The passage of time continues to leave me befuddled. Nearly two weeks into the new year and I feel like I’ve been occupied enough for several months while still being amazed that it’s actually near the middle of January. I’m pretty sure this is considered a sign of being old and that it supposedly only gets worse. I find that incomprehensible as it already seems that time is rushing by me at a breakneck pace and I’m constantly and increasingly incapable of keeping up with it.
While I’ve been a busy me, I can list an almost equal number of things that have been neglected from my normal routine. I haven’t been keeping up with the usual blogs and in fact a look at my Google Reader nearly caused my heart to stop as the number of unread items was staggering. I have hardly updated any of my usual haunts, including and certainly not limited to my own website. Social networks have been likewise ignored for the most part with the minor exception of noting the books I’ve read so far this year on Goodreads. Suffice it to say if you’ve had incredible news you’ve posted about, I’m most likely completely ignorant of it.
I’m still playing a bit of catchup with the holidays, too. I did take down all the decorations and everything is neatly packed up and stowed away. But I still have rather a lot of gifts that haven’t made it into the hands of their intended recipients. Frankly, I ran out of time and coupled with a few surprises that required money I didn’t intended to spend I just didn’t have the ability to get everything down. At this point I figure that late is late so I’m beyond feeling pressured about the whole thing, though I would like to reclaim the coffee table as it is currently groaning under the weight of many boxes and packing supplies.
So, what have I been doing?
Well for one, Uschi and I have been taking turns being sick. Me from what started as a head cold and morphed into a stomach flu type thing and for a bit there I thought I had the actual flu and Uschi has twice now gotten into something she shouldn’t have and the end result has made my house smell rather offensively.
I’ve also, as I alluded to above, been reading. Quite a lot. Of note, I’m nearly finished rereading the Harry Potter books, which I attempted last summer and ended up starting over when coursework did that thing where it saps all my free time from me. I think the next reread will be The Hunger Games.
Unfortunately, most of my time has been taken up by the usual pre-semester school issues. Seems fruitless to even entertain the fleeting thought that I’ll finally be done with such aggravation, but without fail I am greeted with a new issue each semester. I’m rather numb to the concept as it is hardly a new dilemma and has been a constant since my undergraduate studies. Anyway, I believe things are finally resolved and thankfully there’s still about two weeks before the semester officially starts. I won’t bore you with the details because it just exhausts me thinking about it all. The short of it is that most of my time these last two weeks has been spent with my cell phone glued to my ear trying to wend my way through academic obstacles that have quite literally nothing to do with my actual classwork or my performance as a student.
Not exactly how I wanted to ring in the new year and truly it’s all far less exciting than it appears, but it’s been a very full, busy and fast few weeks.
