Saturday, March 17, 2012

March 17th already!



St. Patrick's Day today and a chance to have a 'wee' breather. Had planned a lie-in but seem to have got so used to getting up before seven that my body decided that sleeping until 8 o'clock was plenty.

The past ten days or so have been really eventful. For once, I've been doing lots of things that don't involve study. So much for planning to get stuck into studying at the beginning of the month.

Last weekend was 'Itzacon' - the annual convention for the NUIG Fantasy and Sci-fi society (Fansci). It has to go down as the best weekend I've spent on campus so far. I helped out as staff for the event, particularly on Sunday when the fairytale theme meant I transformed into the village witch for the whole day. Some might say I didn't need to change much but I did get to wear my beautiful hooded cloak and cackle a lot.

As soon as convention was over at 6pm, it was time to get cracking on the project for the week. I was persuaded to throw my hat in the ring for the part-time Students' Union elections as Mature Student Officer. It was tempting to add a crossed out 'IM' in front of the title on my posters but I managed to resist that one! Polling was on Thursday so that meant spending all week plastering every noticeboard with campaign literature; handing out flyers here, there and everywhere and going into large lecture halls to do what are called "shout outs". Thankfully I had the help of some wonderful people and yesterday, all our hard work paid off when I won a large majority of the vote. I am so grateful for all the support and kindness shown to me this week - college life is rewarding in so many different ways. I was actually moved to tears on polling day when one dear, darling girl persuaded me to take a break and forced a chocolate eclair on me to get my sugar levels up!

Somehow or other I actually managed to stay on top of my reading and only missed two lectures all week! Have to get organised today and sort out the house, laundry and emails before heading out for some St Patrick's Day fun and games. Guess I need 24 hours of 'something completely different' because procrastination time is definitely over now. Have to get assignments done and then prepare for the exams in May.

Happy St. Patrick's Day!

Saturday, March 3, 2012

So many books...so little time.

Saturday is here again and, after what felt like a fortnight's work rolled into one week, had planned something completely different for today. We had a few days of beautiful, dry spring weather so getting outdoors after being cooped up studying was in order. So much for plans. Instead of cutting the grass and pottering in the garden, back comes the rain! It was too much to hope that winter was gone. We have hail and sleet forecast for the next few days.

Oh well, indoor pottering will have to be the order of the day. Have the house to myself for a few hours so can catch up on cleaning and listen to some music. Once the place is looking nice and tidy, it may tempt me to curl up on the couch and get some reading done. I've been too exhausted lately to do anything in the way of work after getting home in the evenings and, although I never seem to stop working, a small backlog is building up again. So many books...so little time.

With less than a month to go before lectures finish, the exams will be on top of me in no time. The garden will have to wait. There's a little matter of a high bar to be cleared again. It's head down and work constantly from now on...after the rugby tomorrow of course!