Missing the mix

I decided to spend the day working at the University today. There are no classes, and most everything is closed down, but the computer lab in Social Sciences is open, and makes a great place to work when it's quiet.

I've been in a bit of a rut as of late - routine, actually, and I realized yesterday what it is that's bugging me. Over the last number of years I've been quite diligent to inject a variety of interests into my life... probably triggered by my short attention span? Dunno. Recently, I haven't been partaking in a lot of that variety which is the spice of my life. I've been spending a great deal of time keeping the very basics of life going - head-above-water, as it were. I'm in this routine of what seems to be "work, work, work" with very little variety injected into the mix.

I met with my advisor in the English department a couple weeks ago to map out some course possibilities, and discovered that at this rate I'll get my degree in 20 years, not the 8-10 that I had anticipated. Sucky. I thought to myself, "well, maybe I could set life up so that I could take time off from the regular work thing to hit school full time for a spell to catch up". What would that take? More people, more time in and more money. I'm working on that - part of my "routine" as of late.

In the mean time, I'm NOT taking a course this term, and it'll be a stretch to get in for the Winter term, but I think it's requisite and necessary. I'm also not going to pottery. *sigh* I miss pottery... terribly. I have, however, taken up the guitar at my leisure, at home, simply picking out some favourite tunes by ear - learning from chord charts and just messing around between appointments, after dark, just whenever I can.

Sitting here at the U today makes me miss school that much more too, but what I really need is a plan - which is in the works, and contrary to my nature, I must learn the art of patience.

SIDEBAR - This last Monday was Monday Night Scotch with my aunt and Dwayne. My Mom joined us this time and we took in Dwayne's video footage from his trip to France and Spain back in August/September. We toured Paris, mostly, which delighted Mom to no end. I think she quite enjoyed her wee dram of scotch, too - not to mention a good visit with her cousin. It was quite an adventure getting Mom out of the Bethany since one of the elevators was out of service - the only one that went to the rooftop parking lot where I'd parked out of habit. The Main doors were occupied with ambulance transfers, handi-bus drop offs and the like, so we used the South entrance which meant a fair amount of running around for Turtle! On the trip down south (which coincided with rush hour) Mom and I listened to a James Keelaghan mix I'd made up... her comments? "He's easy to listen to..." Complimentary, but I'm not sure that she'll ever be the die hard fan that I've become. He's, I must confess, at the top of my list of "guitar gods". With his influence, I may even be motivated to play at the upcoming pub night in February. (Can't remember if I've blogged about past ones, but they're quite amateur-professional, and a lot of fun.)

I need a coffee - then back to the books... business books, that is - for now.+