It’s officially Official. The summer exam timetable is out, and I will be finishing my Masters degree at 5.30pm on the 13th of February 🙂 Whoohoo! Wish me luck…
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Flipping a Coin
Reverse psychology is a funny ol’ thing, isn’t it?! Let me ‘splain. I received a job-offer yesterday. It caught me completely off guard actually. I went to have a lecturer of mine sign some paperwork associated with a big administrative nightmare I’ve been undergoing at Uni this last couple of months. And she offered me a sessional teaching position for Semester 2 this year – Head Tutor for Usability Engineering 😮
Last time I took a position it was also for this lecturer. Evidently she has a lot of faith in me. Faith that I’m not sure I have myself, but hey. I tutored in Java for a semester, and it was a valuable experience for me to have.
But let’s recap. Baby – due June 20. Semester 2 – starting July 24. Hmmm… seriously short interval there, doncha think?!
Anyway, because I was taken by surprise, and also quite flattered by the offer, I didn’t say NO immediately, even though that was my initial reaction. Then, after I told a couple of people, their reactions of “Ooh, that’s a bit soon, don’t you think?” started making me examine the possibility and thinking perhaps it might be doable after all.
The driving concern behind that thinking is that I worry I will have a gaping hole in my CV between graduating Masters and a possible return to the workforce. And if I don’t return to the workforce, then what was the point of the Masters in the first place? I’ve always had some difficulty with being ‘just’ a stay-at-home-Mum, even though I know it’s such a valuable gift to give to my children.
Ok… moving on. Looking for some additional feedback to help me decide, I posted on the Wagon BB that I was thinking of saying yes, and did everyone think I was crazy? Well, apparently no-one thought I was crazy to think of taking this on when I will still be counting weeks since the birth on one hand.
Which is the point at which I made up my mind to in fact turn down the offer. See… reverse psychology! Or something. I compared it to that magical way of making a decision – flip a coin, see what the answer is, and if you don’t like the answer then you’ll know what you wanted all along :giggle:
I started remembering those early weeks. Though I recovered quite quickly from my caesarean, the sleep deprivation kicked me for six. And Finn was a relatively good sleeper. What if Small is a rotten sleeper? Or I have a second caesar from which I don’t recover quite so quickly?
I’ve been pretty much stressed out for most of Finn’s life while I’ve been completing this degree – remember this post? I owe it to Finn, to OtherHalf, to Small, and most of all to ME, to take it easy for a while. If and when I decide to start my next career, I’ll just have to struggle with ‘the gap’ and finding the right job when I get there. And if I don’t… well, my education will still not have been in vain. The enjoyment and self-satisfaction I’ve gained from being back at Uni have been worth the stress and hard work.
Yes really!
Resurfacing
Ahem. Hello! Remember me?
Sorry. I seem to have been in a bit of a blogging-minislump lately. Coinciding with a stitching-minislump, unfortunately. So what have I been doing? Well, sleeping, shopping, studying, and stuffing my face, mainly 😆
New Year’s Eve, aka Finn’s Birthday, was quite something. The hottest NYE since… well, ever! In Melbourne the temperature eventually climbed to 42.9C (that would be 109.2F for some of you). In the part of the state where we were – somewhere north-west of Bendigo, it was somewhere close to 46C (that would be oh, about a million in Fahrenheit terms, I think). I say “somewhere close”, because opinions were varied between those who had thermometers attached to their cars, and we had no other measuring device. Suffice to say, it was Not Good. Much like an oven, really. We managed to summon enough energy to sing Happy Birthday for Finn (He’s THREE… OMG!) during the afternoon at some point, but mostly we just sat around in my Father-in-law’s half-renovated, non-airconditioned house and melted into people-puddles. The point where the power failed and our one little pedestal fan was no longer, that was really, really Not Fun.
At close to sunset (temperature still v.high 30s, at least), we drove up to nearby Melville Caves, where we ate prawns, drank champagne (though neither for me 😥 ), and watched the sun set. Well, kind of. Visibility was a bit poor due to the bushfires raging across the state in Stawell.
We had plans to stay the night with my FIL and drive to Mum’s (about an hour-and-a-half away) in the morning for another mini-party for Finn. But at around 11pm, with one grumpy boy on our hands, temps still in the mid-to-high-30s, little hope of restful sleep, and no shower to be had in the morning, we decided to pack up and drive across the state right there and then. So that is how I came to see in 2006 as the only person awake in the car in the middle of nowhere. (After saying the obligatory “White Rabbits”, I woke OtherHalf to wish him Happy New Year :giggle: )
The change in the weather didn’t come through until mid-afternoon on the 1st, but how blissful when it did. I celebrated by burning the wagon! Yes… that’s right. I SHOPPED FOR STASH! I’m glad I managed to last out the year, but heck, I’m not doing that again :giggle: I headed over to Stitching Bits and Bobs and reduced the size of my wishlist by 8 charts, some beads and sparklies to kit out Mermaids of the Deep Blue, and a few other bits and pieces (or bits and bobs, I guess!) My package should be here any day now, I’ll be sure to take a picture for you!
