I'm basically a quarter through the semester at this point, or a little more. Not that I ever have any time or presence of calm mind to really notice most of the time. In an average semester there are around eighty days (including breaks) and a six-day finals week -- the finals here start on a Saturday, not that any English classes have Saturday finals to the best of my knowledge. Next week I'll be collecting my papers from both of my current classes, and as soon as I'm done grading through those, I'll be making up lesson plans to follow for my third class (I won't have time to do so otherwise, since that class starts on the 10th and Daisy will be here for several days the week beforehand). So, because I can rapidly see my free time coming to an end rather soon, here are some things -- big and small -- going on in my life.
- The white-trash, redneck family across the street from me -- the ones with the "yard car" and the heavily-pregnant woman with two (loud, uncontrolled) kids already who sat on her porch and chainsmoked until she did, eventually, have the third kid -- are gone. They spent the past few weeks moving everything out of their house, and have since completely vacated the premises. While the landlord has not yet put up a "for rent" sign in front of the house, he and cleaning crews/maintenance people have been there working on the house to get it ready for renters, and I've seen at least two new sets of people (who looked, unfortunately, to be of the same kind of people who lived there before) come to look at the place and leave with paperwork -- the application and background check form he requires.
- Shortly before those people left, their "friends" next door to me (two doors down on the right) and their other cohorts across the street -- the guy who used to have loud, screaming fights with his girlfriend and who played terrible music at incredibly loud volumes at all hours of the day and night -- left as well. Good. This leaves the neighborhood as it was when I moved in. Translation: no fucking screaming kids, loud music, or the cops frequently showing up to haul people off. Just me and a bunch of quiet senior citizens, which is how I like it.
- It's supposed to rain all day today, starting at around noon (read: when I'll be coming home from teaching). On Thursday it did the same thing, which made it a slow drive home as the rains were hard and driving with big wind gusts, making it almost impossible to see without running my wipers at full speed. Last night, it stormed pretty good for a while, and I put my car in the garage because we were under a severe thunderstorm warning for about an hour, and The Weather Channel said this storm had 60mph winds and half-dollar-sized hail (as I mentioned in my last post). It didn't. It rained for a bit and thundered some, and that was it. I went to bed pissed off because I knew I would have to take the car out of the garage this morning in the dark when it's hard enough to move that landboat in and out of it when it's light. If I had a compact car, this wouldn't be a problem, but I don't -- I have a long, wide "sports car." Geico, my insurance company, classifies it as a "sports car," anyway. Probably part of why my insurance is so expensive.
- I didn't feel well last night; my stomach was bothering me, and my allergies were going crazy (probably because of the storm). I didn't even talk to Daisy; once she was awake, I sent her a message telling her that I was exhausted and felt terrible, and I went to bed around 7:30 or so. I was out like a light, despite the fact that I'd gotten up around noon yesterday, and slept until 2:30 this morning. When I got up, I talked to her for a little while (she's at work, of course) and finally got a shower and did some stuff around the house, including a bit of final prep work for my students.
- Also, when I got up, I had terrible heartburn and sour stomach that was only alleviated once I chewed some Tums. I had to get rid of it ASAP; there's no time for that when I need to wake up and start chugging coffee in order to remain sane and functional throughout the day.
- I think I have a mild allergic reaction to the alcohol-based colognes and aftershaves I use, but only on my hands. They don't get swollen up or anything, but they do get what I call "allergy blisters," where clusters of those fluid-filled blisters pop up under the skin, similar to an allergic reaction to poison ivy or something like that. This is how I learned I was allergic to latex, too -- the same thing used to happen (though much worse) when I was a newspaper delivery boy in middle school, when for hours every morning I would be forced to rubber-band papers together before delivery. I never get the blisters anywhere else but on my hands, and they're not itchy or anything, just irritating. Oh well; I can't do anything about it. After a few days they dry up and disappear.
- This morning I have to go pick up my paycheck from the payroll office once I get to school. I have to mail it to my parents ASAP so that it can get put into my bank account without issue. Yesterday afternoon, I paid the bills that I currently have, so until the next set of them comes in (electric and cable, the latter of which will probably arrive today) I'm good. I am, however, a bit more worried about my electric bill than I have been as of late, since for about three weeks straight I was running the AC every day when it was 95-103 or so outside all the time.
- Daisy sent me the first picture I've seen of the inside of our wedding location tonight. It's...adequate, I suppose. It looks fairly small from the photo, but I would imagine that's the angle the photo was taken from and Daisy's camera. I'm fine with it; I didn't want anything fancy or artsy-fartsy anyhow -- remember, I'm the guy who originally wanted a Vegas wedding, or a wedding outside in the woods somewhere.
So yeah, there's this stuff. More coming later this week.
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