1.  It’s been said January is ‘the month of opportunity, inspiration, and change.” Which of the three do you need most right now? Elaborate. 

I need inspiration, I suppose. I found it a bit yesterday: I came back from lunch with my husband and felt tired; I sat in my chair under my warm blanket and played some dumb game, watched some youtube. I felt lazy and like I was wasting time. In fact, I had shown my kids the Van Halen video for “Right Now” in class and the line where they show a man running with the text “Right now, time is passing you by” resonated with me. SO, I forced myself to get up and go for a walk. I’ve been kind of lazy and haven’t been out in the sun too much so I thought it would be good. And it was! It pushed me to keep working in the house and I felt great all evening. I just need to keep this up.

2. Do you consider opportunity as something that comes to you or something you create for yourself? 

Both. If you have that underlying idea, you can create it from ideas but at the same time, you need to be aware and open to things happening around you that could be the in you’re looking for.

3. The British Museum opened on this date (January 15th) back in 1759. Do you like visiting museums? Do you have a favorite? 

I do and I have been to the British Museum. I thought it was pretty neat but I really enjoyed the Art Institute of Chicago because I got to see Nighthawks by Edward Hooper. I think choosing museums on a vacation, while not my number one reason for visiting, is a neat side quest.

4. It’s National Oatmeal Month (yes, apparently it gets a whole month as opposed to a single day)…do you like oatmeal? How often do you eat a bowl of oatmeal? How do you like yours? What about an oatmeal cookie? Is that a sweet treat you enjoy? 

I enjoy it but hardly ever eat it. I don’t eat breakfast so there’s that, plus I try to cut down on carbs. Now I know it has good value and oats are yummy but eh. I do love an oatmeal cookie; I’m the weirdo who wants the oatmeal raising cookies.

5. What’s something useful you learned in high school?

Hmm, I guess some of the stuff I got out of my mythology and classics classes helped me in college and French definitely did, since when I got to grad school I attempted to get my language credit based on the Italian I took as an undergrad…but I failed. So I took the French test and passed, because I’d learned it in high school.

6. Insert your own random thought here. 

It’s weird working M/W instead of T/TH. I find I can’t get my brain wrapped around it just yet, though it is, admittedly, only my third day on campus. I leave in about an hour and will be giving a shorter lecture today, thankfully, and then starting them on an assignment in class. It will be their first true assignment so hopefully they’ve paid attention in the last 2 classes. We’ll find out! So far, I think these kids are slightly better than last term.

I had really weird, vivid dreams last night. My brother-in-law and his family were visiting and we didn’t have quite enough hamburger buns, so I went out to get them. However, I also was supposed to pick up something for our upcoming beer fest from someone we know so Ash told me to swing by his house…which was more like a bar. I got there and the guy offered me a beer but I said, ‘No, I’ll have just one ginger ale’ but for some reason, I was there a long time and kept worrying about dinner. My husband called to say it was time to go home and as I left, I had to walk from the back of EPCOT to my car and it was taking forever! I had also not procured hamburger buns and by the time I got home – much later after they’d all finished eating – my husband was mad and said he didn’t need to eat anyway. /sarcasm.

It was the kind of dream that made me anxious in dream and out; I woke up feeling like I’d failed. What the heck, brain?? Fair to say, I do feel like I slept pretty well. I’ve had this irritation on my gum back where I no longer have a wisdom tooth; this happens sometimes where it gets enflamed but it goes away. This time, it seems to be going on longer so sleeping on my left side hurts a bit. But I slept all night long on my right. The true test will be how tired I feel come evening. We didn’t watch any TV/movies last night so we probably will tonight. OK, off to finish up some work stuff then see my daughter off to school. Happy Wednesday!