updates: by category

professional: halfway there! the biggest conference in terms of professional development is coming up this week. it will be all about the logistics and non-teaching related items of interest, such as getting hired, getting registered with governing bodies (college, federations, boards, etc), and getting a taste for the variety of opportunities available (private, remote areas, abroad, religious, language immersion). it's going to be a lot to absorb and i am already coasting through all this with about 45% of the usable portion of my brain.

physical: i finally bit the winter sickness bug a week or two ago, with minor symptoms of phlegm and snot and cough. it put a real damper on my winter ice cream eating. however, compared to the last time i got sick in May, this one was easy, breezy because it didn't really slow me down -- except to blow my nose. played floor hockey for the first time in so very many years this past friday and i discovered a great deal: a) my muscles getting creaky from lack of use; b) i need to learn to stretch more effectively; c) i'm not the bad passer that i thought i was; d) if i actually train seriously, i could be really good.

mental: due to lack of practice, sudokus and crosswords are taking far longer and i'm making far more errors than before. i do not despair, however, as i know my mind is being applied elsewhere (try thinking cosmological astrophysics and the finer points of grammar at the same time). connection building is still fairly sharp, but memory is hitting a ceiling.

spiritual: i am having difficulty motivating myself to read the Bible. is it because i feel like i've already read it all before? i think it's because too much is in my head and not enough is in my heart (where it counts). it is so hard to develop and refine habits when you are in a transition period. good habits, diligence, discipline, get you through the dry spells. prayer feels like i'm just talking to myself.

personal: last week, i thought to myself, "wow, i am so emotionally vulnerable right now i would hit on a tree stump if it looked at me." i'm not even attracted to trees stumps (this is not a metaphor). i'm pretty sure i've been very emotionally promiscuous because i feel the need to give that kind of attention, but have no one to give to (properly). in other words, i could be interpreted as being interested when i'm sort of not. i say "sort of not" because there are days when i sort of am -- hence the tree stump statement. BLARGH.