Catch-up/catch-all post
I said something last week about a longer post coming. Guess this is it, complete with multiple cuts to make it easier to skip stuff that doesn't interest you or to scroll past if you're not interested at all.
My day at the Hellenic Temple of Apollon, Zeus, and Pan
So, back on the 5th, I went to HTAZP for Puanepsia. To say that was very much needed would be a gross understatement. I was amazed that the Hieros still remembered me (even to the point of remembering I can't have ginseng tea), as it's been three years since the last time I went. I knew it had been quite awhile, but I didn't realize it had been that long until I went digging in my email for the directions.
He's moved and expanded the temple so that it has a dedicated room now. It's really a great space. Very calm and centering. The ritual was simple and yet touched me deeply. (Except for the fun moment when I was invited to say something and sort of opened and closed my mouth a bunch of times and gave up. Have I mentioned that I don't function well spontaneously and out loud?)
I wish it were closer, as I'd love to participate in the interfaith New Moon meditation group he's started. As it is, I hope to attend rituals more regularly, especially as he's put them on a fairly set schedule now (first Sunday of each month). That means none of them quite line up with the Hellenic calendar, but it's kind of difficult to manage that anyway. But I felt so spiritually, emotionally, and mentally refreshed after ritual that I really want to make it a point to go more often.
One of the things that I truly needed was the validation that, yes, writing is part of worshiping Apollon. Studying any sort of healing art is part of worshiping Apollon. Formal ritual is a way of acknowledging that and asking for help in those endeavors and is more for me than for Him. So it would be good to do it, but I don't need to set ridiculous expectations of what that should be and then berate myself for not doing it. Yes, I already knew this, but there's this corner of my brain that tells me that's just me rationalizing away my religious duties, whatever they are. So clearly I haven't quite shed all the Catholic guilt yet. *headdesk*
My day at Chuang Yen Monastery
I was so incredibly psyched to be able to attend the celebration of Kwan Yin's Ordinance this year. In prior years, it's always been at some other site in Manhattan, and I'm just not familiar enough with the area to just hop down there for a day. Not that I was familiar with Carmel before the first time I went, but there's a world of difference between driving to a rural section of New York State and somehow or other getting oneself to a location in Manhattan.
I'd expected ... I don't know what I'd expected. But it wasn't what I experienced. First, I assumed that the celebration must be in the Kwan Yin Hall. (Not an entirely unfair assumption, I don't think.) Poked my head in and saw they were running the regular Sunday morning English language book discussion/dharma talk/meditation, or so it seemed. Ducked back out and went over to the Great Buddha Hall, which I had noted had a large group of people, mostly Chinese, going in. Yep, that was it.
The singing was gorgeous, though I understood nothing except the repetitions of "Guan Shih Yin Pu'sa." There was one point during which there was a continual refrain of Her name, and I joined in once I'd picked up the melody, which felt wonderful. But then I shut back up when the singing moved on to ... I'm not sure what. My guess, based on the form of Her name that was sung, is that they were singing in Chinese. But it could as easily have been Sanskrit or Pali and I wouldn't know. I really do need to learn a bit of Chinese. Presumably Mandarin, which I have a self-teaching CD for somewhere or other. With the difficulties I've had in the past trying to pick up non-Latinate languages, I don't have very high expectations there, but a few words and phrases would be good. (Of course, I'll manage that and then discover I should've gone with Cantonese or something.)
Far from the quietly meditative setting I'd expected, it was a bit chaotic throughout the chanting. Little kids running around and such, which was at times amusing and at times annoying.
The monks and nuns who'd been leading the chanting then ended it and left. It seemed rather abrupt to me, but again, that's probably due to not understanding what was being said. So I wandered first to the gift shop, since that's in the same building. I looked at the pretties for awhile and ended up buying a lunch kit. What I wanted was mainly the travel chopsticks, as I've gone through two sets of them so far, but they don't sell them alone anymore. I decided the lunch kit was a good idea. It has the chopsticks, a couple of covered bowls, and a covered cup. Mostly I tend to bring pb&j sandwiches when I pack a lunch at all. Maybe I'll do a bit more in the way of healthier and more varied stuff this way.
After that, I wandered back to the Kwan Yin Hall, figuring the group would be done and I could just meditate for a bit. They weren't done, but they were having their sitting meditation, so I quietly joined them. It was interesting when they segued to walking meditation, because a bunch of tourists came in, clearly had no idea what was going on, and sort of worked their way into the walking circle and then back out again once they'd looked at all the statues and artwork.
