Gillian Polack's Blog, page 117
May 3, 2013
gillpolack @ 2013-05-04T11:57:00
I should just give up on being fraught. Some of the people who were pressuring me to find 'normal' jobs have given reasons why...and it's nothing to do with my incapacity to do what I want to do or that my dreams are unimportant. It just felt that way to me when so many people said the same thing in a fortnight. Mind you, there are still three people who said those things who could mean it. They haven't read my writing, though, or seen me in action as a teacher. A lot of it is, it seems, about the teaching.
For two quite different groups, they want me to get a job in Canberra so that I can keep on teaching the subjects I'm teaching in the places I'm teaching. This fits with my students who re-appear, and makes sense of at least some of the pressure. But there are no academic jobs being advertised in Canberra in my area. It was nice to find out that I can teach and that - after all these years - students and admin still don't want me to go. I shall be more confident on job applications, for I have much external validation of my teaching this week. Not the external validation I was expecting, but still...
And in other news... I'm taking a lunch break with friends!
Also, I had really, really strange (even for me) dreams last night because a front passed over. The dream is still informing my day, and I've been awake for hours.
And I put my rubbish out. And... I've descended to silliness. I shall enjoy my lunch with wonderful people.
For two quite different groups, they want me to get a job in Canberra so that I can keep on teaching the subjects I'm teaching in the places I'm teaching. This fits with my students who re-appear, and makes sense of at least some of the pressure. But there are no academic jobs being advertised in Canberra in my area. It was nice to find out that I can teach and that - after all these years - students and admin still don't want me to go. I shall be more confident on job applications, for I have much external validation of my teaching this week. Not the external validation I was expecting, but still...
And in other news... I'm taking a lunch break with friends!
Also, I had really, really strange (even for me) dreams last night because a front passed over. The dream is still informing my day, and I've been awake for hours.
And I put my rubbish out. And... I've descended to silliness. I shall enjoy my lunch with wonderful people.
May 2, 2013
gillpolack @ 2013-05-03T11:44:00
I'm going to be tired until Tuesday (I finally counted down the days until the medications change again - it all gets better from Tuesday) and that's my excuse for everything. Except Conflux. I missed so many things because the program was in too fine print for my sole functioning eye, and I keep on finding out what those things are. And who the friends are I had planned to catch up there. This is a warning to the unwary, or something.
I have my Belted Galloway beef, and plan a roast tonight. I need to decide what to do with my roast, is all. I'll have about a week of leftovers, and I'm tempted to go 18th century and tomorrow have cold sliced beef, and the day after to hache it and then to make rissoles, just because I can. Although if I'm doing this, I need to be sensible and look up the whole sequence and check for missing ingredients and shop for them. I have to do many messages today, for things have happened (one step closer to announcing - not big things though) and postal deliveries must be undergone.
I have two more books finished to write up for you, and they're both entirely delightful (but, as is often the case, for the wrong reasons), and I'm partway through a third. I can't read for long periods, but I most certainly can read, which is interesting. Maybe I was building up to the eye trouble in the fortnight before it?
Last night's class was bigger than usual, largely because I've got several returning students. It's great, because they've set the tone for everyone else and they're really keen to work hard and they laugh at my jokes and they're not worried about asking questions. Lots of people ask questions, as a result. And I had an editorial visit from Rob Porteous, who gave me my author copy of Next - I introduced him to my class (some were there early) and they looked a bit puzzled. When he was gone I explained that I was also a writer. Only the new students were there at that point, you see, and we'd just been talking about my Medievalishness. I am getting to like this two-doctorates bizzo, simply because it has enormous capacity to confuse innocents.
Somehow we detoured into languages at break. I was trying to convince the monolinguals that a bit of French will make a big difference to their experience when they visit French-speaking places and, it being a Gillian-conversation, we got sidetracked. I ended up explaining that the minute people in Provence know you've read Mistral untranslated or people in Catalonia know you read Catalan, they give you presents. I assume this is a general rule. Since the vast majority of Medievalists who specialise in France can read both Provencal and Catalan, I can claim no special gift, but I have a pen, a pin and the Asterix cookbook in Spanish to prove that everyone should read these languages. What I didn't tell my students was how embarrassing this was...
