Another Long Hiatus

Well, it's certainly been a while since my last post. I suppose I'll have to resign myself to the fact that I am an irregular blogger (and, as a child, a spotty-at-best diary/journal writer). Things have happened in the time since the last cliff-hanging post. I'm not sure if anyone actually reads this, but that's fine; I'm beginning to realize that blogs like this are more for personal use, at least in my case, than any kind of publicity.

But. As I previously mentioned, things have happened. Here are a few of them, in brief.

1) I've decided to take at least a year off from school once I finish my MA. During this time "off," I'm hoping to work in the area--not only to avoid another complete uprooting, but also because I happen to like it here! I'm strongly considering entering an MLIS (Library/Information Sciences) program--but the time away from school will, I hope, help me to focus and figure out what I really want to do.

2) Three charming friends from swing dancing and I decided to have an end of summer/back to school "fancy party," in which we would all get dressed up and go out on the town. After high school, there are so few opportunities to get ridiculously gussied up, and all four of us felt that this was a travesty that needed to be amended. I went to fellow fancy partier Kelley's apartment to get ready, and one of her long-time friends happened to be visiting at the same time. Long story short, he (Michael) and I are now dating! Excitement abounds.

3) This semester, I have chosen to write a Master's Thesis, an endeavor that I anticipate will cause much weeping and gnashing of teeth. As I construct this post, I'm actually debating whether or not I want to elaborate on my topic--it's entirely possible that I will never want to read any of the books/authors again after this semester, and depending on how the thesis turns out, I may never want to see or think about it ever again.

4) I became horribly ill over winter break. I started feeling rotten the day after Christmas, and it turned into a mono-like virus, which transitioned into severe tonsillitis (which evaded diagnosis for a long time), which in turn resulted in a full-body rash and patches of hives due to an allergic reaction to the tonsillitis medication. I visited the student Health Center twice, and went to the University Hospital's Emergency Room two times in two nights. The second time, I was given an IV and kept overnight. Lots of doctors, lots of nurses, a SARS mask, and a visit from a full medical team (i.e. Scrubs or House)! Five doctors told me that my tonsils were the worst they'd ever seen! Maybe at a later date I'll go into the (enthralling? lengthy) list of symptoms and disease progression--it's been fun. (Actually, the visit from 2 doctors, 2 residents, 2 med students and a pharmacy student was a blast!)

An aside: staying overnight in a hospital is basically a guarantee that you will NOT get anything close to a full night of sleep.

And, even though it's unlikely that they will ever see this, I want to "publicly" thank Jameela and Justin for being kind enough to drive me to the ER and wait with me while the doctors, nurses, and other staff members tried to figure out what was wrong. Thanks for giving up your time, guys; I'm overwhelmingly grateful.

5) I've realized that I am a deeply-entrenched pessimist.

Hopefully this will be the first of a more regular series of posts. See? Turning this whole pessimism thing around could really be possible!

But we/(I?)'ll certainly see what happens.