The Highs and The Lows

Several evenings a week, Jolene stops in to get/return the German book we share; therefore, we often have Story Time with Jolene.

It has been interesting to watch her hit the highs and the lows in the three weeks since school started. She went from “I’ll never be able to do this” and “My English teacher scares me to death” in Week One to “I love, love, love my English teacher” and “I really look forward to school” in Week Two. Then she hit Week Three in which her teachers began to assign homework and set deadlines. Story Time on Thursday evening had a decidedly negative, grumpy tone to it.

I can identify with the emotions she is experiencing and am currently in a very low Low. By the time I got home from work on Friday evening, I felt like I’d have to look up to see the belly of an ant.

I’ve got so much homework that if feels like I’m barely keeping my head above the water. None of it is particularly hard at this point, but it’s all busy work and so time consuming, a commodity I don’t have an abundance of.

I’ve got a German test on Monday morning, which has great potential for being a disaster due to indefinite articles and gender. I’ve pretty well been skating along in that class and not been giving it the attention that I need to because it wasn’t as demanding as some other classes. Now it’s catching up with me.

My car has a new quirk that is getting worse. It does a lurch-y kind of thing. This would be in addition to the occasional transmission-going-on-vacation problem that the mechanic tells me isn’t a transmission problem, as well as other small quirks that thus far haven’t really affected the car getting me places. I really don’t have time to fix it, but then again, I don’t have time not to fix it.

The grass won’t quit growing, and I don’t have time to mow it now.

For once, I’m having somewhat of a hard time keeping up with stuff at work.

I’m not getting any more sleep than I was during my previous semesters. As a matter of fact, I think I’m getting less. Every once in a while we don’t have algebra class on Friday mornings, but if I want to park anywhere in the vicinity of the university, I have to arrive at the normal time. I was so exhausted on Friday morning that I just put my seat back and slept for an hour and a half in the parking lot before going to German class.

And to top it all off, I’ve come down with a throat-hurtin’, fever-inducin’, nose-stuffin’, eye-waterin’, body-wrackin’ cough/cold. When I got home on Friday evening, I was so cold that I put on a sweatshirt, turned on the electric blanket, and climbed into bed with my German book and papers and tried to study, in spite of my desire to sleep. An hour or so later, I got so hot that the sweatshirt had to go and I couldn’t take the electric blanket anymore. I woke up this morning hot and sweaty with a headache that felt like I’d burst a blood vessel if I coughed one more time.

Yeah, I’ve been feeling very blue and gripe-y. But surely there’s something positive in all this. You know, Pollyanna, silver linings, and all. This is what I’ve come up with:

Too much homework: At least I’ve got homework. I could not be enrolled in school, working two/three/four jobs at once, and bored with life in general (been there, done that, tired of it).

German test on Monday: I’ve done some studying over the weekend. I’m feeling *a little* better about it. Praying for Jesus to help my memory come test time.

Quirky car: I could be Amish and not have a car. So far it hasn’t failed me on my way to class.

Growing grass: The grass isn’t so tall that the City Ordinance Officer will fine me for not cutting it this week.

Difficulty keeping up at work: I can put in some extra time after business hours and get more time in than if I went home right at 5:00.

Getting less sleep: Hmmm, tough one. Oh, I haven’t overslept more than ten minutes…yet.

Cold/Cough: Really tough one. Well, I can still breathe, albeit through my mouth part of the time.

There you have it. Just call me Pollyanna. Or Ann-with-an-E.