Thank you to everyone who's given names - I'll put up a list over the weekend. I had my own list, years ago. I might haul that out, too. Some of the lesser-known saints have extraordinary names. What amuses me about this, of course, is that there are so many names if you list them, but if you check occurrence, the range of choices is limited. It's a long tail but a short body. Reminds me of Under Milkwood.
I have my Belted Galloway beef, and plan a roast tonight. I need to decide what to do with my roast, is all. I'll have about a week of leftovers, and I'm tempted to go 18th century and tomorrow have cold sliced beef, and the day after to hache it and then to make rissoles, just because I can. Although if I'm doing this, I need to be sensible and look up the whole sequence and check for missing ingredients and shop for them. I have to do many messages today, for things have happened (one step closer to announcing - not big things though) and postal deliveries must be undergone.
I have two more books finished to write up for you, and they're both entirely delightful (but, as is often the case, for the wrong reasons), and I'm partway through a third. I can't read for long periods, but I most certainly can read, which is interesting. Maybe I was building up to the eye trouble in the fortnight before it?
Last night's class was bigger than usual, largely because I've got several returning students. It's great, because they've set the tone for everyone else and they're really keen to work hard and they laugh at my jokes and they're not worried about asking questions. Lots of people ask questions, as a result. And I had an editorial visit from Rob Porteous, who gave me my author copy of Next - I introduced him to my class (some were there early) and they looked a bit puzzled. When he was gone I explained that I was also a writer. Only the new students were there at that point, you see, and we'd just been talking about my Medievalishness. I am getting to like this two-doctorates bizzo, simply because it has enormous capacity to confuse innocents.
Somehow we detoured into languages at break. I was trying to convince the monolinguals that a bit of French will make a big difference to their experience when they visit French-speaking places and, it being a Gillian-conversation, we got sidetracked. I ended up explaining that the minute people in Provence know you've read Mistral untranslated or people in Catalonia know you read Catalan, they give you presents. I assume this is a general rule. Since the vast majority of Medievalists who specialise in France can read both Provencal and Catalan, I can claim no special gift, but I have a pen, a pin and the Asterix cookbook in Spanish to prove that everyone should read these languages. What I didn't tell my students was how embarrassing this was...
Thank you to everyone who's given names - I'll put up a list over the weekend. I had my own list, years ago. I might haul that out, too. Some of the lesser-known saints have extraordinary names. What amuses me about this, of course, is that there are so many names if you list them, but if you check occurrence, the range of choices is limited. It's a long tail but a short body. Reminds me of Under Milkwood.
May 1, 2013
gillpolack @ 2013-05-02T13:59:00
I'm in the middle of teaching notes and have been inspired by them to start compiling a list of perfectly sound names that are underused in Medieval-inspired fantasy. Some of these will probably have dull modern forms (one definitively does: Gosfright).
Does anyone have any favourite names I should add? If the list gets interesting enough, I'll post it here. Right now, it's mainly for my own amusement.
Does anyone have any favourite names I should add? If the list gets interesting enough, I'll post it here. Right now, it's mainly for my own amusement.
gillpolack @ 2013-05-02T13:08:00
I'm back to what passes for regular existence chez Gillian. I have an order of fine beef (Belted Galloway, from Mountain Creek Farm) arriving tomorrow, for I'm very tired of living on less-fine food. Also, it's better for my health and I know the farm (I even used to know the animals) and I have seen that they lead fine lives and are well-treated. These things are important to me, but when my income is low I have to give in and buy second-best (second-best is the meat from the halal butcher - I don't know the farm or the animals, but I know the butcher is careful of those last minutes and respectful of the animal's well-being).