Lunch came after that and was delicious as always. I would *love* to have the recipe they used for the eggplant-zucchini-tomato thing they served us. And apparently I have even further to go in using chopsticks properly than I'd thought, because I provided a fair bit of amusement to my Chinese table-mates. I choke up much too far on them, and I'm too much with the eating single-handed. Need to work on that too. :-)
So that day fed my soul in different ways. I can't say I felt quite as refreshed and renewed as I had the week before, which bothers me a bit. Not quite sure why. Why it wasn't as renewing or why it bothers me that it wasn't.
Microbiology
So far, so good. We had our first unit test on the 6th, and I did better on it than I'd thought. I'd felt really out of it that day, and it wouldn't surprise me to have found I'd done things like identify the stupidest option in one or more multiple choice questions and circled that. Fortunately, it seems I didn't. Based on that and my quiz scores so far, I'm still in the running to get exempted from the final.
Lab practical was last Wednesday. I'm reasonably confident that went well, but there were definitely a few gray areas. That needs to be at least a 90 to meet the exemption criteria. *crosses fingers* That's my big goal this semester: not to have to take the final on 12/22 so I can be done on 12/17 instead.
Now we're into taxonomy. This apparently involves memorizing umpty-million bacteria, their families and orders and key characteristics. This should be interesting. Well, it is interesting, in the good way, just learning it. Interesting in the less-fun way when it comes to retaining it all for a test. I'd like to think that last week's take-home quiz is not representative of what we should expect from an in-class test. But someone asked him that and he didn't give a real answer. Eep?
Nursing School
Had my first bit of advising. Seems I'm in better shape than I'd thought for transfer credit, though I still have to straighten out the English 102 thing. Apparently any lit class should cover it, so why that didn't happen when the initial transfer credits were done, I don't know. I certainly have enough of them.
Scheduling looks like it's going to be funtastic. I panicked a bit and went running back to work. Boss says he plans to work with me on it. The fact that the schedule looks like it's going to change in 4-week blocks looks particularly challenging. (Four weeks of lecture and lab, four weeks of lecture and clinical, repeat.) I hope I can manage to continue working at least 20 hours, so that I don't lose things like pool time, enhancements, and, more importantly, tuition reimbursement. Though the advisors did nudge me to apply for scholarships. I honestly haven't seen any advertised that offer more than a hundred bucks or so, though. Reimbursement is way preferable.
Patsfan
Had a bit of a scare, because his employer just had a big layoff. Fortunately, he didn't get cut. While their severance package was excellent (to the point that one wonders how it saves them a damned thing to do a layoff at all), it would've been a bit scary to have him losing his job just as I'm having to look at cutting back at mine. There are rumors there'll be another layoff in February. Hopefully that one will miss him as well, if it happens.
Health or Fun with Cymbalta
The worst of the side effects seem to have passed. Still have some though, and apparently that may take up to another six weeks or so to see if they'll pass. Not happy about that, but my pain level is markedly lower, so at least it seems to be not an entirely pointless exercise.
Speaking of exercise, still doing the Curves thing. I seem to be building more strength and endurance, which is great. I also seem to be having more problems with my heart rate going above the optimal range, which I can't help but wonder if it isn't a Cymbalta thing. *adds to the list for next appointment*
I've lost another 5.5 lbs, for a total of 14 since July. That would explain the jeans getting so loose! While that isn't the primary goal, I'm still glad to see it happening. Knees do seem a bit less complainy of late, which is of the good. Presumably they are, in fact, happy to be carrying less of me around.
Leaky Con
Getting close to the deadline for the current price. Shall snap that up, as I do plan to go, despite difficulties finding cheaper accommodations. The place I'd expected to be the best deal is still $120/night. Which is, yes, an improvement over $180/night, but still! It's a bit of a T ride away, so I'd hoped for under $100. Shall keep looking, but staying with the in-laws is looking more and more like the way to go, especially as the reality of having to curtail work is sinking in.
I'd had moments of insanity thinking I could pull off Azkatraz. Yeah, there's no chance. If anything, I might try for WriterCon, but even though the con itself is far less expensive, I'm not sure I'll be able to swing travel costs for much of anything next year.