Christmas and NYE (and shopping) having taken the wind completely out of my sails, I pretty much slept through January 2nd and 3rd… and then I went back to uni on the 4th. Eeeek! I have been immersing myself in the exciting 😐 world of web servers ever since, and that’s what I’ll be doing for the next few weeks, oh joy. After that…… FREEDOM! Free, free, free as a bird! No more studying for me, for at least… err, well, let’s not make any promises we can’t keep now, shall we?!
Anyhoo… here’s a couple of NYE pictures for you. These were taken up at the caves. 1) Happy Birthday Finny Banana! 2) Happy New Year to 3 generations of boys 🙂
Posted in Family, General Ramblings, Postgrad Study, The Kids
Tagged New Year's Eve, study
It’s Still October
In case you’re wondering where I’ve been, just remember this post. I’m just taking a breather while I try and survive the rest of October. Of course, it’s not helping that every time I do have a little bit of time online, I end up thoroughly irritated by some-little-thing-or-other. I just don’t want to blog about that stuff right now. I could blog about uni, but you don’t really need to hear about how dreadfully my exam prep is going, I assure you!
There are other things going on in my life at the moment, too. Good things, mostly. Things that deserve blogtime. The house… and other stuff. Which will come to light at the appropriate time, but not now. Right now, I just need to get through the next four days, and then… sleep and sleep and sleep. Oh, and stitch a little, too – I’m just going to be able to squeak my Redwork exchange into the mail on deadline day, I think.
‘Til I resurface, hope you’re all having fun 🙂 And Laura… mondo congrats on the house-signing 😆
I’m All Grown Up
Happy Birthday Me 🙂
Finn decided I was in fact turning 88 :giggle: So sweet.
I feel that at 30, I should probably feel like an adult. Normally, no, but this week, with pressures from all directions, I think I do. Reached my goal of no grey hairs though!
Because of said pressures, there will be no big celebrations. I’m not a big one for parties even on a good year, but this year it’s just impossible to stop and breathe, let alone party. I’ll be spending this evening writing sql and php, and if I get a chance, a Usability report. Joy :yuk:
However – once the next few weeks are a mere memory, I plan to sit down with my brand new Will & Grace DVDs (Seasons 1 & 2)… and STITCH! That will be sweeeet 😆
…
PS. I decided I was not allowed to be miserable and stressed on my birthday (well, not all day anyway), so Finn and I trundled up the street for coffee and cake. Orange flourless cake, to be precise. Ooooh. My body, having become accustomed to high protein, low fat over the last 3 months, has a little bit to say about that kind of abuse. But heck, it was worth it! Now… I hope Mum doesn’t decide to bring cake over later :giggle:
My Blog Should Be Purple
According to Blogthings. Just in case you were wondering 🙂
And…
“You’re an expressive, offbeat blogger who tends to write about anything and everything. You tend to set blogging trends, and you’re the most likely to write your own meme or survey. You are a bit distant though. Your blog is all about you – not what anyone else has to say.”
Well damn straight. Who else is it going to be about?!
Don’t know about that setting blogging trends bit though. It took me until 2005 to even start this thing, so I’d say I’m pretty far behind in trendset-iness.
I’m not really interested in making my blog purple, so nyah, Blogthings. I have many ideas running through my head for my perpetually delayed template re-jig, not one of them is purple.
Dum de dum…
This post is rather full of good nothing-ness, isn’t it? I need more nothing-ness in my life. I would rather be stitching, but in the 10 minutes I’m taking a study break for, I would get next to nothing done, and would want to stitch for the next 2 hours, instead of slaving away on a Web Databases assignment.
Speaking of stitching, I received goodies yesterday! So happy – Laura sent me a wonderful chart, (which Finn promptly decided I should start stitching for him, but since he deleted a vital chunk of my Usability Engineering assignment on Tuesday, he’s not in line to be demanding anything of the sort :grr: ). Sorry, I digress. It’s Unicorn, by Peter Underhill. Finn does have a point, it would be pretty funky for a boy’s bedroom 😆 Then Mum arrived, and forced new fabric on me! A beautiful bluey-purpley solo from Silkweaver – and a huge piece, too. I’m envisioning a Mirabilia Fairy on it. Can’t wait to stitch again.
Before I disappear, here’s the 5 second update on the Grrr things in my life (in case you care):
- ~ Auto-pinging: I think not working. Let’s see how it goes this time. Will manually ping if necessary. Update: nope, it IS working. Yippee!
