Apres L'Ad Astra

Ad Astra 2006 = an actually pretty fun weekend, surprisingly. Yes, I was yet once more scheduled to read on Sunday, and only two people showed up; that’s not going to happen ever again. OTOH, they both seemed to enjoy it, and one of them suggested seriously that I begin to podcast/record CDs of my stuff, which seems doable, since my Mom has an iPod with a microphone. We hung with lots of people that we know, drank much too much but suffered few ill effects, only had to tote Cal around with us on the aforementioned Sunday—and on a purely solipsistic note, there were several different conversations with professional contacts which began: "Gemma Files, don’t you know what a great writer you are? Don’t you know you should be getting published all the time? What are you doing to make this so, exactly?" So that was nice, not to mention inspiring.

In other news, my period began (which explains a lot), and I had cause to reflect on the psychologically healing power of consistent exercise after a little episode I’m not going to get into in any great detail. It was something that could easily have plunged me into a storm of either rage or depression, not least because it’s always sad to realize there’s yet another thing you have to watch yourself around/about, in a world that’s already far too complicated for anybody’s good. But when you break stuff like this down to its lowest common elements, it’s all about ego, which I always have the option of either being controlled by or controlling; to allow the former would be ridiculous, as well as sort of pathetic—and luckily, these days, I can always go work it off rather than participate, which is what I did. Problem solved, at least from my end.

Now I’m trying to put my crap in order for next week, when the new semester begins. The schedule is already pretty choice:

Monday
10:00 AM TP-119 R
Break (Half-hour)
12:30 PM TP-133 H
2:30 PM TP-133 C
4:30 PM TP-133 G


Wednesday
8:00 AM TP-122 Q
10:00 AM TP-122 R
12:00 PM TP-133 A
Break (one hour)
3:00 PM TP-133 D
5:00 PM TP-133 E


Friday
9:00 AM TP-133 B
11:00 AM TP-122 S
Break (Half-hour)
1:30 PM TP-119 S


Man, I hate days when you have to either A) work from dawn ‘til after dusk or B) have one half-hour break for the entire time. Still, I suppose it beats the six-hour, three-class, no-break special that last semester’s Friday was, if nothing else.

So there we go, back to the grindstone. Today I get my teeth cleaned and shop for pants. Tomorrow, I turn 38. Resolutions for the upcoming year: Work out, remember who I am, produce; love my son, my husband, my friends, myself. Don’t let whoever grind me down. Don’t let me get me. Because while I’m hardly better than everybody else, I’m a lot damn better than nothing/that.