Catching Up
So, something occurred to me today. See, this site is hosted by Rogers, the kind people who provide the high speed internet access for my family's house. Which house? The old house, of course. And while, theoretically, they will also supply internet acess for New (Somewhat Fit for Human Habitation) House we're still working on getting lights and sinks and flooring there; cable internet is still somewhere out there in the great future. This site still exists but if it suddenly up and vanishes ... well, you know why. My email at least stays the same (and stays overflowing, no matter how much I delete).
The last week has been busy, to say the least. "Busy" also describes pretty much every day for the last few months. Classes have begun, and the campus is (of course) absolutely overflowing with first year students. (Those of you who do not know about our lovely double cohort situation here in Ontario ... well, ask me some other time.) Every class I have has a shortage of chairs, from the 100+ lecture to the cosy little gathering of students in easy chairs. Though I know that in a few weeks, people won't bother to show up quite so often and there will be breathing room, but until then...
My classes look good; interesting and informative and even entertaining. They also all require a lot of reading. I think that every class but one began with the professor saying, "There will be a lot of reading required for this class..." One of the professors was quite seriously saying that if we could not handle a very, very heavy reading load for his class then we should drop it and take something else and he would totally understand. Ack.
I have 53 required texts, four course kits, and two extra-but-required texts. The smallest of the 53 is about 100 pages long (and already read); the longest (that I've bought so far) is
Anna Karenina at 838 pages, followed by
The Golden Notebook at 649. The rest are somewhere in the middle. And they're almost all trade paper, and priced accordingly. I'm buying used where I can, and from Chapters.ca and Amazon where I can, but will still be spending an amount approaching a quarter of the year's tuiton. This is, without a doubt, my most expensive year yet.
And yet I'm glad to say that it's interesting reading, too. Annie Dillard's short piece "A Voyage to the Pole" was simply amazing (Susan, Beth, you have to read this one) and the quirky non-fiction book
Home about (one guess) homes is surprisingly entertaining. This afternoon I found myself yelling at Werther to hurry up and do himself in, enough whining already, but that's been abot the lowest reading point thus far.
Plus, the time spent on the bus and/or subway has proven to be most excellent time for reading, and so (if nothing else) I have about 2 hours each day devoted to getting through these texts, one way or another.
In other news, the apartment is cool and continues to become cooler as it is decorated and furniture is rearranged. The newest discovery is that our kitchen floor is heated. Fantastic! Course, I'd have to pay for it on the hydro bill and thus am unlikely to be heating the floor in anything but the dead of winter, but still, how cool is that? (I am, as we know, easily entertained.)
New House progresses, as I've said, though the vast majority of my stuff is still somewhere in that basement, in boxes. My Oma and Opa will be moving in in just over two weeks, whereupon the house will have to be called something like New, Unfinished and Rather Crowded House. I am glad to be here and not woken up by workmen every morning anymore. (Don't get me wrong, they were very nice workmen, but I was in my pajamas, see, and they were not, which put me at something of a disadvantage. And once they turned the water off while I was washing my hair. This was decidedly sub par.)
And through it all, I am writing. Really. Or trying to, at the very least. Am working on a new short story that was actually inspired by one of my classes, and still twiddling away on project in progress, and hoping (rather desperately) that no matter what happens, no matter how much I have to read, no matter how disorganized things get, that I'll keep finding time to write. Must write. Must ... keep ... writing ...