So many people around me seem to forget that when one can't drive and one is less than perfectly well, stir craziness is the result. They do all kinds of things without me, because they might have to arrange for someone to pick me up or deal with food issues. (There are friends who take my limitations into play as a matter of course, but we've all been a bit frantic recently and I haven't seen them. There are new babies and jobs and illness and all sorts of things in their lives.)
At Conflux, a whole bunch of us with food issues hung out together on the Sunday afternoon. We were friends, and would've hung out together anyhow, but it made it much easier to know we weren't going to poison each other, by mistake. That's what made me realise that my social life is currently circumscribed by the difficulties other people ascribe to it.
I love my many hours at home alone (for it's interesting time, doing interesting things) but I would like to get out for something other than teaching and shopping a couple of times a week. My favourite friends are the ones who realise this! And I haven't seen them for a while. And it shows. I'm seeing two on Saturday and two on Monday, which will make me a much more equable human being. We're not doing anything exciting - we're just hanging out. Possibly, on Monday, in a playground. There are two of my favourite children involved and I'm looking forward to it.
All this boils down to me being in much less pain. All the new medications are doing their thing and I suddenly realise that I can do things. And that I'm happy to finish my tax and write my papers and teach my classes and contrive synopses and other daily tasks, I would really like to go to a movie and to see the new displays at the art galleries and museums and maybe, maybe get some music back in my life. These things take a half day to do when one doesn't drive, so I'm not quite ready to do them alone yet. I'm going to have to be, though, if I want a bit more enjoyment in my life. I may be work-obsessed, but I still need time out, it appears - and preferably with friends. In my dream world, of course, I explore country towns and go to trash and treasures and visit caves and mountain tops, but I think that's too ambitious. Right now I'll settle for movies and art galleries from time to time.
So many people around me seem to forget that when one can't drive and one is less than perfectly well, stir craziness is the result. They do all kinds of things without me, because they might have to arrange for someone to pick me up or deal with food issues. (There are friends who take my limitations into play as a matter of course, but we've all been a bit frantic recently and I haven't seen them. There are new babies and jobs and illness and all sorts of things in their lives.)
At Conflux, a whole bunch of us with food issues hung out together on the Sunday afternoon. We were friends, and would've hung out together anyhow, but it made it much easier to know we weren't going to poison each other, by mistake. That's what made me realise that my social life is currently circumscribed by the difficulties other people ascribe to it.
I love my many hours at home alone (for it's interesting time, doing interesting things) but I would like to get out for something other than teaching and shopping a couple of times a week. My favourite friends are the ones who realise this! And I haven't seen them for a while. And it shows. I'm seeing two on Saturday and two on Monday, which will make me a much more equable human being. We're not doing anything exciting - we're just hanging out. Possibly, on Monday, in a playground. There are two of my favourite children involved and I'm looking forward to it.
All this boils down to me being in much less pain. All the new medications are doing their thing and I suddenly realise that I can do things. And that I'm happy to finish my tax and write my papers and teach my classes and contrive synopses and other daily tasks, I would really like to go to a movie and to see the new displays at the art galleries and museums and maybe, maybe get some music back in my life. These things take a half day to do when one doesn't drive, so I'm not quite ready to do them alone yet. I'm going to have to be, though, if I want a bit more enjoyment in my life. I may be work-obsessed, but I still need time out, it appears - and preferably with friends. In my dream world, of course, I explore country towns and go to trash and treasures and visit caves and mountain tops, but I think that's too ambitious. Right now I'll settle for movies and art galleries from time to time.
gillpolack @ 2013-05-01T19:34:00
Today was all it promised to be and just a little bit more. The 'little bit more' was being seen in the room opposite this bloke, who, it seems, also has eye problems. When he was called the first time for his eye drops, I was reading an 1864 detective book (watch this space - I need to report on it soon), so I thought I was inventing names. I asked my doctor why the armed guard and was told "An inmate is being treated" and lo, my hearing turned out to be far less whimsical than I had thought. All this sounds a lot more exciting than it was.