~ Car: fully repaired as of today – ask me again on Sunday! 😛
~ Washing Machine: not working, but problem finally diagnosed.
~ Washing Machine Company: won’t replace, will repair.
~ Stupid motorist who hit my car and denied it: Hmmm, I actually don’t know. Must find out what’s going on with that. I’m kind of curious to know what story she’s going to come up with :giggle:
Comments Off on My Blog Should Be Purple
Posted in Blog Blather, Counted Stitchwork, General Ramblings, Postgrad Study
Tagged car accident, cross-stitch, study, washing machine
Smash Magnet
Sooo…
You’re gonna love this!
Five hours after I wrote that last post?
My brother-in-law backed into my car.
My newly repaired car, not four days after picking it up from the repairer.
:grr: :grr: :grr:
I’m able to smile (wanly) about it now. At the time, I had a minor breakdown in the bathroom. Stupid, really. All the things that are going on in my life are so infinitesimally small… it’s just that cumulative effect thing taking a hold.
In better news, the exam timetable for this semester came out today. I know, that doesn’t sound much like a good thing. And in fact, it is a little scary, my two exams are within two days of each other. The good bit is that my exams are earlier this semester, so I get it over and done with. Last semester I had three weeks of twiddling my thumbs er… I mean studying, before the exams. This time, I’ll be done on the 29th of October, so I’ll have two entire months off before my final unit in January. Yay!
No Grey Hairs Yet!
At the beginning of this year, I decided I wanted two things on my 30th birthday. To not have any grey hairs, and to have purchased our first house. The big Three-Oh is now two months away.
I’m holding strong on achieving #1 – none to be spied :giggle: And #2 was fulfilled today, hooray! In fact we will settle on the house 6 days after my birthday. I’m so happy that hunting is over. I plan never to look in a real estate agent’s window or website again… until the next time 😆
October is going to be quite the month for me in fact. The 11th is Happy Birthday Mel, the 13th is the deadline for my major assignment in Usability Eng, the 15th is the rollout for our major assignment in Web Database Applications, and the 17th is the settlement. I am scared… very scared. We will probably have an extra week or so tenancy in our current place, so moving can be stretched out a bit, but still…
Our house (our house…. teehee!) is nothing super-special. It will need sprucing up over time, but is perfectly liveable as is. It’s 3-bedrooms, has heating and cooling (big bonus!), and good sized front and back yards (better bonus!) I can’t wait 😎
I’m here, honest
I’ve just been taking a bit of a break from the web for a little bit, induced mainly by the fact that we’ve been all over the state in the last week (didn’t quite make it into South Australia as planned, more on that later). I have had web access on most nights, and have been checking in occasionally with my regular haunts, but I’ve felt no inclination/no time to blog or post to groups. I think it was long overdue for me to take a web-break, really.
But I got some brilliant news yesterday that I just have to share. The semester from hell is not only over, but it seems I came through with the goods despite the horror. Marks were out Friday, I finally logged on and got them yesterday – 92 for Secure E-Commerce, and 90 for Intelligent Web Systems (which means I must have aced the exam, since I was on about 82 average for the assignments). Go me!
Will be back tomorrow with an updated pic of WFS. She’s gorgeous – all stitching (except a little bit of braid and backstitching that I might do tonight) is finished, only the beads after that. I can almost taste a HD!
Stash of a Different Variety
Aaaah… feeling better today. I went into the city, ostensibly to study at uni, but I got up to some retail therapy as well (forget now everything I said about saving money the other day 😆 ). Prompted by my answer to the gift certificate question on The Wagon, and encouraged by OtherHalf, I went to Lush. I bought:
- Dreamtime ~ for tomorrow night 🙂
- Double Bubble ~ for sometime when I feel like being… pink and glittery!
- Black Magic ~ clary sage, geranium, ylang ylang… yum! I think I could become addicted to their massage bars yes-indeedy
- Little Monkey ~ for Finn. He had some in his bath tonight. It turns the water a disconcerting shade of yellow 😯 but it smells great
plus I was given a sample of:
- Demon in the Dark ~ which smells glorious (big mint fan here), and I think I’ll shower with it pre-exam tomorrow, to give me the edge 😆
But wait, there’s more. I recently (like in the last 24 hours) discovered that there’s a new Borders open in the CBD… just across the road from uni. Well, we all know where I’ll be spending my ‘study time’ now, don’t we! I popped in there – it’s a bit smaller than the other two Melbourne stores, but still a great sized book shop. I picked up
Hmmm… seems Finn scored more today than I did! Never mind. I had fun. Notice how all those books are about Wild, Energetic, Loud young children? I wonder if there’s something in that? :giggle: