Influenza sucks. It's not just the nasty symptoms and feeling like you've been run over by a bus but after you're over it, it takes forever to get your strength back. I've been on my feet for only an hour loading the dishwasher and washing machine and carrying two very light bags of trash out to the dumpster and I feel like I've just run the New York Marathon.

So I'm propped up against my pillows again (on clean linens at last!) checking email and my usual haunts online. I had hoped to be able to get my back homework in Latin and Statistics done but I can't concentrate on the translations and procedures. I have missed so many days due to injury and illness since September began that there's no way I can catch up so tomorrow I'm going to let my profs know that I'm dropping the classes and I'll start over in January. I'll take the intermediate Latin next fall when it's offered next and in the meantime, I'll just work on it on my own. I have the texts already and I'll do a section each day. In January I'll sign up for a general Classics course and biology.

Yesterday, three horse racing novels that I ordered from Amazon.uk arrived that I finally found after over ten years of looking after my copies that I brought in 1989 went missing. So I think that I'll start re-reading the first of the series and let my heart rate come back down.

I hope that it won't take too long ot get my strength back to normal. I have too many things to get done before the middle of November. And I have to clean the house and get way too many bags of clothes and stuff over to Goodwill.

What's scary is that this is a thousand times better than I felt last Monday and Tuesday. Well, it can only improve, right?

Where it always does, I suppose. Between work and classes and a busy birthday week  (my Darling Man turned 50 on Tuesday and we were celebrating from Friday night through Wednesday) I suppose I should have expected it.

The weather is cool and damp, and it's been raining off and on all day. Some people are bothered by it but I don't mind it. There's something truly peaceful about sitting on the couch listening to the rain falling on the gradually turning leaves of the maple and walnut trees that surround the house as I either read or knit. Yes, autumn is officially here. I've gotten my knitting supplies out of storage and am working on a scarf for my Darling Man. Once that is done I'll be making scarves, hats, and mittens for one of the local children's charities. I have leftovers of lots of different colors of yarn from other projects that I can use for the purpose so my cupboard will hopefully be emptied out so I can put the fabric I have gotten from the sale tables away. IT's mostly summer weight stuff that I won't be able to use till next year.

I'm looking for a source for 100% cashmere black fabric in suiting weight and winter coat weight that I don't have to buy in 100 metre bolts. So far the search is rather frustrating. There are a lot of vendors that advertise their fabric as pure cashmere but the small (infintismally tiny) print disclosesthat it is a blend of wool and cashmere or wool, viscose and cashmere. I really want to make a suit with a skirt, trousers, jacket and waistcoat and an ankle length winter coat with a silk lining so that they will fit me exactly right. Nothing I've found in the stores fit because I'm very shortwaisted with long legs. So the waist of the coat, jacket and waistcoat is always too low and the trouser legs are too short. I have drafted my patterns and made the muslins but can't start sewing the real thing until I get the fabric. It's rather frustrating since I am in a mood to make stuff.

I'm also looking for white silk broadcloth to make a couple of shirts from. I've discovered a pattern that I can easily adjust for my bosom and my narrow back. I think I have a figure that would suit the Regency or early Victorian styles better than the ones' popular today. If I can ever get the material and make the complete suit, coat and shirt collection I'll have my picture taken wearing them and post them on my photobucket account. I'll definitely scan the drawings of the designs and get them on photobucket soon.

Well, I've babbled on long enough for today. I hope everyone has a good weekend and starts the upcoming week full of energy and joy.

It feels as though Labor Day was just a few days ago and now I'm already staring midterms in the face.

September is one of my favourite months. For me it is the month of new beginnings, which comes from always looking forwards to the beginning of a new school year with new friends, new books to read, and of course new things to learn. Most people make New Year's resolutions; I make September resolutions.

