I haven't done a lot in the past several days since I've returned home; I've been sleeping a lot, eating leftovers (and the other food I have in the house), and have been spending a lot of time with my furry children, the cats. As mentioned in the end of my last post, I started the Bactrim this morning to see if it will cure my sinus infection for good, and as mentioned in previous posts, I have a hemorrhoid that even now is still painful and bothering me, but slowly seems to be healing up a bit.
There were a lot of little things I didn't mention in my series of recap posts because I didn't want to take the focus away from them and they didn't factor into the overall story at all -- such as the Christmas cards I received. I did, indeed, receive a card with a $100 check in it from my godparents, which I will soon be mailing back home to my mother so that she can put it in my bank account for me (along with the check Daisy's parents gave me). This means that in another week or so, I'll have a little more flexibility/cash flow with which to pay my bills for the month of January. I did mention that my electric bill came and that it was $180 -- double what it was for November, since it's been really really cold for a lot of this month and the electric furnace has to be on, or not only will my pipes freeze, but so will I. It's not due for another three weeks, so I have time to gather some funds. My grandmother sent me a birthday card with two $5 bills in it, too, which I put into my wallet. I'll need them for something, surely, within the next few weeks.
I haven't left the house; the car has been in the garage for over two weeks now, since well before the big snowstorm on the 21st. It's 50 degrees outside here now, and a lot of the leftover snow is starting to (finally) melt off this afternoon. I'm watching all of it drip off the roof and gutters like it's rain. While it has been this warm a few days, at least, since the snow fell, my house is situated in such a way that the sun never directly hits my front yard or driveway in the winter -- it's constantly shadowed. As such, my driveway is still a snow-packed sheet of ice, and the yard is still covered in a few inches of snow. It will remain this way until the actual outside temperature stays warm enough to melt it all, and I can't do anything about that. Tomorrow, for New Year's Day, it's supposed to get colder again and again snow a little bit, though I doubt there will be any accumulation.
I wrote here around my birthday that my friend April and her husband gave me an Amazon gift card for my birthday/Christmas, and that I wouldn't have the chance to use it until after the holidays were over and I was home for good. Well, I used it last night -- I got the next season of Breaking Bad, The World's End, Reaper Season 1, and a big box of incense (as I am out). It all arrives on Thursday instead of tomorrow because of the New Year holiday. While I do feel a bit guilty about getting luxuries with said gift card, there are very few necessities I can get via Amazon. About the only necessity I can get through there is cat food, and I do, but the kids are well-stocked on that (I ordered some as soon as I was paid on my birthday, and it arrived before I left town). I can't get cigarettes there, coffee is too expensive to get there (not that I need it now anyway after the Gordman's trip), and it's not like I can get fresh foods from Amazon delivered to me, such as meats and cheeses or vegetables. So, yeah, Amazon is really for wants most of the time, and not needs.
I've still not used either Visa gift card from my parents yet; I'm saving them in case I desperately need them for groceries or gas or something like that over the course of the next few weeks. If I don't, I'll find something to do with them eventually. $100, even in Visa gift cards, doesn't go as far as it used to. And again, it's not like I can pay my bills with them -- bills which are far more important than anything else.
Since turning 31, it feels like my body is starting to fall apart. Over the course of the past two weeks I've had to deal with the resurgent/continuing sinus infection, lip blisters, a hemorrhoid, and various other aches and pains. While I understand this is probably because my immune system is weakened from stress, a lack of sleep from being on-the-go all the time in Omaha, and being around all of the kids with their "kid germs," I'd be lying if I said any of it was pleasant or even welcome. I really wish I could just feel like my normal self again without any of these issues messing with me. Now that I've said this, watch me not be able to feel actually normal again until the day before spring classes start back up.
Speaking of spring classes, I sent an email to the department admins yesterday asking if they were able to find other classes for me. As of right now, I just have the one, the 102 class I teach at on the same times/days as the 101 class I taught last semester, on the West campus. Most of the students in it are the students I had in my 101 class as well, so it'll be good to see familiar faces. However, one class so isn't enough to be able to get enough income to survive on; paychecks for it would be about $150 every two weeks. I desperately need them to put me down for whatever they have open for me to teach, and soon. One of the administrative ladies replied and said that the university is closed down between now and the 6th, and that they'd be able to check/add/etc everything then and get it all sorted out. So, that's the earliest I'll know anything about what's coming up. Spring semester starts on the 21st, the day after MLK day, as it always does.