Writing
Deadlined writing proceeds, though in a somewhat circular fashion. Characters are uncooperative, and I'm finding myself in one case (won't say which) with stuff that fits the prompt but doesn't quite fit the supposed pairing. *facepalm* Came up with some ideas to fix that yesterday. We'll see if they actually work once I try to implement them.
Also, I suck at being a community mod. *sigh* I missed two weeks of posting prompts to lmb_challenge. It's really not that hard, especially with the one-word prompts, to just post something on Sunday. And yet, mega-fail.
Flying the Crack Broom
I think this is one of the reasons I've been more quiet than normal on my own LJ. I'm posting, just not here! LOL
I'd been a bit worried I wouldn't be able to come up with enough recs for this month, as it's Snupin and I'm less well-read in that ship. No problem after all, it seems. I'm on track to do eight fic recs and two art recs, which is the max. I've actually got a list started for things I want to rec next time, assuming a) I sign up again, which I probably will, and b) they don't get recced by someone else between now and then. Been trying to keep on a Mon/Fri schedule with the fic recs and alternate Weds with the art. Shall probably keep that pattern next month for SS/HG, which should also max out with a similar spill-over list.
Doctor Who and Shakespeare and HP, oh my!
Those who've seen DW S3 probably figured out the main reason for this heading already. Those who haven't and plan to should be warned for a minor spoiler here.
I just about bust a gut laughing when Shakespeare got stuck for a word in his sonnet-spell and Martha supplied, "Expelliarmus!" Patsfan paused the DVD and waited several minutes for me to catch my breath before asking WTF that was all about.
So, yeah, we're into S3 and enjoying it. I love Martha. Still miss Rose, but I love Martha, and I'm glad she calls the Doctor on his nonsense when necessary.
Also, Patsfan finally read "Perfect" the other day. He'd helped a bit with the scenario setup, so I encouraged him to read the final product. He said it was good, but that it was too British, so it felt like reading Shakespeare, which he'd never enjoyed because there were things he didn't follow.
o.0
Dude, says I, we're three seasons into DW and one season into TW. No way the supposed Britishness of the story is what threw you. Any words you didn't recognize were wizarding stuff. And you so did not just compare HP fanfic, never mind my silly PWP, to Shakespeare, right?
Silly man.
Yeah, I think that's just about everything. If you actually just read all that, you get a gold star and an ice cold or steaming hot beverage of your choice!
Now, if I could just settle down and get some writing and some studying done, that'd be good.
My day at the Hellenic Temple of Apollon, Zeus, and Pan
So, back on the 5th, I went to HTAZP for Puanepsia. To say that was very much needed would be a gross understatement. I was amazed that the Hieros still remembered me (even to the point of remembering I can't have ginseng tea), as it's been three years since the last time I went. I knew it had been quite awhile, but I didn't realize it had been that long until I went digging in my email for the directions.
He's moved and expanded the temple so that it has a dedicated room now. It's really a great space. Very calm and centering. The ritual was simple and yet touched me deeply. (Except for the fun moment when I was invited to say something and sort of opened and closed my mouth a bunch of times and gave up. Have I mentioned that I don't function well spontaneously and out loud?)
I wish it were closer, as I'd love to participate in the interfaith New Moon meditation group he's started. As it is, I hope to attend rituals more regularly, especially as he's put them on a fairly set schedule now (first Sunday of each month). That means none of them quite line up with the Hellenic calendar, but it's kind of difficult to manage that anyway. But I felt so spiritually, emotionally, and mentally refreshed after ritual that I really want to make it a point to go more often.
One of the things that I truly needed was the validation that, yes, writing is part of worshiping Apollon. Studying any sort of healing art is part of worshiping Apollon. Formal ritual is a way of acknowledging that and asking for help in those endeavors and is more for me than for Him. So it would be good to do it, but I don't need to set ridiculous expectations of what that should be and then berate myself for not doing it. Yes, I already knew this, but there's this corner of my brain that tells me that's just me rationalizing away my religious duties, whatever they are. So clearly I haven't quite shed all the Catholic guilt yet. *headdesk*
My day at Chuang Yen Monastery
I was so incredibly psyched to be able to attend the celebration of Kwan Yin's Ordinance this year. In prior years, it's always been at some other site in Manhattan, and I'm just not familiar enough with the area to just hop down there for a day. Not that I was familiar with Carmel before the first time I went, but there's a world of difference between driving to a rural section of New York State and somehow or other getting oneself to a location in Manhattan.