This year's resolution was to take advantage of the benefit of 8 credit hours of free tuition that I get from the university I work for every quarter and to take two classes instead of just one each term. Well, so far I'm living up to it by taking both Intermediate Latin 1 and Descriptive Statistics. They just came up with the winter term course list and I'll be taking General Biology I and Intermediate Latin 2. Spring is going to follow up with General Biology 2 and the first of my 300 level Latin courses.

My other resolution is to change my eating habits. I'm going to go away from processed foods and eat fresh or fresh-frozen foods instead. I've discovered, the hard way, that I'm allergic to MSG (to the point of a type IV anaphyllactic [sic] reaction and since the stuff is disguised under so many different names in the ingredients lists on packaging, I'm going to start making my own stocks, soups and so forth. I have a garden for the first time in many years and am already planning for what is going to be planted next spring. The change in the weather to cooler temperatures is also helping the second resolution because it makes me want to spend time in the kitchen cooking and baking. In fact, tonight I'll be making bread; classic French bread and a loaf of sweet raisin and cinnamon bread.

It's hard to believe that at age 48 I'm finally getting to fulfill a longtime dream; finishing my Bachelor's degree. In fact, once I have my Bachelor of Arts in Classical Humanities I'm going to go on and work on my Master's degree. At this point in time I'm waffling between English and History for that. And then, if I'm still alive I'm going to try to get a Ph.D. in one of the Liberal Arts. I'm really blessed, I think, because I have a new life, a new home, a new love, and new community all of which raise me up from the Slough of Despair that I'd been living in for so long. Maybe it's also that I've just finally begun to grow up.

Of course, this month has all been a bed of roses (though my S.O. sent me a beautiful bouquet of white, red and peach coloured roses and three orchids last Friday). I slipped on the stairs at work three weeks ago, spraining my ankle and injuring my Achilles tendon (which still hasn't finshed healing yet, precluding me from dancing) and last Tuesday  the anaphyllactic reaction that I mentioned above mimicked a possible stroke and sent me to the emergency room (it wasn't a stroke and the doctor's figured out just why most of my face had gone completely numb after two CAT scans and a bunch of bloodwork). My best friend drove all the way across the city to stay with me while they were trying to figure out what was happening and all of the hospital staff from the receptionist who signed me in to the nurse who triaged me to the lab and radiology techs and my marvelous doctor who were so caring and took me seriously when I explained what I was feeling (or rather, wasn't feeling) made the scary experience much easier to bear.

So I have come once more to the conclusion that Someone is watching over me and wants me to be happy and to succeed in this life I've been given. Thank you, Lord for doing so and for doing the same for everyone I care about.

I'd also like to ask anyone who reads this to pray for those who have been injured or died in the earthquake and tsunami that hit Somoa. While the toll wasn't as great as that during the tsunami that hit southeast Asia a few years ago, this recent event was still devastating to everyone on the island.

I've now got the new LiveJournal Messenger. My Windows Live ID is dancingkatz@livejournal.com. Sign up now and we can chat!

Today I was the only person working in the front office and despite more phone calls than usual I managed to get a lot done. It has been nicely satisfying to see my desk cleared off and the computer and monitor set up in a much more comfortable arrangement.

It was raining this morning when I woke up, so the air was fresh and cool (unlike the past cuople of days when it has been decidedly muggy). Both cats were at the open windows enjoying the slight breeze and it was tempting to hit the snooze button on the alarm clock and doze for another 15 minutes but I was good and got up when I was supposed to. The rain had stopped by the time I got to campus.

This evening I'm going to the Jenson Center at St. Luke's for a "Scriptures and the Mass" meeting. I'm looking forward to it, though I don't really know what to expect. If this turns out not to be what I'm supposed to be doing, there are a lot of other spiritual activities at the parish that I can investigate.

I went to a class on Adobe Dreamweaver yesterday and spent part of today designing a new look for the math department website using the stuff that was covered in the class. I think it's looking good and a lot closer to what I originally intended than the design that is currently online. Now I have to see if the department chair likes it. I'm considering designing a website for the university's Classics Club but am going to leave that until after fall term begins and I can chat with the other members.