My eye sounds a lot more exciting than it is, too, which is a Very Good Thing. It turns out that the lovely new flow of delicate black trails is a kind of follow-up to the earlier surgery. Not expected, but not worrying. It wasn't my medication. It wasn't any other parts of my body (my heart, for instance) making themselves heard. In six months time, I'll not even know it happened, for the new trails will have merged with the old trails.
I did all the right things in panicking, though and have been told to do exactly the same again should it or five other circumstances present themselves. And I have checkups at the hospital until they're certain I'm stable.
One more big day, and then my life returns to its pedestrian self. I have a new class tomorrow: Medieval places. I've done a large chunk of the teaching prep - another hour tomorrow will do it. Then there are slides to fathom. I can avoid them this week, but from next week I'll have to use the mysterious computer system, which has not quite worked for me in the past.
Mostly, now, I want to sleep, however. Eyes do that. Adapting to changes in them leaves lots of fatigue in its wake.
My eye sounds a lot more exciting than it is, too, which is a Very Good Thing. It turns out that the lovely new flow of delicate black trails is a kind of follow-up to the earlier surgery. Not expected, but not worrying. It wasn't my medication. It wasn't any other parts of my body (my heart, for instance) making themselves heard. In six months time, I'll not even know it happened, for the new trails will have merged with the old trails.
I did all the right things in panicking, though and have been told to do exactly the same again should it or five other circumstances present themselves. And I have checkups at the hospital until they're certain I'm stable.
One more big day, and then my life returns to its pedestrian self. I have a new class tomorrow: Medieval places. I've done a large chunk of the teaching prep - another hour tomorrow will do it. Then there are slides to fathom. I can avoid them this week, but from next week I'll have to use the mysterious computer system, which has not quite worked for me in the past.
Mostly, now, I want to sleep, however. Eyes do that. Adapting to changes in them leaves lots of fatigue in its wake.
April 30, 2013
gillpolack @ 2013-05-01T08:12:00
This morning I'm determined to do one thing then one thing then one thing and to continue the rapid-fire pace until late tonight. By 'rapid-fire' I mean snail-slow, of course, for today is when everything starts to accumulate. I'm still on antibiotics (and they knock me around a bit) and I'm not halfway through my teaching and I still have hospital and etc. Much etc. One step at a time will do it, though. This is where I'm very grateful I met most of my deadlines before this semester began, for if I had just 2-3 more things on top of this first week back, then I might have had something to complain about.
The morning is going to be the best part of my day, for this morning I see my favourite students after their holidays. Today's class is mostly revision and my prep for that is already done. This is why I'm sitting at my desk, pretending to work... I don't have to leave yet.
The morning is going to be the best part of my day, for this morning I see my favourite students after their holidays. Today's class is mostly revision and my prep for that is already done. This is why I'm sitting at my desk, pretending to work... I don't have to leave yet.
April 29, 2013
gillpolack @ 2013-04-30T15:29:00
Today is odd. It's in keeping with my 2013 so far, I guess. I've been chasing insurance issues and body corporate issues and my right eye has its leaping spiders back and I have developed a nice little fever and the antibiotics I'm on make me hurt. Also, the maps I need for my new course on Thursday are being very stubborn and I may have to use cut-and-paste to get two of them into my student handout.
Anyhow, most of my handout for Thursday is done and some of my teaching notes, to boot. No slide shows until second week and beyond, though, for I don't have time for student handout, teacher notes, slide show and an afternoon tomorrow being checked by eye specialists. I have another course to teach tonight, you see, and tomorrow morning, and there's writing on top of that and, yes, my body is saying "Aren't you a little off colour?" In all the impossibility of the eye going funky, I'd forgotten why I was on other medication...which just goes to show that my underlying health is better, for I have done all the things I promised I'd do. I hope I have, anyhow.
I'm all packed for tonight, and we're looking at Early Modern foodstuffs and the advent of the sweet potato. We're also looking at royal recipes and talking about the difference between royal and ordinary (which isn't the same as the difference that gets put into most novels, for kings are not enamoured of making themselves sick, by and large.) And we're going to talk about pineapples, I think.
And that's my update. I'm surrounded by papers and plans and they will diminish to normal around Friday. My life won't diminish to normal for a few weeks, however. Someone decided that my life was over-the-top and strange at Conflux and I kept saying "But I'm normal" and he said "Normal people don't keep skulls." The skull is my father's and it's disarticulated, though, so I don't see what's abnormal about it at all. I guess other people don't see my normal...
Anyhow, most of my handout for Thursday is done and some of my teaching notes, to boot. No slide shows until second week and beyond, though, for I don't have time for student handout, teacher notes, slide show and an afternoon tomorrow being checked by eye specialists. I have another course to teach tonight, you see, and tomorrow morning, and there's writing on top of that and, yes, my body is saying "Aren't you a little off colour?" In all the impossibility of the eye going funky, I'd forgotten why I was on other medication...which just goes to show that my underlying health is better, for I have done all the things I promised I'd do. I hope I have, anyhow.
I'm all packed for tonight, and we're looking at Early Modern foodstuffs and the advent of the sweet potato. We're also looking at royal recipes and talking about the difference between royal and ordinary (which isn't the same as the difference that gets put into most novels, for kings are not enamoured of making themselves sick, by and large.) And we're going to talk about pineapples, I think.
And that's my update. I'm surrounded by papers and plans and they will diminish to normal around Friday. My life won't diminish to normal for a few weeks, however. Someone decided that my life was over-the-top and strange at Conflux and I kept saying "But I'm normal" and he said "Normal people don't keep skulls." The skull is my father's and it's disarticulated, though, so I don't see what's abnormal about it at all. I guess other people don't see my normal...
April 28, 2013
gillpolack @ 2013-04-29T13:20:00
I have 12 review books, five of which are for here and seven for elsewhere. All of them are seriously cool. I have Mark Twain's letters-from-his-readers and an 1864 detective novel with a female protagonist and 2 spec fic series and a new volume abut John Dee. When I finish these I get to log into Angry Robot and see what they're up to. This, then, is my May reading. All I need to do is manage my eyesight sufficiently.
I want to dump my other work today and just start reading - it's a near-perfect selection of books. So much so, that it even trumps my Conflux reading. I've got a volume by Monod, for instance, on the occult in the Age of Enlightenment. I'm hoping it will fill a gaping hole in the main literature on the subject, but if it doesn't, I shall have much fun pulling it to pieces. If it does, it will also help me understand why so many 'rationalists' think the way they do - how our culture of reason works, in fact.
I was trying to explain what I do for a hobby now that handmade lace isn't so easy. I guess this post is my explanation...
I want to dump my other work today and just start reading - it's a near-perfect selection of books. So much so, that it even trumps my Conflux reading. I've got a volume by Monod, for instance, on the occult in the Age of Enlightenment. I'm hoping it will fill a gaping hole in the main literature on the subject, but if it doesn't, I shall have much fun pulling it to pieces. If it does, it will also help me understand why so many 'rationalists' think the way they do - how our culture of reason works, in fact.
I was trying to explain what I do for a hobby now that handmade lace isn't so easy. I guess this post is my explanation...
I'm back!
I'm awake. I forgot my pain relievers and woke up and I wrote a complex post explaining the bizarreness of my Conflux and LJ then ate it. I don't know how much eye-focus I have left, so I hope you will forgive me if this fades. When the pain reliever kicks in, I'm going back to sleep...
My right eye went funky last week. I had to miss some of Thursday (which you will remember was my birthday) due to the need for emergency hospital (Lily Mulholland is the person you want beside you in a crisis, folks - she's amazing, and Karen Herkes is the person on whose shoulder you want to cry when the emotions catch up with you - both of them are wonderful and made the biggest difference) and every other day I had to take an hour here or an hour there to rest my eye (for it made my whole body tired) and I couldn't actually read the programme, so I missed things I really wanted to attend. I managed to tweet one session and I had pain reliever and alcohol before the masquerade so also I managed to give a sense of normalcy, but I was most certainly not normal. I've left a trail of things behind and am trying to retrieve them... (the two outstanding items at this moment are a brown bolero and my author copy of Next)
One big thing I realised was how much some of the partially-sighted depend on others. I missed room parties (and missed getting my room party on the board, so I ended up donating my room party things to someone else, for no-one appeared) and couldn't find friends and got lost more times than I can count. I gave up even worrying about it after a bit, and just went along with whichever friends I was with at that time and hoped we were going somewhere I wanted to be. We mostly were. And my eye's adjusting faster than it did last time it got blood-filled, which is good - and I won't know until later in the week what the prognosis is and whether I need eye surgery, so watch this space. I now know what a maze a convention is for people who can't rad fine print or who are reliant on verbal indications, so it was a useful experience. It was not, however, always comfortable.
My other personal note for conventions in the future is to be much less accepting of programming. I didn't want to kick up a fuss because programming is such a tough thing, but being scheduled during mealtimes (always) and being overscheduled on the first day resulted in problems. The 3 hour workshop wasn't a problem (except that I had to eat chocolate instead of lunch, for the teacher can't take an hour off to locate food - I made sure my students had to freedom to find food and gave them extra question time at the end to make up, but didn't tell them that was what I was doing - I created a field trip so that they got learning plus time and space, which solved all). The problem was being put on an evening panel as well, on that very same day. It meant I didn't get dinner with the friends who wanted to wish me happy birthday (I didn't even see them! and it was hard to get dinner at all) and I couldn't find anyone afterwards, for my panel was at prime drinks time and I couldn't see to find the bar (which is where some of my missing friends were - funky vision doesn't help, but in this case the main problem was not having a sense of direction). So the plans for that evening were totally mucked up because I had to spend so much of it doing con-stuff. Evening panels on birthdays... don't do it, people. Some of the friends I'd planned to see that night spent half the con chasing me, and I never got those birthday drinks with them.
Instead of Thursday providing the moment to remember, today did. I was presented a huge bunch of beautiful flowers. The flowers were for turning 52 (I turned 52 on the first day of the 52nd Natcon!) and for the PhD - and thank you those wonderful, wonderful people who thought of it and put in for it and thank you Craig for presenting it. The first thing I did when I got home was put those flowers in water. They're magnificent - and they're going to go a long way in getting me through what may be an interesting week.
I'll try to do you a proper con report later, but it all depends on my eye holding out, for I have a solid week's teaching (3 courses, one of which is entirely new) and now have an even more solid week's medical appointments as well. Plus I have my next set of deadlines.
Conflux was very good - Nicole and Donna run a fine con and it had a lovely atmosphere. I caught up on old friends and new. One of my great highlights was catching up with Nalo.
And all the rest can wait.
For those of you who are trying to work out just how ill I am, things aren't so bad. My eye is a serious worry, obviously*, but my underlying health is *so* much better that I woke up to take pain reliever rather than sleeping right through and paying bigtime for missing a dose. Somehow, in the last few months, I've gone from being impossibly chronically ill to being able to do as much as other people, even when life turns itself inside out. I can't help thinking that this is a wonderful thing.
*Angiogram soon! Then I glow and we find out just what's happening.
