A good sort of Monday

Today involved...

sleeping until woken by coughing (not fun, though it ended a stressful dream)

getting a good morning call from my mom (very nice)

not having to rush to get ready for my early class

sitting in the sunshine while reading a book

discovering the mildewy smell in my apartment (turns out my humidifier mildews in just a few days), and cleaning it all out (tiring, but fulfilling)

watching a lot of TV episodes online

getting the good news that Netflix can now be watching on my Wii!

having pretty fast response on a help question for my math software

a pretty walk with friends in the sunshine, past many flowers and the closest waterfall

cuddling with my new favorite cat in the world, much of the day

a surprise package from the parents :)

and now time for dinner!

Ella!

"Honey, there's no such thing as crazy. There's just degrees of interesting."

I particularly enjoyed this line from the new book I'm reading. And I'm particularly enjoying lying in the sunshine, reading a book, with my new cat curled up and purring with me.

Ella is the sweetest, most cuddly cat I've ever met, and she's warming up to her new home splendidly. She came home with me from the SPCA yesterday afternoon, and she's already playing, eating (a lot!), and cuddling with me when she's not playing with me. It's delightful. She doesn't meow really at all, unless it's the middle of the night... I woke up last night thinking a child was crying, when in fact it was Ella. And it was especially startling that her meow sounds a whole lot like my name... it probably had something to do with the fact that I was half asleep and trying to figure out why a child was crying in my apartment, but still. She has incredibly soft fur, the cutest tiger stripes, and her eyes change color. She wasn't really happy with the flash of the camera, for the picture, but she has big round eyes that are sometimes brown, sometimes green, sometimes hazel, and sometimes almost orange.

I must say I'm a little scared, given my previous cat experience, but here's to hoping she doesn't go crazy on me.

Two updates in one day? This is unheard of!

I just want to put out there in the cosmos that my memory and being on top of things seems to be disappearing these days. For the first time in my life, I'm not entirely on top of everything. I can't rely on simply remembering everything and not having something fall behind. This evening, as I was trying to catch up, I realized just how much I hadn't done, and yet I'm exhausted after doing a tiny sliver of it. I feel like I've bit off more than I can chew with keeping up with school, doctor's appointments, friends and family, taking time for myself and my health, and the other commitments that I had before this semester and the illness happened. Send prayers and good thoughts please.

And if I forget to do something, please be patient with me.

A personal health day

Today, I took a personal health day. Having not gone to sleep until after midnight, and waking up many times due to my cold, I slept until almost 11 am this morning, since I turned off my alarm. After deciding not to go back to the Health Center to see a doctor again, I realized that the rest of the week would be worthless unless I took today to recuperate from the last week and all the traveling of the weekend.

After breakfast around lunch time, I headed out to take a walk outside, as the sun was finally out. It was a beautiful day, and I found a new trail that ran across what I think becomes the Cascadilla Creek. The walk was wonderful, the sounds of the wind were incredible, and the view of the river/creek in the sunshine and the landscape were wonderful.

Then I headed over to the SPCA to play with the cats. I spent over an hour and a half just petting and playing and getting to know the cats they have there. It was absolutely delightful, and I'm getting closer to choosing a new cat. I'm going to visit a couple more times before finally deciding!

After playing with kittens and cats, I got delicious food at Wegmans and now I'm attempting to get some work done for my teaching class. I hope tomorrow will be filled with mathematical productivity!