Well, I need to go and make sure the coffee pot iin the staff and fculty lounge is turned off and that there is paper in the upstairs printer before I can head home, so Ciao!

There's nothing like a fresh just-off-the-vine tomato to represent late summer.

The Romas are doing very well this year despite the threat of a blight and I'm happily harvesting from the garden my landlord planted back in spring before he went to Washington. The free produce is an extra benefit of leasing his house and caretakng while he is out of state. My cat, Bailey, unlike any other cat that owned me, loves them so I have to hide them in a closed box rather than let them sit out on the table, decorating the kitchen with their cheerful redness. The night I brought the first ones in and set them in the big bowl that is my centerpiece, he stole one and demolished it. Only the bits of skin lying on the floor under the table and his tomato-breath waking me up the next morning provided evidence of the fate of that first fruit.

There's a lot more summer left ripening on the vines even with the start of fall term looming in less than three weeks. I think I'm going to take Bailey's advice and relish every bite of it.

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It's been far too long since I even got onto LJ, much less posted anything. There have been a lot of changers in my life over the past months: moving, a new (and wonderful) relationship, sibling issues that make me want to quote Hermione Granger ("I am not an owl!"), memory problems that almost sidelined my Latin degree (that have thankfully been positively resolved), and too little time for everything. But I'm here.

Post from mobile portal m.livejournal.com

I finally joined HASA (the Henneth Annun Story Archive). So far I've got only one story posted but I'm working on cleaning up my other stuff so I can put it there as well. I've also decided to go back to posting my work at OSA (the Open Scrolls Archive) as well.

It's snowing and we've got 5" on top of the inch of ice so far. If campus hadn't been closed today, I would have called in. Just the idea of driving in this whiteout (if there weren't a level 2 snow emergency) makrs my back and neck hurt. But sane heads prevailed and no one has had to risk life and limb to get to work today.

Balian is full of beans and wants me to play. Now, where did I put that peacock feather?

I just got an invitation to go dancing the Friday and Saturday after Christmas.

A dancing friend who is currently living and working in Washington DC is coming back to Dayton for the week of Christmas and just emailed me asking if I felt like wearing out a pair of dance shoes. Of course, I said yes!

The really nice thing is that all he wants to do is dance, not start a relationship or "hook up", just dance and have fun to good music and with good company.

Humming happily...

... and will be fixed by 5:00 p.m. this afternoon. They even got me a ride to work. When they call to tell me the car is done I'll have them pick me up from in front of the student union and then drive back to work after I pick up my car.

In the meantime, I have more copying to get done and a poinsettia to water. I hope everyone has a good day.

It didn't start out being one of those days but as soon as I went out to the car to go to work, it changed.

I unlocked the car and put my bag on the front passenger seat then went to open the right rear passenger door so I could get the snow scraper. When I pulled the door handle it broke off in my hand. What was worse, is that I couldn't open the door from the inside after it happened.

Once I got to work I looked up what my extended service agreement would cover because I really can't afford to have to pay for an expensive repair. No luck, the agreement is only for mechanical parts like the steering system, transmission and so forth.

I decided to call the local car dealership and talk to their service department to see how much it would cost to fix. Ann, who answered my questions was great. She said that even though I am not the original owner of the car, because my mileage is so low, they would cover the repair under warranty. So tomorrow I'm dropping the car off at 7:00 a.m. and they are going to fix it. I'm going to have them change the oil and replace the front turn signal light while the car is there as the "Change Oil Soon" warning has popped up on the dashboard and the blinker bulb burned out the day before yesterday.

I'm glad I don't have to take the car back down to the dealership in Clermont County where I bought it. I'd lose a whole day of work that I can't afford.

So far the office is quiet. I hope it stays that way.

...a CD that I'd forgotten I'd purchased.

