All Good Things

The Meadows, now spring

The Internet has been so patchy in the flat lately, there's been little opportunity to write.  But even if it had been working well, the last two weeks have been a dithering frenzy where I've hardly lifted my head out of the sand to see what day of the week it was.  All culmination of hopes and fears wrapped themselves up in Wednesday.

On Wednesday I had to turn in a rough draft of my nine-month review, and not only that, but present it to an academic audience.  I had worked, hard and diligently, but it had not congealed.  After prayers and tears, it fell into place on Tuesday evening for a glorious, yet exhausting, Wednesday. 

My meeting with my advisor went as well they can. She liked my conclusions, the work I'd done so far, paper ideas that I had, and my outline for my future progression.  Relief! That evening I presented that very paper to MEMSA (which sounds like MENSA which I am okay with) and it went down well. I talked through the first half of my paper, and read off the last bits.  I managed to survive the questions, though by the end was still a shaky, sweaty, blathering mess.  I'm not sure why this happens as I'm not afraid to speak publicly in any mental capacity. Perhaps it's my body's way of coping?? Thankfully there were many friendly faces in the crowd. 

For the past few months, I've stressed and worried about housing.  I felt directed by the Lord to simply "wait upon him" and within the same day, had a text from a friend, asking if I'd like to be their third in a flat.  Close to campus, not in a bad area (this Durham is dodgy too!), recently renovated-- new EVERYTHING, living room with comfy sofas, a wee garden-patio duo, and most importantly, a room of one's own. I'll even graduate to a 3/4 length bed in this flat, and after sleeping in a single for the past... gosh, 15 years, this will seem a wilderness. More importantly, the flat is pet-friendly and the landlord seems a-okay for Indy and Felix to join the crew. 

Today I want American things. I am wearing flannel, jeans, and boots, everything I own by LL Bean.  I want to read something American. I'm thinking a bit of Flannery O'Connor or Eudora Welty. Whitman if I can find him. I will troll Tills, as when I looked at my bookshelf, I was shocked to only find Edith Wharton among the American crew.  It's patchily sunny today. I think I will go to the garden and read with the bunnies. 

The weather has been freezing at night, with the days, while longer, not so warm.  I'm grateful for the long days. I drink them in. In a week's time I'll be going home to the States to see my family. I feel like I've passed a major hurdle, and the realization I'm not going to die has not yet worn off for any of these wonderful things to sink in. So I'm off to the back yard for even if these good things don't, at least, I hope, the sunshine will.