two months!!!

Whoops... looks like it has been two months since I posted last. I guess I temporarily fell off the blogger bandwagon...

The last two months have passed without any great event. R and I hit some rocky territory, but we worked through (and continue to work through) it, and are both much happier people as a result. And, on January 1, we celebrated 1 year from the day we were introduced. For us, it is a milestone - a one year anniversary, and a personal milestone, in that this is the longest relationship I have been in. Certainly, it has not been without the odd challenge, but I think that the two of us are settling grandly into a very genuine relationship. I know I have never felt as comfortable as I do now.



The fall semester wrapped up fairly tidily... I did 4 courses, and got 2 A's and 2 A-'s, which is nothing to sneeze at. My GPA is now 7.90 out of 9, which means that I am on the Dean's List, and will graduate "with distinction" if I don't royally screw things up. The high point of my semester was my course called "Studies in Globalization." It was a variable-content course, so this term's focus was 'Terrorism and Fundamentalism in the Novel." A lot of the terminology in the course was quite steep, for lack of a better term. However, I seemed to do pretty well in it, and wrote my paper on how post-modern architecture could be interpreted as a method of terror, connecting it with real buildings, and the spaces contrived in a couple of the novels that the class read. Well, I got an A+ on the paper, and the professor was sufficiently impressed with it that he offered me the chance to a directed reading/directed study on that topic if I wanted. It's something to think about, as I am hoping to do a course in one of the summer sessions, and if there isn't anything good for my degree, then I could take him up on the offer of directed studies. We shall see.

The exam period went pretty well, I had only three this year. Two on the same day, and then one on the 18th. Unfortunately, I ended up in the hospital earlier in December, having woke up very ill and throwing up blood. This is the second time that has happened to me (the first was two years ago). Went to the emergency room, and had a bunch of tests done. It turns out that the blood was from being so ill that I tore some of the small blood vessels in my esophagus, called Mallory-Weiss tear. Yay. So no terrible diseases, just a collection of symptoms. I had had a fair amount to drink the night before this all went down, but the doctors said it wasn't the booze that caused it. However, since then, I have been back off the drinking wagon.

Which caused me to pause and think... this year I have been drinking far less than previously. I think it may be because I am gradually becoming a happier person, or at the very least learning that alcohol doesn't help. In any case, it has resulted in my tolerance dropping severely... one glass of wine with dinner and I am a happy guy... whereas I used to be able to work through a bottle or two with company. So that is a positive.

Olympics. I finally got my volunteer posting for Vancouver 2010. I am going to be a Load Zone Attendant and the Main Media Centre in downtown Vancouver. Not the most glamorous of jobs, but I am looking forward to it nonetheless. I go to the mainland on February 5 to get my uniform and accreditation, and my training will occur somewhere between then and one week later, when the games actually begin. It is definitely exciting, but I have to catch up on my eLearning modules, which I have not been doing, thinking I wasn't going to get a post. *sheepish grin*

The Christmas holidays went well. R came for an extended visit, and we spent time in Vancouver, Victoria and Ucluelet. It was amazing. This is the first Christmas in probably a decade where I have had such a span of time off from work AND school. It was incredibly relaxing. I guess it isn't so bad working for an employer that closes over the holiday season. I did the math... 18 days off in a row. Some of the highlights of my travels was seeing Lindsay and her little one, going to Ucluelet for the first time, Christmas Day in Victoria with the family, and NYE in Vancouver with Liz and Chris, to name a few.

Ok, this post is getting massive, so I am going to break at this point, and let things roll through January.

OK, that sentence made no sense. I am going to continue to post through January. There.

Also, taking a cue from Lindsay, I am going to look at changing my template. This current template with the lonely tree really reflected me as a person about a year ago, feeling lonely and isolated. But I am not that person anymore, so I am going to explore some changes.

I'm out for now.