On early mornings and busy weeks

I woke up much too early today with a sore throat. I wish I could stay home, but I went by work with the Puppy to have a beer after having come back from my parents' house looking distinctly un-ill, so they wouldn't buy that it was for real. Ah well, Mondays aren't that bad anyway. If this keeps up, I'll take Wednesday or whatever other bullshit day of the week off. No worries.

It feels pretty good waking up early. This way I can compensate for going out drinking yesterday instead of studying. It was really nice - since I work with people who drink every day and tend to be much too tired on the weekends to even want to go out then, I don't drink all that often, and just talking shit with the Puppy was really relaxing. I was pretty tired after hanging out with my parents, my sister-in-law and my niece, even though it was a slow weekend. There were some weight-related concerns raised, as dad went to poke my side and jabbed straight into a rib, but they seem to get that it's not intentional and instead tried to think of creative ways for me to eat more at work.

There are only four more assignments to do on my TEFL course and twelve days to do it. It'll get done, but I'm still feeling a bit of stress. I want them to turn out as good as possible to get a good final score and review, so I pressure myself even if I know I can hammer them out quickly enough. The lesson planning is what takes the most time - trying to make them fun and informative at once is pretty hard work. I'll be pretty happy once I get done with all of it. There'll be such a weight off my chest and so much more free time to just do whatever with once all of this is done. Unfortunately it's totally crashing my sewing this week. I'll just need to balance it out and things will be okay. Less sleep this week maybe. I'm going to try to keep social engagements to a minimum again as well. Being on my own was so restful.

I kinda miss summer. I was watching The Walking Dead earlier today and during a scene while they were out walking on a gravel road, it was like I could smell all those summer smells and taste the dusty air. I was so low all summer that I feel like I missed it and stayed stuck inside my head instead of out in the grass. Now November's here, and winter's just around the corner. Days are short and cold, and all I can really do right now is put my hope towards spring, with all that it entails. Spring is always heralded as some sort of rebirth, and while I personally haven't really latched on to that notion before, I feel like it might be time to do so now. If everything goes the way I'm hoping it will, spring really will bring a fresh start for me. It'll be a new life, kinda like a phoenix rising (however amazingly corny that sounds).