Back in the 80s and 90s I was an avid role-play gamer; AD&D, James Bond, Call of Cthulu, Wizard's Realm and so forth. I also played a great deal of Vampire: The Masquerade in 1992. Our game master/Storyteller for the first Vampire game I ever played was a GM that liked having "soundtracks" for the gaming sessions. He put on a cassette tape of music unlike any I'd ever heard before. It was called "Black Aria" by an artist called Glenn Danzig. It was perfect as background for the game (which had to do with finding a medieval manuscript regarding the vampire culture and political system in the 1400s that had been stolen along with the original manuscript of Milton's "Paradise Lost"). I asked where he'd gotten the music and he told me that his brother had given it to him. I eventually found my own copy on cassette and played it to death. When CDs came out I tried to find it to no avail, until two years ago, I located it online and ordered it. The box arrived when I was packing to move to my new apartment and it got buried in another box.

Well, tonight I opened that box and found the CD. I have it playing right now and it's bringing back wonderful memories of the gaming group and the reading of the first canto of Milton's Paradise Lost that we did as part of the game. I'm no longer an active gamer but I do write scenarios for my friends to use in their games sometimes. Listening to "Black Aria" my long asleep muse has woken up at last.

I highly recommend this CD. It's not like most of Danzig's stuff, being more symphonic than metal or rock, but is very powerful and will wake your imagination.

The CD is number EMA 61013-2 Black Aria by Glenn Danzig if you want to try to get your own copy.

Going to Midnight Mass.

I'm not the sort of person who wins contests. Honestly, I'm not. But I entered one and won!

As a ballroom dancer I love the TV show Dancing With the Stars so when my dance teacher Terry Cavanaugh told my dance partner about Channel 22's DWTS "Show Us Your Moves" Contest of course I had to enter it. Especially since hte grand prize was a trip for 2 to Los Angeles to see the taping of the final Episode of Dancing WIth the Stars.

Entrants had to make a 60 second video of they and a partner doing their favourite moves from Dancing With The Stars using music provided by the contest site. Of the five pieces of available music I chose to use "Fresca Salsa" which was suitable for a cha-cha.

Knowing that my partner and I aren't the world's best dancers I knew that to have a chance of winning, I figured the way I put the video together would have to make up the difference. So a trip to the dance studio, and some taping in the living room later, I sat down to edit. I used footage from our performance of a bolero routine at a competition along with the practice and living room footage to put together a 60-second story.

Three hours later, I uploaded the completed video (an hour before the entry deadline). You can see the video here.

On Friday, November 7th I got a phone call from Jason Matlock at WKEF22 telling me that my video had been unanimously voted to be the grand prize winner for the Dayton ABC affiliate! Talk about a surprise! 

( What happened next... )

( Read about the trip to Los Angeles and the DWTS taping )
I know I have to pay taxes on the trip come April 15th but it will be worth it. I had the best time and one of these days I'm going to save enough money to stay at the Beverly Wilshire again, this time for a whole week.

Thank you Channel 22/45, ABC and Dancing With the Stars. It was fabulous!

Edited to add phoro and video links on 12-10-2008, 10:50 p.m.

Hopefully, the roads will be clear tomorrow morning so the buses will run on time.

Balian has been sitting on the windowsill chattering at the birds that are flying around and then going to curl up on the sofa and nap before doing it all over again.

I'm seriously considering taking a nap as soon as I finish posting this. I should be sorting laundry and putting books and stuff in boxes but I just don't have the energy to do so. I honestly don't think it's worth packing until I know what happens at the creditors meeting on March 26th. Hopefully, as soon as I have that I'll be able to find out what I'm going to be allowed to keep and what has to be turned over to the Trustee to be sold. Hopefully, I'll be able to keep the computer...

Ok, sun or not, now I'm getting depressed. It's definitely time for that nap. Perhaps tomorrow I'll have better news to post.