I'll also add, again, that there should be many sections opening that weren't available before; at least three of our GTAs have either graduated or won't be teaching in the spring (including Parker, who has not yet graduated but isn't teaching in the spring so that he can finish up his thesis) and at least one or two others have left the program for greener pastures elsewhere. The department knows I'll take whatever's available as long as it doesn't screw with my ability to get to/from different campuses (if it's necessary that I'd teach on both campuses on the same day) and that I have experience in teaching every one of the composition-related courses they offer. I'm not particularly worried about getting classes, but I absolutely need to know what I'm getting ASAP once the university reopens so that I can start making reasonable financial plans as well as lesson plans and syllabi for the semester. It takes a while to get all of that stuff planned, typed out, and printed. I don't care what I get or when it is, as long as I can do it and it gives me the money I need to survive. After all, I have a wedding I'll have to help pay for and plan for as well.
As for tonight being the last night of the year, and as for the New Year itself? Eh.
I don't really have any plans. I never do. Last year I was in Omaha for New Year's Eve, as I'd just gotten home from Christmas in West Virginia and went up there the next day after my return. This year, like many other years, I may end up sleeping through the ball drop or not even caring one way or the other. I slept through everything in 2011, for example. It's possible that I may watch the festivities on TV, especially if there's football on beforehand, but eh. It's just another day for me, really. I read about people on Facebook holding extravagant parties and the like, and I'm just "meh." I have no desire to do anything any differently. 2013 as a whole was good enough for me.
One of my friends from college put up a post detailing the five best years of his life and why they were the best. I thought it was interesting at the least, if not a great retrospective idea overall. So, I figured I'd do it here, myself, as a way to end this year's set of posts:
5.) 1994.
- My mother got divorced from my terrible former stepfather
- I fully immersed myself in comic books/comic collecting, starting a lifelong trend
- It was the last year of consistently-good 90s music (all of that ended, sadly, with the death of Kurt Cobain)
- I finally got a Sega Genesis and a Game Boy
- I began writing, seriously, as a hobby
4.) 1998.
- We got the family dog (the one who just died recently) on July 5.
- In November, we moved to the house on top of the mountain during Thanksgiving week, and I would start high school up there the week afterward
- I began my coffee addiction
- I began learning how to play guitar, slowly
- I discovered Led Zeppelin for the first time
- I fell in love for the first time (it didn't last and nothing came of it, of course, but it was my first experience with that sort of thing)
3.) 2001.
- I graduated high school and started college at WVU, making many lifelong friends (even if a lot of them have since sort of disappeared or I've fallen out of contact with them)
- First drove a car on a regular basis
2.) 2005.
- Graduated from WVU
- Entered the first long-term relationship of my life (though I'm not in it anymore, obviously, since I have Daisy)
- Started my own clothing-design company
- Began writing very seriously and began my first attempts of many to get published anywhere/everywhere
- Won a creative nonfiction award at WVU with a story that the school journal was too uppity and incestuous amongst its editorial staff to even consider publishing (ha!)
1.) 2013.
- Got engaged to my lovely Daisy on Valentine's Day and began formally planning my life with her
- Graduated with my MFA
- Became a (terribly low-paid) professor, but a professor nonetheless
- Spent my first Christmas with Daisy's family
- I didn't die (yay!)
Is 2013, objectively and really, the best year of my life? Eh, it's pretty close. It's been really good to me (for the most part). Obviously there's going to be good and bad in all years -- for example, remember that my sister was killed in a car crash in October and that around the same time, I injured my eye with a pineapple so badly that it took almost two months to fully heal, not to mention the mess my finances have become -- but overall? Yes, it's been a very good year. Most years, on New Year's Eve, I can't wait to see go. 2007-11 were particularly awful for the most part, with much more bad than good in each one. This year is the first in a long time that I can look back and see more good than bad, while still respectfully acknowledging the bad. That's a big step for me, really. So I'm happy with that.
Another plus? While writing this post, the antibiotics have seemed to kick in -- very quickly at that -- as I have very noticeably felt the stuff in my face begin to drain down my throat already, making said throat sore and my nasal passages feel raw and inflamed, but it's apparently working and is starting to kick that shit out of my system. That's all I want, really. Get it out of there. Kill it and get it all out of me so that my body, face, teeth/gums, and head can all feel normal again.
That's about all I have for today, folks. I will, of course, keep you updated with anything else that pops up -- but for now, this post closes the year of 2013. Happy New Year, everyone. May we all have good luck and good cheer in 2014.
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