Fall Break

Today is only day one of Fall break, but it is here regardless. Naturally I have to work. I genuinely thought yesterday that I would be calling in sick today. I had a doctor's appointment, where they informed me I was running a fever. Which made sense being as how I had been feeling weary and grumpy all day. So I went home, and between bouts of nausea, took some time to rest on my couch. Curled up in a blanket with a pot of tea and "Anna Karenin", which I'm finally starting to read, I wound up taking a much needed nap. This morning I feel fine, inchallah, but cautious.

I have no doubt that the culmination of mid-terms this week, with outside stressors of things  like a greatly reduced bank account due to my car's break down and consequent mechanic's visit following a 3-block tow, bills bills everywhere, fighting with the worst dog sitting clients ever, who decided they don't want to pay me the second 2/3s of my payment which was forthcoming after they returned, because the house looked "a little messy". Tell me - how does a pre-existing pigsty look "a little messy"? All this.

All this. All this is the reason for my fever and my jawline acne. (30 Rock quote for the unsophisticated).  The two tests on Monday which I had in French and Arabic went satisfactorily, but I didn't get quite as high of grades as I'd have hoped.  The US and the Middle East (history) test on Wednesday gave me gray hairs and an ulcer, I'm quite sure of it, however I'm pretty sure I rocked that test. The Politics of Oil take home exam, well, I enjoy any opportunity to dazzle an instructor with essay style writing, throwing outside sources, exceptional citing, and numbers at him with classy array. However I don't know if that is what he wants. We'll see!

Skip ahead a few days - this is now the last day of Fall Break. Tuesday. This fall break I was going to:
1) clean my apartment into submission
2) rest
3) do a ton of French review and homework
4) memorize a pile of Arabic vocab
5) accomplish great things in the name of my MEIS job
6) walk in Cherokee Park under the rapidly changing trees
7) enjoy some, as I see it, well deserved respite.

INSTEAD, because one team member got sick, and another got fired, all last week, I worked my entire fall break (I volunteered - this is true, but it was begrudgingly, and I made that clear). No doubt my pocketbook will thank me, and my boss DOES thank me, but my increasingly messy apartment, and my increasingly duressed  state of mind do not. I was really looking forward to those two days off, after working Saturday and Sunday.

Oh well. This is life.