I'd expected ... I don't know what I'd expected. But it wasn't what I experienced. First, I assumed that the celebration must be in the Kwan Yin Hall. (Not an entirely unfair assumption, I don't think.) Poked my head in and saw they were running the regular Sunday morning English language book discussion/dharma talk/meditation, or so it seemed. Ducked back out and went over to the Great Buddha Hall, which I had noted had a large group of people, mostly Chinese, going in. Yep, that was it.
The singing was gorgeous, though I understood nothing except the repetitions of "Guan Shih Yin Pu'sa." There was one point during which there was a continual refrain of Her name, and I joined in once I'd picked up the melody, which felt wonderful. But then I shut back up when the singing moved on to ... I'm not sure what. My guess, based on the form of Her name that was sung, is that they were singing in Chinese. But it could as easily have been Sanskrit or Pali and I wouldn't know. I really do need to learn a bit of Chinese. Presumably Mandarin, which I have a self-teaching CD for somewhere or other. With the difficulties I've had in the past trying to pick up non-Latinate languages, I don't have very high expectations there, but a few words and phrases would be good. (Of course, I'll manage that and then discover I should've gone with Cantonese or something.)
Far from the quietly meditative setting I'd expected, it was a bit chaotic throughout the chanting. Little kids running around and such, which was at times amusing and at times annoying.
The monks and nuns who'd been leading the chanting then ended it and left. It seemed rather abrupt to me, but again, that's probably due to not understanding what was being said. So I wandered first to the gift shop, since that's in the same building. I looked at the pretties for awhile and ended up buying a lunch kit. What I wanted was mainly the travel chopsticks, as I've gone through two sets of them so far, but they don't sell them alone anymore. I decided the lunch kit was a good idea. It has the chopsticks, a couple of covered bowls, and a covered cup. Mostly I tend to bring pb&j sandwiches when I pack a lunch at all. Maybe I'll do a bit more in the way of healthier and more varied stuff this way.
After that, I wandered back to the Kwan Yin Hall, figuring the group would be done and I could just meditate for a bit. They weren't done, but they were having their sitting meditation, so I quietly joined them. It was interesting when they segued to walking meditation, because a bunch of tourists came in, clearly had no idea what was going on, and sort of worked their way into the walking circle and then back out again once they'd looked at all the statues and artwork.
Lunch came after that and was delicious as always. I would *love* to have the recipe they used for the eggplant-zucchini-tomato thing they served us. And apparently I have even further to go in using chopsticks properly than I'd thought, because I provided a fair bit of amusement to my Chinese table-mates. I choke up much too far on them, and I'm too much with the eating single-handed. Need to work on that too. :-)
So that day fed my soul in different ways. I can't say I felt quite as refreshed and renewed as I had the week before, which bothers me a bit. Not quite sure why. Why it wasn't as renewing or why it bothers me that it wasn't.
Microbiology
So far, so good. We had our first unit test on the 6th, and I did better on it than I'd thought. I'd felt really out of it that day, and it wouldn't surprise me to have found I'd done things like identify the stupidest option in one or more multiple choice questions and circled that. Fortunately, it seems I didn't. Based on that and my quiz scores so far, I'm still in the running to get exempted from the final.
Lab practical was last Wednesday. I'm reasonably confident that went well, but there were definitely a few gray areas. That needs to be at least a 90 to meet the exemption criteria. *crosses fingers* That's my big goal this semester: not to have to take the final on 12/22 so I can be done on 12/17 instead.
Now we're into taxonomy. This apparently involves memorizing umpty-million bacteria, their families and orders and key characteristics. This should be interesting. Well, it is interesting, in the good way, just learning it. Interesting in the less-fun way when it comes to retaining it all for a test. I'd like to think that last week's take-home quiz is not representative of what we should expect from an in-class test. But someone asked him that and he didn't give a real answer. Eep?
Nursing School
Had my first bit of advising. Seems I'm in better shape than I'd thought for transfer credit, though I still have to straighten out the English 102 thing. Apparently any lit class should cover it, so why that didn't happen when the initial transfer credits were done, I don't know. I certainly have enough of them.
Scheduling looks like it's going to be funtastic. I panicked a bit and went running back to work. Boss says he plans to work with me on it. The fact that the schedule looks like it's going to change in 4-week blocks looks particularly challenging. (Four weeks of lecture and lab, four weeks of lecture and clinical, repeat.) I hope I can manage to continue working at least 20 hours, so that I don't lose things like pool time, enhancements, and, more importantly, tuition reimbursement. Though the advisors did nudge me to apply for scholarships. I honestly haven't seen any advertised that offer more than a hundred bucks or so, though. Reimbursement is way preferable.