My right eye went funky last week. I had to miss some of Thursday (which you will remember was my birthday) due to the need for emergency hospital (Lily Mulholland is the person you want beside you in a crisis, folks - she's amazing, and Karen Herkes is the person on whose shoulder you want to cry when the emotions catch up with you - both of them are wonderful and made the biggest difference) and every other day I had to take an hour here or an hour there to rest my eye (for it made my whole body tired) and I couldn't actually read the programme, so I missed things I really wanted to attend. I managed to tweet one session and I had pain reliever and alcohol before the masquerade so also I managed to give a sense of normalcy, but I was most certainly not normal. I've left a trail of things behind and am trying to retrieve them... (the two outstanding items at this moment are a brown bolero and my author copy of Next)
One big thing I realised was how much some of the partially-sighted depend on others. I missed room parties (and missed getting my room party on the board, so I ended up donating my room party things to someone else, for no-one appeared) and couldn't find friends and got lost more times than I can count. I gave up even worrying about it after a bit, and just went along with whichever friends I was with at that time and hoped we were going somewhere I wanted to be. We mostly were. And my eye's adjusting faster than it did last time it got blood-filled, which is good - and I won't know until later in the week what the prognosis is and whether I need eye surgery, so watch this space. I now know what a maze a convention is for people who can't rad fine print or who are reliant on verbal indications, so it was a useful experience. It was not, however, always comfortable.
My other personal note for conventions in the future is to be much less accepting of programming. I didn't want to kick up a fuss because programming is such a tough thing, but being scheduled during mealtimes (always) and being overscheduled on the first day resulted in problems. The 3 hour workshop wasn't a problem (except that I had to eat chocolate instead of lunch, for the teacher can't take an hour off to locate food - I made sure my students had to freedom to find food and gave them extra question time at the end to make up, but didn't tell them that was what I was doing - I created a field trip so that they got learning plus time and space, which solved all). The problem was being put on an evening panel as well, on that very same day. It meant I didn't get dinner with the friends who wanted to wish me happy birthday (I didn't even see them! and it was hard to get dinner at all) and I couldn't find anyone afterwards, for my panel was at prime drinks time and I couldn't see to find the bar (which is where some of my missing friends were - funky vision doesn't help, but in this case the main problem was not having a sense of direction). So the plans for that evening were totally mucked up because I had to spend so much of it doing con-stuff. Evening panels on birthdays... don't do it, people. Some of the friends I'd planned to see that night spent half the con chasing me, and I never got those birthday drinks with them.
Instead of Thursday providing the moment to remember, today did. I was presented a huge bunch of beautiful flowers. The flowers were for turning 52 (I turned 52 on the first day of the 52nd Natcon!) and for the PhD - and thank you those wonderful, wonderful people who thought of it and put in for it and thank you Craig for presenting it. The first thing I did when I got home was put those flowers in water. They're magnificent - and they're going to go a long way in getting me through what may be an interesting week.
I'll try to do you a proper con report later, but it all depends on my eye holding out, for I have a solid week's teaching (3 courses, one of which is entirely new) and now have an even more solid week's medical appointments as well. Plus I have my next set of deadlines.
Conflux was very good - Nicole and Donna run a fine con and it had a lovely atmosphere. I caught up on old friends and new. One of my great highlights was catching up with Nalo.
And all the rest can wait.
For those of you who are trying to work out just how ill I am, things aren't so bad. My eye is a serious worry, obviously*, but my underlying health is *so* much better that I woke up to take pain reliever rather than sleeping right through and paying bigtime for missing a dose. Somehow, in the last few months, I've gone from being impossibly chronically ill to being able to do as much as other people, even when life turns itself inside out. I can't help thinking that this is a wonderful thing.
*Angiogram soon! Then I glow and we find out just what's happening.
April 24, 2013
gillpolack @ 2013-04-24T17:33:00
Today is very full of many things. None of them seem to include sleep. A bit like yesterday, I guess, only all I want to do is sleep. Instead, I went up the street, for my scripts had changed since yesterday and they needed filling. There is space on my flat surfaces and only 4 big items to go before tomorrow. Watch this space?
I looked at my Conflux schedule and at the number of friends who will be there, and you may not hear from me for a few days. If you don't - then I'll see you on the other side.
I looked at my Conflux schedule and at the number of friends who will be there, and you may not hear from me for a few days. If you don't - then I'll see you on the other side.
