Thursday, January 31, 2008

Ridiculousity

This is ridiculous. It is now about 5 am. I went to bed at 11 pm, woke up at 11:53 pm coughing and have been up ever since. It won't stop! And all I want to do is sleep. That's it. Get a good night's sleep, which I haven't had since last Tuesday night. I thought tonight was going to be the night...I was nice and relaxed and fell asleep pretty quickly. Little did I know it would be yet another sleepless night. The doctors have told me just to take Tussin DM, which I've been doing, use my inhaler, which I've been doing, and take some sudafed, which I've been doing. BUT IT'S NOT WORKING. So I'm going to call down there this morning and see if I can get an appointment or if they can tell me anything else that might work. I have to wait for the Tussin to wear off (even though it's not working, it's in the system) before I can do anything else. I'm just tired. Tired and frustrated. This sucks.

Monday, January 28, 2008

A Poem for Pondering

I was doing some reading for my Milton seminar tonight, and one of the assigned readings was this poem. I read it, and had to reread it a couple of times because I loved it so much. So I thought I would share. The last four lines are my particular favorites. This particular version uses modern spelling, instead of the original Milton spelling. Hopefully that will make it easier for everyone to read. :) Enjoy!

"At a Solemn Music" by John Milton

Blest pair of sirens, pledges of Heav'n's joy,
Sphere-borne harmonious sisters, Voice and Verse,
Wed your divine sounds, and mixed power employ
Dead things with inbreathed sense able to pierce,
And to our high-raised fantasy present
That undisturbed song of pure concent,
Ay sung before the sapphire-colored throne
To him that sits thereon
With saintly shout, and solemn jubilee,
Where the bright Seraphim in burning row
Their loud uplifted angel trumpets blow,
And the Cherubic host in thousand choirs
Touch their immortal harps of golden wires,
With those just spirits that wear victorious palms,
Hymns devout and holy psalms
Singing everlastingly;
That we on earth with undiscording noise;
As once we did, till disproportioned sin
Jarred against nature's chime, and with harsh din
Broke the fair music that all creatures made
To their great Lord, whose love their motion swayed
In perfect diapason [complete harmony], whilst they stood
In first obedience and their state of good.
O may we soon again renew that song,
And keep in tune with Heav'n, till God ere long
To his celestial consort us unite,
To live with him, and sing in endless morn of light.

Awesome, isn't it?

Saturday, January 26, 2008

Asthma and Academics

The point of the title is that the two don't mix. Wednesday afternoon I had to run to sign for a package and run back to class (it had my textbooks for a class, thus it was important!) and ever since then I've had this constant asthma attack that won't go away. Seriously. I went to the doc on Thursday and they just said to use my inhaler regularly until it ends and take the 3 steroid tablets she gave me. Woo. Yesterday I was better most of the day, until I got to work. Thing I learned: I'm allergic to books. You see, on top of the wheezing, my throat and ears have been constantly itching from some allergy I'm sure, and the moldy and dusty books just exacerbated it. That and night time. The past three nights I've only slept about 2.5-3 hours, as I spend the rest of the night coughing. It's awful. I just want to be able to breathe and sleep!!! I guess if this still hasn't gone away by Sunday I'll call the doctor again and see what the hell to do. I just want my bronchial tubes back to normal. Sheesh.

Thursday, January 17, 2008

Crappy Week

What a crap week. Monday started out OK, with my two classes going well and everything. But then on Tuesday everything started to go downhill. I went to my two classes (which were great), but when I got up from history I'd pulled something in my back and could hardly walk. I've been having back pain since November, but this was unlike anything I'd ever experienced. So I made my way (slowly) over to the health center, where they told me they thought I had a herniated disc and gave me some painkillers. I took the naproxen twice but never touched the perkiset (sp?). Anyway, that night was horrible. I couldn't move, I was all alone, and nothing seemed to go right. I could barely get off the couch. This sort of thing always seems to happen to me when I'm alone. LAME. So then yesterday was OK I guess. Still back pain, but nothing particularly bad. However, Tuesday has put me behind in a couple of classes and it's only the first week! I still have more Chaucer reading to do when I'm done writing this, and then OT. Have to have Amos read by tomorrow. And the Book of the Duchess in Chaucer. Sheesh. Then today I found out that my boss forgot to submit my timesheet, so I don't get paid this week. On top of that I got in trouble at work for "noticing people's books." Apparently it's a violation of some kind of confidentiality if I "notice" what people check out. What happened was this: a guy who has been getting tons of stuff on reserve about a particular topic came in to check them out. Having "noticed" these books, I asked him what he was researching, and then we got into a really good conversation and I met a really interesting person. All because I had "noticed" his books. I notice things. It's just part of who I am. I feel like I'm being asked to turn that part of me off. Too bad I need the money. I like the people I work with, but it's going to be hard not to ask people how they liked a certain book or what they're working on. That's how you start conversations and get to know people! God forbid I do that. So that was really really tough. It just felt so...personal. It wouldn't if I weren't the sort of observant person I am, but there it is.

So I'm glad tomorrow's Friday. I just want Rick to be here and to veg a bit and forget about this stupid week.

On a different note, I checked out Jesus Camp from the library today. I heard it was a very balanced look at the born again movement among young children, but I never saw it (I didn't want to if it demonized these people, but apparently it really doesn't). So I'm hoping to watch it some time this weekend, if not when Rick is here then on Monday night. I'll let you all know how it is.

Classes for the semester: OT Interpretation 2 (prof is hilarious), Reformation Europe (the historical area I want to specialize in with a good prof), Milton (also great prof and a grad seminar with only 8 people in it so far), and Chaucer (with another great prof and also a grad seminar with about 18 in it). 3 of the classes meet downtown which is different but I like it. It's nice to get off the hill and study in the Bass library (it's underground!!!). And the grad seminars, while they may be a lot of work, look like they're going to be great. FINALLY! Small classes! Woohoo! I'll let you know about potential paper topics as well, once I finally settle on them.

Alright now I must go. It's 8:15 and I still have 14 large pages of Chaucer's middle English to get through. And the book of Amos.

Later.

Monday, January 14, 2008

Back in the Swing O' Things

Hey everyone. Sorry it's been a while since I updated this. I was home for a couple of weeks for Christmas and New Year's, and then I was working last week. Today was the first day of the semester, so now that I'm back into the swing of things I figured I would write.

Christmas was a blast. It was so great being home and having NO HOMEWORK for the first time in two years. I got to hang out with the fam and just relax. So woohoo! there. Then Rick came down for New Year's. We went out with Erin and Chase to Wick's (which was crowded, overpriced, and loud) and bowling (which was great). Then it was back up to New Haven for a few days of working and a long weekend with Rick. Now I'm back into the school routine. Well, kind of. I have to wait for my loan money to come so I can buy books, but once that happens I'll be more in the swing of things.

My classes for the semester look like they will be pretty good. I'm taking OT 2, Reformation Europe, and two grad seminars in the English dept. (assuming I can get into both): Chaucer and Milton. Everything's a go for Chaucer, and Milton meets tomorrow morning so I should know something by then. I was surprised by the number of people in Chaucer, but I guess Medieval studies is a big thing so people want to take it. It will be interesting to see how many people show up for Milton. But anyway three of my classes are downtown, which means a ton of walking for me. But oh well, it hopefully won't be too bad.

Other than that, I don't know much. I"m hopefully going to start my gym routine tonight. I actually got up at 6 am to work out this morning (exercise bike!) and then tonight I'll try to run and swim. Yay for exercise.

Hope you are all having a good 2008 thus far!