When I was cleaning yesterday and listening to one fabulous CD after another, and occassionally dancing, I realized how incredibly much I’ve missed my dance class this fall.  I miss learning new steps, I miss my teacher, I miss my classmates and the silliness.  I miss doing something so lovely and healthy with my body.  That class cheered me up during the hardest of days last winter.  Pure joy!

They are going to try to offer another session of the dance class starting in January.  If it doesn’t run, I’m going to need to find some other dance class to take because these feet were made for dancing.

My mission this weekend, should I choose to accept it (and I really have no choice), is to get my apartment ready for the city inspector coming on Tuesday.  *runs away and hides!*

I know they aren’t coming to inspect my housekeeping abilities, but given that I’ve been sick for 7 of the last 9 weeks, my apartment is a little, umm, … disheveled.  I would honestly be embarrassed to have a stranger see it at this point.  And I have a couple of small city code violations, including a cable cord strung across a room (which is a tripping hazard) and cardboard boxes right up against walls in my closet (which I suspect are a violation because of mold risk??).  Mostly, I’m using the inspection as a good reason to get things cleaned up around here and put away summer stuff, etc., etc.  It will be good to have this done before the holidays!

I will carefully select five high energy and cheerful CDs to put in my CD player today, and I’ll clean, clean, clean.  I’m hoping to get the bathroom, bedroom, and walk-in closet done today.  Tomorrow and Monday, I’ll tackle the living space and kitchen.

With any luck, I’ll have a sparkling clean apartment on Monday!  And I’ll be smiling from listening to great music all weekend!   What is it that I always say?  Music is the very best part of cleaning! 

I’m at the university right now, doing some work on my laptop.  When I got here, I remembered that I didn’t take the West Wing DVD, which I had been watching last night, out of my laptop DVD drive.  And it occurred to me that I could watch West Wing on my computer while I ate lunch!  That seemed like such an entirely novel thing to me!

Think about that in relation to what would have been possible 30 years ago.  No laptop, no way to record things off TV (well, maybe some early VCRs by that point but still…).  And now I can watch a TV show without a TV, years after it was actually on TV, and on a computer that isn’t even hooked up to electricity at this moment.

Maybe I’m just in a mood to be awed today, but I just find that really remarkable what a change has occurred in my lifetime.

My students and I got into an interesting discussion last week that I hadn’t anticipated when we were talking about percents.  Because of that discussion, I added this question to their exam review packet today:

Suppose you are buying something for $1,000.  It is on sale for 6% less than the original price, and tax on the item is also 6%.  Is the final price $1,000?  Explain.

So that’s your homework. 

(P.S.  The “Explain” part is the important piece of this problem.  At this point in the semester, my students are sooooo tired of my “Explain” questions but that’s what this course is all about!)

I am thinking about upgrading (from dial-up) to a faster internet connection at home.  (And yes, the world may be coming to an end — I’ve resisted this for a long time!)

I absolutely do NOT want to use my cable provider for internet service — I don’t even want to use them for my TV but I don’t have choices (other than to cancel cable altogether, which I may do if I can get my two favorite cable shows over the internet instead).  I also don’t think I want to use my current ISP for a faster connection, though that is certainly an option (it just requires more equipment).

My preference at the moment would be to use the phone company’s service.  (The phone company starts with an A and has some T’s in it.  You know the one!)  They are offering high-speed internet service for free for three months right now (I like free!), and though I’m sure there are strings attached to the freeness (like you have to sign up for their service for 100 years), I was thinking of using them anyway, so free is just the icing.

Do any of you use the phone company for your internet service?  Any thoughts or warnings?

Earlier this year, on some random Tuesday (maybe in March?), I was inundated with greetings from people wishing me…umm…Happy Prime Number Day!  Or something like that.  I don’t even remember anymore.  It was apparently announced on both national and local radio that it was a special day for some math related reason.  I just remember thinking that someone just made that up.  Unlike Pi Day (3.14), which is a real holiday.  *giggles*

So, in response to someone else’s made up holiday, I’m declaring today as Countdown Day!  11.10.9.  We’ll celebrate it next year on 12.11.10 too, and then we won’t be able to celebrate it again until 2101.

So there!

Three months ago today, I decided to leave grad school.  I had been thinking about it off and on since January, but I kept going back and forth about it and knew that the decision couldn’t be made while my mind was still waffling.  As long as there was some spark or drive, I would stay.  So I generally didn’t think about it, and just put one foot in front of the other, until my level of frustration and loss of interest in the whole process brought everything to a screeching halt.  And on a Saturday night in August, it occurred to me again that I didn’t have to do this, that the effort was not worth the payoff for me, that 2/3 of my reason for being in grad school no longer rang true.  I had such clarity that it was over, I was finished.

Two days later, I went to school and tied up loose ends, and I left.  And it was one of the biggest and best decisions that I have ever made.

But in these first months afterward, it also feels a little like I’ve broken up with someone.  Not that I have much experience with that, but the feelings sure seem right on.  I feel relief to no longer be in a profoundly stressful and “not right for me” situation, but also sad that I am cut off from the experience that was my entire life a year ago.  My mind was very wrapped up in school and now doesn’t quite know where to go.  In some ways, I am heartbroken that things turned out as they did.  Even with the certainty of knowing I did what was best for me, I know I lost a lot in leaving and there is an odd sort of grief to process with that.  Doesn’t that sound like breaking up?  Where you have a lot invested in the process, your whole life is entangled with it, and you feel some sense of security in the future…and then…you don’t?  It’s over.  And it’s all for the best but it still hurts and requires coping and leaning on friends and waiting for a time until you can reinvest in another path.

Yes, I think it’s just like that.

1.  It’s going to be 64 degrees here today!  That’s a perfect temperature.  Sum-sum-summertime!  :-)

2.  Hillary is also participating in NaBloPoMo.  I thought I was going to be the only one, but not so!  Hooray!

3.  Google has made me smile the last several days with their Sesame Street themed logos (in honor of Sesame Street’s 40th anniversary).  Today is Oscar the Grouch, but the best was Thursday’s Cookie Monster (if you missed it, you need to time travel back to Thursday — so worth it!)

I went to the doctor again this morning.  I no longer have flu symptoms, but my body was kind of hyper-reactive to my normal life this week.  I lectured on Tuesday and my lungs were still fired up on Thursday from lectures 48 hours earlier.  And my throat and ears were also getting inflammed and painful along with my lungs.  Ugh.  My body seemed to be the very definition of an “itis” this week — bronchitis and pharyngitis and whatever you call inner ear inflammation (without ear infection).  The doc put me on strong drugs intended to stop my lungs from reacting, and we’re hoping that will stop the chain reaction that’s causing all the other pains.

I was thinking yesterday that I haven’t had a lot of Wellness in my life this fall.  As soon as I had the thought, I got out my yoga mat and did some long stretches.  That definitely helps but I need to think about what else I can do, even in the middle of all this “itis,” to feel like my body is more healthy than not, to feel like my life is moving toward good things.