London Calling

It has been a minute since I've written in this blog so I thought I would catch you up on what has been going on in my life. The answer is somewhat bleak and can be summed up in two little words: not much. Because of my situation at work, I have been at a standstill for what seems like years although in reality has been only a few months. Combined with not resolving my car situation, I feel like I've been stranded on a deserted island with no hope of rescue on the horizon. I've felt isolated, alienated, and abandoned with brief spots of respite through time spent with family and friends.  However, I wouldn't say I've been depressed the whole time. Having a goal in mind has helped, and I've spent a lot of time focusing on my future. One good thing that I found out is that my official retirement date is two months earlier than I thought. I have let my district know that I can retire on March 14th instead of the middle of May. I double checked with the retirement s...

  Today's blog post may veer away from the usual topics because I really need an outlet for my thoughts right now. I could just write in my journal as I usually do when I'm trying to figure out my life but I feel a real need to let this out into the Universe to hear. Things haven't progressed too far in my plans to go abroad although I will be writing about a new university in London that I am checking out. But for now I'm fully immersed in the present time. As I look out my window it is dark and dreary with a cold wind blowing the withering leaves off the trees. Normally, I really don't mind this weather especially if I can just cuddle up with a blanket and a good book. But today it just seems like a reflection of the turmoil I've been feeling the past few weeks.  Usually October is my favorite month because the kid in me loves to celebrate my birthday. Even at the advanced age of 57, I still love to celebrate my birthday month. October is also the birthday mon...

Reading back over this blog I realized a couple of things. First and foremost is that I am a true Libra through and through. Decision making can be very hard for me because of my natural inclination to waver between two or more outcomes. I can see the positives and negatives quite clearly and struggle with deciding on the best course of action. Libras also look for justice in all of their interactions and this too is making the decision making process more difficult. My only saving grace is that I rarely am impulsive when it comes to my career. It has been too important in my life, and I take great pride in it. This has led me to make a pretty firm decision in my desire to live abroad. I have had some negative events happen in my life recently that have helped me come to the decision that it is time to move on to the next phase in my career. This revelation came to me just last week, and the conclusion is that it is time to focus on my future life as a full time student. I am ready to ...

  I have been going back and forth trying to decide whether to focus on going back to school for another Masters (and eventual Doctorate) or to apply for teaching positions in London. There is one school in Ireland (Trinity College) where there are two possible programs I'm very interested in and one school in London (University of London) with an interesting program. I have decided that there is no need to limit my choices just yet. So I'm going to apply to these schools once the applications are open (November) and continue to look for teaching positions in London. As far as teaching goes, I'm having kind of a renaissance in my career this year. I have tried new things with this class and have refined other activities. It's no secret that last year was, as good Queen Elizabeth II said once, my Annus horribilis" (horrible year) as far as my motivation and love for teaching went. So no matter what, this year was going to be an improvement, and it really has been so...

  Now that I'm feeling rested and recovered from the Covid disaster and also am caught up with planning for my class, I finally feel like I can turn my attention back to London. I have really been focused on perhaps going the University route and getting a student visa. What is holding me back is money. The programs I was interested in at Trinity College in Dublin (MA in Childrens' Literature or Irish Literature) cost more than I had previously thought. So, I'm trying to think about how else I could go back to school with an eye towards moving to Ireland or London.  I decided on a whim to look up universities in the SUNY system that offer one year Masters in Irish Literature and didn't find any. I did find Notre Dame and Boston College offered interesting programs but again the cost wasn't working out. So I tried online programs in Irish Literature and Language and found a really interesting option. University College Cork offers a very reasonably priced online opti...

  It's been almost a month since I've written in this blog, and a lot has happened. I started back to school for the 32nd year and for the last time in the US. I've gotten to know my class which is full of sweet kids that are making this last year start off as a really nice one. But like most school years there is one group of entities that have reared their ugly heads to destroy all of that tranquility: germs. I do usually get really sick in October/Novemeber of most school years. Whether its the flu or some kind of virus, I tend to get really sick during the first semester of the year. Unfortunately, this year it struck in September and it was the unwelcome wallop of Covid.  Covid has ruined my flow in many ways. When it first struck, it was against my mother who was too weak with dementia to fight it off. She died soon after contracting it. Then my sister and I both got it (we were living together at the time) in December of the same year. I was out of work for 3 weeks a...