Patsfan
Had a bit of a scare, because his employer just had a big layoff. Fortunately, he didn't get cut. While their severance package was excellent (to the point that one wonders how it saves them a damned thing to do a layoff at all), it would've been a bit scary to have him losing his job just as I'm having to look at cutting back at mine. There are rumors there'll be another layoff in February. Hopefully that one will miss him as well, if it happens.
Health or Fun with Cymbalta
The worst of the side effects seem to have passed. Still have some though, and apparently that may take up to another six weeks or so to see if they'll pass. Not happy about that, but my pain level is markedly lower, so at least it seems to be not an entirely pointless exercise.
Speaking of exercise, still doing the Curves thing. I seem to be building more strength and endurance, which is great. I also seem to be having more problems with my heart rate going above the optimal range, which I can't help but wonder if it isn't a Cymbalta thing. *adds to the list for next appointment*
I've lost another 5.5 lbs, for a total of 14 since July. That would explain the jeans getting so loose! While that isn't the primary goal, I'm still glad to see it happening. Knees do seem a bit less complainy of late, which is of the good. Presumably they are, in fact, happy to be carrying less of me around.
Leaky Con
Getting close to the deadline for the current price. Shall snap that up, as I do plan to go, despite difficulties finding cheaper accommodations. The place I'd expected to be the best deal is still $120/night. Which is, yes, an improvement over $180/night, but still! It's a bit of a T ride away, so I'd hoped for under $100. Shall keep looking, but staying with the in-laws is looking more and more like the way to go, especially as the reality of having to curtail work is sinking in.
I'd had moments of insanity thinking I could pull off Azkatraz. Yeah, there's no chance. If anything, I might try for WriterCon, but even though the con itself is far less expensive, I'm not sure I'll be able to swing travel costs for much of anything next year.
Writing
Deadlined writing proceeds, though in a somewhat circular fashion. Characters are uncooperative, and I'm finding myself in one case (won't say which) with stuff that fits the prompt but doesn't quite fit the supposed pairing. *facepalm* Came up with some ideas to fix that yesterday. We'll see if they actually work once I try to implement them.
Also, I suck at being a community mod. *sigh* I missed two weeks of posting prompts to lmb_challenge. It's really not that hard, especially with the one-word prompts, to just post something on Sunday. And yet, mega-fail.
Flying the Crack Broom
I think this is one of the reasons I've been more quiet than normal on my own LJ. I'm posting, just not here! LOL
I'd been a bit worried I wouldn't be able to come up with enough recs for this month, as it's Snupin and I'm less well-read in that ship. No problem after all, it seems. I'm on track to do eight fic recs and two art recs, which is the max. I've actually got a list started for things I want to rec next time, assuming a) I sign up again, which I probably will, and b) they don't get recced by someone else between now and then. Been trying to keep on a Mon/Fri schedule with the fic recs and alternate Weds with the art. Shall probably keep that pattern next month for SS/HG, which should also max out with a similar spill-over list.
Doctor Who and Shakespeare and HP, oh my!
Those who've seen DW S3 probably figured out the main reason for this heading already. Those who haven't and plan to should be warned for a minor spoiler here.
I just about bust a gut laughing when Shakespeare got stuck for a word in his sonnet-spell and Martha supplied, "Expelliarmus!" Patsfan paused the DVD and waited several minutes for me to catch my breath before asking WTF that was all about.
So, yeah, we're into S3 and enjoying it. I love Martha. Still miss Rose, but I love Martha, and I'm glad she calls the Doctor on his nonsense when necessary.
Also, Patsfan finally read "Perfect" the other day. He'd helped a bit with the scenario setup, so I encouraged him to read the final product. He said it was good, but that it was too British, so it felt like reading Shakespeare, which he'd never enjoyed because there were things he didn't follow.
o.0
Dude, says I, we're three seasons into DW and one season into TW. No way the supposed Britishness of the story is what threw you. Any words you didn't recognize were wizarding stuff. And you so did not just compare HP fanfic, never mind my silly PWP, to Shakespeare, right?
Silly man.
Yeah, I think that's just about everything. If you actually just read all that, you get a gold star and an ice cold or steaming hot beverage of your choice!
Now, if I could just settle down and get some writing and some studying done, that'd be good.