Pets, work, gardens, plans.

I realize that I am absolutely rubbish about posting anything substantive when things are going well, which is silly, given that the original point of this blog was to reassure my friends and family that things were going well.  I suppose that life in the UK has become so second-nature to me by now that it doesn’t seem like it would be terribly interesting to those elsewhere.  ::shrug::

Anyway, as you may have gathered from the lack of substantive posts lately, things are going very well.  Now that I’ve recovered 98% of my mobility after my marathon silliness (though I’m still dealing with horrible, acidic stomachness from the anti-inflammatory pills I’m on for another two weeks), it’s pretty much all systems go.

Angus and I have been taking care of a friend’s dog and cat for the last two weeks, while he’s out of the country.  Jodie, the dog, is one of the sweetest creatures I’ve ever run across, and has the added bonus of being exceptionally well-trained!  She’s a rescue dog of the “mongrel” sort, but apart from needing to be introduced to men she doesn’t know and a hesitancy regarding any other dogs, she doesn’t show any rescue dog neuroses.  We want pets even more badly now, despite Giuseppe the cat’s blood-thirstiness.

Work is going well for me, I think.  As you may have read previously, I’ve had my first grant application response.  They accepted our application, which makes me feel a little better about what I’m doing.  Now, if I could just get a little more direction from the Board (which was how things were supposed to be in the first place), I’d feel even better.  Still, all of this is a good introduction to working in small non-profits, and gives me things to remember – both positive and negative – about the experience.

The garden is springing up nicely, an activity that I hope the current cold snap won’t hinder.  The poppy has three enormous flower buds on it.  In fact, everything on the right-hand side of the trellis is going great guns.  I couldn’t understand this for a long while – the right-hand side gets less sun, is generally marshier, etc.  I think I’ve finally figured it out, though, in a “duh” moment.  The left-hand side of the back yard is where we dumped all the rubble and crud during the housework.  I think, therefore, that the ground all along the left-hand side is in worse shape than the right. 

I felt very much a member of British society when I found myself in queue at B&Q, clutching my seed packets and starter trays and potting soil, right behind everyone else, all clutching variations on the same thing.  The Brits as a whole are potty (ha ha!) about gardening, and that’s as it should be.  After all, they are blessed – generally – with an absolutely wonderful gardening climate!  I’ve found myself, in the last few months, daydreaming about having an allotment plot (or joining a community garden in Boston) and growing my own vegetables.  I have reluctantly decided that I really shouldn’t try to take that on while I’m at school, but at the very least I plan to have some potted plants in my room.  Not the same, but I can’t do without a few plants!

Angus continues to take (and shine at) swing dance lessons.  I’m really enjoying getting to dance with him – weekly, after his lessons, so that he can show me the new steps they learned that week, and monthly, at the various dances in the area.  :-)  My “extracurricular” activities have expanded to include drawing (when I can or feel like it), and I’m pretty happy with the way I’m getting on.  I’m trying to carry around a sketchpad and markers with me at all times, just in case I find myself with a spare few minutes and feel like sketching, but since I also already carry around a book with me at all time, my purse is starting to dislocate my shoulder.

I’m getting quite nervous about money for grad school, and it doesn’t help that I don’t know what sort of loan package Tufts will be offering me.  Until I know how much they give me, I can’t start applying for loans to cover cost of living, which I have been warned are (not surprisingly) very difficult to procure just now.  I will be getting a job when I get to Boston, but I don’t want to have to count on a job to cover all my costs of living, when what I really need to focus on is getting the most for my money, school-wise.  I know it will all work out, but right now I’m stuck in the limbo of not knowing, not having a plan, and that is never a place where I’m comfortable. 

I’m also getting increasingly sadder at the thought of being separated from Angus… again.  I know that I’ve chosen to do this, and I know that we’ve done it before, and I know that I don’t have to worry about the stability of our relationship while I’m gone.  None of that makes me any happier with the thought of not being able to curl up to sleep with him, or not being able to joke around and be silly with him any time I want.  And somehow, the end of August seems so VERY near.  But, at the same time, I remember that it has already been 10 months since we left for Africa, and that it’s already been a full month since my birthday, and two and a half years since I moved to the UK, and all of those periods of time have flown by so quickly that I can hardly believe it.  So too, presumably, will fly the time in Boston.

So much to do, so little time…