A Bongo Christmas!

School is out, holidays are in! Bring on the snow and figgy pudding!

Just one more week until the big 2-5 and this year is shaping up to be a little different than most others: we're playing the my-house/your-house dance routine this year. And then it's off to the East Coast for some fun in the... snowstorm.

I like Christmas, it's my favourite holiday. People come home from afar, you don't have to go to school or work (sans doctors and journalists, that is) because it's all closed up, and you can cosy up in your big warm blanket and fall asleep to happy Christmas Carols. It's all about presence.

Plus you get presents. Yaaaay! Presents!!

Halloween Snot Monsters

Big day tomorrow: Practicum Orientation. We start our mini-teaching assignments in high schools starting next week for the month of November.

Seems fair: given eight weeks of 5-day training, they're letting us go out and pick up some practical experience. Then do it all over again (8 weeks + 4 weeks), and finish up with a month of some type of internship.

Tomorrow's when we dress up and try to give a good first impression.

Too bad I feel like I have several cotton wads permanently embedded in my sinus cavities. And a vice crushing my temples. And a massive knot of muscles running up my back and neck. And my nose...

I'll spare you the details.

But hey, Halloween's almost here, maybe I'll feel better by then. I'm certainly thinking of a few dress-up costume candidates for that...

Posting Problems

No, it's not just my lack of interest these days in finding things to write about. No, it's not because I've replaced my blog with an on-going project about my journey to become a teacher.

Well, maybe a little.

My apathy instead lies directly in the path of an oncoming technology train filled with Generation D, my displacements. I've felt it rattling for years and, while I'm slowly rolling about on the tracks, sometimes I stick my head up to gauge how far away the train looks.

It's funny: the train is neither coming closer nor travelling further away. It's just a looming threat. Couldn't I just jump on at the next station? How can I not deem that union as an engagement of minds, bodies and gadgets? Is this not an exciting time to be living -- truly Living?

It's days like these where I neither want to meet the train nor lose sight of it. So I am perpetually stuck in the middle.

Hmmm... Scratch that. I often feel like I'm left behind so maybe being stuck in the middle isn't all that bad. What are our real perceptions compared to our virtual ones anyway?

Wedding Babble

Starting to get a little anxious. And by that I mean my nightmares have subsided but my daily standing heartrate has increased significantly.

I liken it to studying for a big test, making sure you've covered all the big topics. Only there are some things I can't do until the last week.

Two weeks!

Harr-assed

Sacked today. Financial difficulty for the company expected, not based on performance. Still a bit of a blow. Didn't even get to say thank you to my boss -- he was gone before noon too.

On a plus note, I have the rest of the summer to work out, plan for the wedding, and catch up on stuff before going back to school in September.

It really couldn't have happened at a better time.

Poepic

I decided to publish a book by the end of the summer.

I stated this on my Facebook page today, so it must be true.

There isn't an actual publisher who is doing this for me; it's just me doing the design, layout and editting. I'm using Blurb.com to print it up and distribute it.

It's getting a 'poepic' status (coined by me of course) because it's book that crosses poetry with photography. Working title? "Banterlodes" or maybe just "Banter" I haven't decided...