Fall Semester: My Senior Year Officially Begins

Alright, technically it’s my second year as a senior, as I took a little longer than the standard two years, but this year comes with all of the emotional impact that I didn’t really have to face last year. When all is said and done, I will graduate in May with a degree. This is a bittersweet time, and one to be savored for all of its emotional ups and downs.

I have made some submissions this year, as in more than one. Nothing has borne fruit yet, but that is probably as it should be. I will get more work published, and it’ll be better than before. I’m still learning, and this semester promises to be a busy one. In some ways it will be easier than last semester. We won’t be moving for one thing.

Tom and I have settled in and I have an office now. I’m repainting the office, and will be posting an update on that soon, complete with before and after photos. I have polished up my resume, and am ready to get busy looking for a job or internship for the spring semester. Even if it’s part time, it will help.

Tom is now halfway through his chemotherapy, and doing comparatively well. He has some side effects symptoms, but he is eating well, and isn’t having a lot of pain. Come the first of November he should be fully cured. We’ll continue to monitor him for the next few years, but every expectation is that the cancer shouldn’t return. Daddy is still doing pretty well, and seems to have mostly come out of the fugue that the loss of his wife created in him. He still has dizzy spells, but is taking his medicine more regularly and that is helping. Tom helps remind him. He’s been coughing so much this last week (He suffers from CHF) that the last two nights have worn him out. He’s taking allergy medicine, but it may not be working. He’s going to try switching allergy meds. I do wish he would go to the doctor. Still, we’re keeping an eye on him.

I’m so glad Tom is here to keep an eye on him while I’m at school. This takes a load off my mind that I’d scarcely known was there. Yesterday it became obvious though, as I sat in class, thinking that I would likely be in Claremore all day. I didn’t have to worry, because Tom would be here if something happened. What a relief!

To change the subject and get a little less personal, here are some of the things going on this semester:

• I have lined up my first interview for the podcast and I have some video to work with in getting the You Tube channel up and running.
• I have graduation to apply for, as well as graduate school.
• Things are speeding up again, and that is also as it should be. I am eager to get back into the swing of things.
• Today is job fair at Rogers State University, and I am going to go see who is there and catch up with friends I didn’t get to see yesterday.

So much going on this year, and all of the subjects are intense, but they are also right in my area of interest. I have Literary Traditions, Poetry Writing, Humanities Seminar, and Script Writing. TONS of reading, but so many wonderful books. Among others, I will get to read Gaiman’s American Gods and Attwood’s The Handmaid’s Tale. Words are rare that could express my excitement at being able to read these and get credit for it.

This semester will see a flush of new work and submissions. I will be polishing up the short stories from last semester, and adding the poems from this semester to my portfolio. Capstone will be coming up next semester, so I’ll need to start choosing works to accompany that. There’s a lot to be done, and I think that it’s going to be both fun and exhausting.