I'm on my way

(from misery to happiness today! unh huh, unh huh, unh huh, unh huh!)

I couldn't resist.

So the process has officially begun. I paid the deposit on my "Enchanting Ireland" trip.

I know, the name is a little cheesy, as tour names usually are. But I'm like Jimmy crackin' corn. (I don't care!)

I'm goin' to Ireland! I'm goin' to Ireland!

Yippee and horray and such!

I am taking a (well deserved) break from banging away at the keys for my two papers to do what?? Come type on my blog....

I will save the extended story on the rigorous work I have done just to get a copy of Benveniste's Indo-European Language and Society. Suffice to say, I went through a great deal (because my examiner said it was essential for my paper) and finally got a copy. We will not discuss whether or not it was through possibly shady methods.

Easter was yesterday. The kids had a blast. Like the unfit parent I am, I barely took any pictures, and those I did take are not yet on facebook, nor are they likely to be there any time soon.

Not that I am opposed to putting them up there, just that I am rather preoccupied with completing both papers I have to write. The deadlines are beginning to LOOOOOOOOOM.

On a brighter note, I am putting the first deposit on my trip to Ireland later this week (yay me!).

Keep reading for up to the minute reports (who am I kidding? I may as well say it, up to the week reports is more likely).

In any case, here is a picture of where I will be on July 19, 2008.


(Photo obtained at www76.pair.com/keithlim/postcards/dublin.jpg)

Ireland, here I come

Going ahead with the idea that I need to get away (and pressing forward with holding my mother to her promise of watching the kids for two weeks for me to go somewhere), I checked out some tours of Ireland last night.

Spare me on the lecture about how much tours suck, and to experience the "true" Ireland, one must travel on their own. I'm a (relatively) young woman travelling alone to a foreign country. I will forego some limited freedom to have a safer feeling on the trip. (Not to mention that my mother much prefers this approach; remember that she needs to be content unless I want to risk losing the offer of babysitting services).

I won't be going until July 2009, but if I book really early (like by the end of this month) I will get a discount. I may commit myself to it (hey -- there's always a first time for everything -- if I'm likely to commit to anything, it would be something like this).

And the effects are already being felt. I am REALLY excited by the idea. It's a lifelong dream that I can finally achieve (and can actually afford right now). The timing seems perfect. I can't wait to go!

I wonder how complicated it would be to send for the kids once I get there?

Hmmmm.....

Slam dancin' on my head

I'm thinking of an island.

Ruggedly beautiful, friendly people, ammenities, but not too much urban sprawl.

And warm weather. Sunny too.

That's the freakin' thing Newfoundland is missing, especially St. John's.

We got slammed with three storms in less than a week. Fine. I can deal with six foot high snow banks in my yard. Kinda reminds me of when I was a kid. The banks seemed much higher then, and I'm not sure if it's because we had more snow then, or if it was the difference in height (and as many of you are probably now thinking: What difference in height? She's still as short as a hobbit).

But I digress.

What I can't deal with is 15 mm of rain on top of this heap of snow. Do you know what that much snow plus that much rain equals to? One freakin' big, cold, slushy, oozy, icy mess that is inescapable.

Where is my sugar daddy that will whisk me away from all of this?

Fidgety feet

So I've been in Newfoundland since late August 2002.

I haven't left the island at all since then.

And I have itchy feet now. Every time I see something that makes me think of somewhere else, I immediately want to go. The other night I was watching CSI, of all things. That particular episode was set in upstate Nevada. For some reason, it reminded me of some of the towns I passed through in BC, and I got wistful for the place.

Then tonight I caught a few minutes on PBS of a group known as Celtic Thunder. Their singing was beautiful; it also reminded me of my longing to go to the UK, particularly Ireland. The plan is that I will go for two weeks in the summer of 09.

That wasn't enough for me tonight though, and I went online to check out what the situation is like for getting teaching positions in the UK.

Yet it seems like it's "anywhere but here" syndrome at this point.

Don't get me wrong, I love Newfoundland. I'm just getting bored and I feel like I'm not progressing in my life while I'm here. I hesitate to use the word stagnating, but it seems most appropriate. I keep going back and forth over the same roads.

Does this make sense?

I just don't want to wake up some morning and realize that I'm 45 and I haven't done most of the things I dreamed of doing with my life.

I know that setting down roots in one place can have its benefits, especially with young children. But imagine the life and the education they could have if we were to take off, even for a few years.......

It should be Moan-day.

Have you ever experienced a true Monday? You know, when your day starts off bad and goes to worse.

I will try not to rant, but it started with the kids sleeping in and being a hassle to get up.

Then the car door was frozen and wouldn't latch shut.

Then I lost ten dollars.

Then the people I had to deal with were cranky too (though it could have been my grumpiness coming through on that one).

Then the kids were frazzled and cranky.

Then my mother returns my car after running errands and the trunk is broken. As in we cannot get it open..... it's not frozen because she drenched it in lock de-icer, ran the hair dryer over it, and did whatever she could to get it to open. (And it's not that cold right now). And the trunk release button is gone slack. And my cousins' things are in it. And they may be flying home tomorrow.

So the question remains, should I call a locksmith or a mechanic?

Fie on it. Fie on it all!

And still the dreams come

Since It has been so long since my last posting, I thought perhaps I should start afresh with a new blog.

Yet that sort of defeats the purpose. Let's face it, this is the pattern of my life. Things are taken up with fervour, cast aside, seemingly forgotten, only to be picked up and dusted off at the most unexpected moments.

There is excitement surrounding me of late. Some new additions to my family tree, on both sides. Two or three on the maternal, one on the paternal, and one still to come. Then there is the awesome trip that my father just completed. (He spent two weeks in India).

I feel the excitement and want to be moved by it.

I want that feeling to incite something in me.

I was catching up on Dad's blog tonight and was struck by his comments on Alberta versus Norway. Made me think of a story idea about some post-apocalyptic Canada. (Because we don't have enough end of the world fiction).

But it does tie in nicely with my current work on the ethical dimensions of utopian literature with transhumanist leanings.

Hmmmmm.

Dad may have passed on the sci-fi gene to me after all.