. If I tried to print a Word document, Word would lock up. I rebooted, I tried every program, I swore, I finally filled out a support request which annoys me too since the tech guys are like fifteen steps down the hall. Who knows what the problem was?? Aggravation Receptionist was having the same issues, and hers magically fixed itself. For me, it took ages and Tech Guy experimenting and my getting an email from Tech Support saying the "incident was resolved" when it was not at all resolved (a vision into the fixing-itself future??)  and more experimenting from Tech Guy before mine suddenly fixed itself too. Half the day later. 

May: What’s Going On
Nothing, that’s what! I’m at work, and I am, bizarrely, bored out of my mind. We are experiencing that brief little period after classes end but before semester grades post. Finals were over yesterday so it’s VERY quiet. Final grades are due tomorrow afternoon so we won’t be able to access them till the reports run on Monday, which means we can’t send our final "Guess who didn’t graduate!!!" emails out till then.  

June: Dear Students:
Could you please, like, pass your classes??!!?? You know, those ones that you HAVE TO PASS TO GET YOUR DEGREE?? That degree that you think you’re getting in August (or even better, thought you were getting in May because hey, you walked in the graduation ceremony, so, like, you’re graduated!!! Even though you failed everything you were enrolled in during spring, all of which you needed to pass in order to graduate!) –yeah,  that degree that requires all these courses that you FAILED?!?!?? Or never did bother taking to begin with??!???!

July: Life in EdnaLand
Is very very slow these days. Work has been so boring that I’m about to lose my mind. I don’t remember it ever being quite this dead before. We are always slow during the summer sessions, but this is crazy-making. I’ve done a lot of Create-Your-Own-Projects. And we’re moving again in a few weeks, so there will go this quiet time. Naturally we’re moving exactly when second session wraps up and we send out "You Didn’t Graduate, Loooooser!" letters. So I’m trying to get as much done as I can ahead of time, which is not much. 

August: Bedlam
Wow, this day is being very annoying. We are moving on Wednesday, which is kind of surprising — since our new digs are beingpainted and we’re getting new carpet and they’re replacing the ceiling tiles and putting in new lights, we figured no way would they get it done in two weeks. But oddly enough, they did. Well, except for the offices which have broken asbestos-laden floor tiles under the carpet. That occupant can’t move in till the asbestos gets removed. Yikes. And they ran out of money before finishing Mr. Organized’s office and the spot where Miss Artsy sits, so they didn’t get new ceiling tiles and lighting yet. The dean swears she’ll have it done with our budget dollars whenever we actually have a budget. I’m really shocked any of this got done, considering there is no money at all and jobs are in the balance right now, but there’s always money in the weird building related funds that are mysterious and otherworldly and nobody understands at all.  

September: Oh,hai!
Wow, I never seem to write an entry anymore. And I’m only writing one now because it’s very dull at work and although it’s only 2:00, I went to lunch hours ago. Our modem died last night (the latest in our endless parade of internet issues) so Baker B and I went to Charter’s local office early and got another one. Then went home and hooked it up. Then Baker B had to call the help line because the set-up thing was rejecting the modem serial numbers. They fixed it remotely and tada! Back online again. Till the next thing fails. We were only out for one night but it’s been acting weird for awhile. Again.  

October: Long Afternoon
It’s a sloooow day, and I’m practically in a coma from having eaten way too much lunch. We had an office birthday lunch, and went to a place I’ve been dying to go for years and years. I’ve wanted to see the inside of the building, since it’s one of the few actually historic buildings we have here. Usually they get torn down. This used to be the jailhouse. It’s off the main street in a kind of odd spot, and has actually been about a gazillion different restaurants. It’s only been in its current incarnation for a few months, but I was very pleased. It is quite nice inside, although teeny. Original jailhouse brick, strange ghostly photos, good atmosphere. Well, for a jailhouse. The food was great – I had a crabcake, sweet potato souffle, and squash soup. And a teeny biscuit. HOURS ago. It did not appear to be that much food, or to be especially filling, but I am stuffed and now I need a nap. Can’t concentrate, very little to do, I’ll write an entry instead.  
 
November: Dragging an old man throught 3 airports
I am beyond exhausted, having returned from the Delaware Trip last night and not having the sense to take today off too. Well, I did consider it but didn’t want to get further behind since it’s Senior Clearing/Mass Panic Time. Now I’m wishing I’d been less conscientious. And kind of thinking a Mental Health Day may be in order later in the week.  

December: RIP
My aunt passed away last night — Daddy’s last sibling, our Cousin E’s mom. It was not really a surprise- she’d not been doing very well for quite awhile now, and when I took Daddy to visit her in Delaware a month ago she was in the hospital and we didn’t get to spend much time at all with her. Which I was upset about then,because she’d been looking forward to the visit and so had Daddy, but now I sure am glad we went. I am also VERY glad Daddy and I made all those trips up there these last couple of years. We went three times this year alone. Flying each time. And I’d finally gotten the hang of Successfully Flying With Your Elderly Parent.