Posted in SIDES

Literary Soup

I take English Lit 12 through SIDES, our local distance education school. It is a very exciting course…I had been looking forward to taking Lit 12 at GNS with one of my favorite teachers since grade 9. He read for us passages from Chaucers’ “Canterbury Tales” in the traditional old English, and “Beowulf” in the Anglo-Saxon tongue. I was inspired and enthralled that something someone hundreds of years ago had spoken and written had survived, and that I could still connect to the characters, and laugh at the follies of the pilgrimages and their fascinating glimpse of 14th century life, and cry on the beach as Beowulf lay, dying, but triumphant against his last fire-breathing foe. I had been hooked on reading ever since I got past the first big hurdle of actually learning to read. I was against the idea, determined to never read, but instead work at a gas station or McDonalds. Times have changed.

I am currently working my way through the “Canterbury Tales”, which I spent the greater part of today working on. I have a wonderful audio-book version of the poem, which saves me the headache of wading through the soup of old-English’s abundance of odd vowels and consonants, whose sound has evolved over the years.
To complete a ‘literary-ily’ perfect day, I scored big points with the rare word qiviut, coming to us from the Inuktitut word ᕿᕕᐅᖅ. I feel like such a fibre nerd. I am slowly picking up drops of energy, but am trying to rest up for whatever excitements of life await me this week!

Qiviut: the wool of the musk-ox

Stitch With It

I have had, like, the most productive day of life today. For the past week, I have been diligently knitting a sweater, just a basic Stockinette stitch pull-over, but today finally came to terms with the fact that my size ‘medium’ sweater had somehow morphed into a 1x Large. Not cool. The middle was going to be about double the size. So, having almost finished the back of the sweater, I took it ALL OUT! Thats right, all of those rows!! 97 stitches PER ROW. It took me 23 minutes…I made a video so in case I come to my senses later, I can only blame myself, and have proof.

The sweater was/will-be-again a color LionBrand calls ‘Violet’, but which is no where near close. I would call it a deep, periwinkle blue-y-purple-y color, a name fit for Crayola.

I can barely feel my hands, they are so tired from pulling out yarn. I am still grieving over my exsweater.  It  is/was a project I was working on for my Textiles course through SIDES. We (Lisa, my EA and I) just finished making a fuzzy felted pillow! It is beautiful! Next we are going to work on a skirt…I think it will be just beautiful!

One Hundred and One’th

This is the big “101” post.

Wow. I’ve had over a 101 things to say about this. Its sort of daunting thinking about all those free-written words that I don’t remember. Its strange: I had things so say…I said them, but I have no idea what I said. It is a twisted feeling. I recognize my style and word choice, yet its like someones play a trick on me, taking my words and warping them into phrases and prose.
And its no where near the beginning of April.
My mind wanders today. A butterfly, my thoughts jump from flower to prickly shrubs, to Dogwood blossoms, and Venus Flytraps. Each thought zaps me with a painful pinch as I consider the past. I try not to. I must remember that now is the time that is worth the time. I must dedicate now to the rest of my life.
Why isn’t anything easy?
I met with Elaine and my teacher, Sally, at SIDES (a distance education program!). I also read my Lyme speech to my teacher which was fun!! We also sort of put together an IEP for me (individualized education program), which will help the other teachers help me by knowing what I need. Of course having no memory is a little snag I’ve been trying to get over, but I will share with you now my secret.
I’ve spent nearly all of my life in school, so don’t think that I am going to miss the end of it now. So close to the finish line, do you quit? No! You put on an extra burst of speed and cross the line. I am going to graduate….I only need a few more courses. I will graduate, and then, proud as punch, walk across the stage to receive my diploma. This is “THE PLAN”. A dream, really, but does it matter?
I met an incredible girl, Sara Marie, who is like my ‘Lyme Twin’. Seriously, its creeping me out. We have almost identical symptoms, and of course she understand completely about the complex issues that, quite frankly, no matter your education or ‘case studies’, you cannot conceive. The truth is in our pain, and it is very bonding! I’m so lucky to know her. Hopefully we will get better together. Under my ‘links’ section, there is a link to her blog. Please check it out! Spread the Word. Pass it ON!

Almost There

I am so tired today. The kind of tired that makes you want to curl up in a small ball at the end of your bed, and blissfully float through nothing. A fog that clouds your mind. A sound that fills you and leaves no room for energy. Have you felt this sort of tired? How do you lift the mist, see clearly through the fog with no light?

I did my Spanish exam today…I’m finished the course! And very pleased to say so. Didn’t do to badly either, even for someone with half a brain… I’m proud of my self for finishing something, for having something to show for this time here…Its frustrating to have so much time, and no energy to do anything with it. I believe the term is listless…

We’re going home on the 30th. I can’t believe it. A part of my didn’t actually think I’d be coming home. Its strange, to be finally so close to what I’ve wanted for a whole year…it doesn’t seem fair that I will have no anticipation of the moment, that because I don’t remember it will be like every other day today.

I don’t trust to hope that home will be the same. I want to be able to step back into my old life, like a portal opening up from this time to the past. I want to step right through it and pick up the pieces as though no time has past.
But the catch is that so time has past for you, and no time has past for me.

How do you spell ‘school’ again?

Today is a very exciting day. I signed up for SIDES (South Island Distance Education System) Spanish Program, and not grade 10 cause I actually finished that one (thank you very much!), but Spanish 11!! I hope I will be able to do some of the real work! I finished the preliminary assignment today which was very exciting. I was just 20 questions but still…I was proud to be doing some work at all. It took me all day to do but I did it, that’s the part to remember (or forget in my case). I still have to get my text books and stuff but still, I’m on my way!

We are having green curry for dinner and I am so freaking excited. Its my favorite Thai dish, or I should say one of my many favorite dishes.