one small corner of the universe

You can probably guess where I am based on that title. I feel like I talk of little else, as if my entire life exists here in this freezing cold, dark classroom and my only job is to listen to endless lecture about library administration, and yet I am only here once a week. But somehow it is by far the longest part of my week, and it takes me so long to shake it off that I am barely over it when I have to go back. It won’t surprise you to learn, then, that even though February is dead, and even though it was 73 degrees here today, and even though things are not All That Bad, I am still in a February state of mind. Everything, and I do mean everything, like the unraked leaves in my yard and the three baskets of unfolded laundry in my living room and this sudden eruption of zits on my face, feels like the world’s most insurmountable hurdle, and I can’t imagine how I will ever survive it. Even this blog is bugging me, not the blog itself, but the act of blogging. I don’t really feel I have all that much to say, but this is one more example of neglect, one more thing I never get to, one more source of self-imposed guilt. That’s really sad considering the only things I can manage to think about when I do sit down at the computer involve how much I hate graduate school and how addicted I am to cream cheese & chives wheat thins. At least my absence is generally good for you, because if I did write daily about what’s really on my mind (see above re: wheat thins) and one of you actually died or even just passed out from boredom, then I’d really have something to feel guilty about, wouldn’t I?

If wheat thins aren’t your thing and you need something else to ponder, here are some other important battles I’m fighting. I’d love it if you could offer up some insight.

• Why is it that I am 33 years old, engaging in regular combat with flab and eye wrinkles, and I still find myself standing in the skin care aisle at Tar.get looking for something to clear up my ACNE?
• Along those lines, why will Boudreaux’s Butt Paste clear up a diaper rash that looks like the advanced stages of leprosy overnight, but will increase my zits ad infinitum in a matter of hours?
• And finally, how is it that I can drop my bottle of prescription allergy medication into the TOILET with no ill effects on the contents, but rinsing the bottle under the faucet to negate the toilet incident causes a near flood inside the bottle, thereby turning my little white pills into tiny masses of useless mush?