Happy Birthday Teacher!!

Fandros

Happy Birthday!

Happy B day.

Feliz cumpleanos!

Err...Happy birthday!

happy birthday!! :) :p

Happy Birthday, Nydia!

Happy birthday Nydia!

WooHooo another Bday. I'll drink to that!! *hic*

Have a good one Nydia

Happy birthday, my friend. =)

Lots of babies in June :D

Happy Bday!

Thanks for all the kind words, you all :)

I'm sorry that I haven't been around so much in the past six months; part of that is time moving on and my getting further away from my time in EQ, but part is various RL issues as well. Although I haven't been around much, I've more or less kept up with the major issues in the RL section, and keep an eye on you guys :). I even compose responses to issues in threads in my head from time to time, but, alas, usually end up moving on to the next distraction before I can settle down enough to type; that, and as far as events surrounding the war, our criminal current administration, and the assaults on civil liberties go, my feelings fluctuate between anger, depression, and the pointless impulse to link three year old posts of mine and say 'I told you so!' ;)... I give my final exam in summer school tomorrow morning, so perhaps I'll have time after that to pound away on that thread about South America, which I find quite interesting, actually...

In the past year, I have:

Spent a fourth year teaching in lovely Laredo, and almost, but not quite, managed to get out of the combat zone (got to the final interview with the department head and Dean of Instruction for a job in Phoenix this year, but no dice) - on the upside, if I can make it through another six months here without slashing my wrists, I go up for tenure :);

After a year without cats, I adopted two orange and white females from a rescue up in Austin from a woman who passed away from brain cancer, who now own the house (and since acquired a third, a hellacious little black longhaired female, after she 'adopted' Faervas by jumping into his car, following him home, and taking up residence in a box on our side porch);

Well and truly started menopause, complete with spontaneous combustion-like hot flashes and a sudden, new, and very refreshing loss of bullshit/sugarcoating tolerance (gogo crone powah :) );

Despite this, had a slow-burning and, alas, unrequited infatuation come into full bloom, and watched helplessly and with some amusement as the psychophysiological storm ran its course;

And managed to lose nearly thirty pounds via a combination of low carb, the above-mentioned infatuation, and autoimmune related digestive difficulties.

/ramble on)

The prospect of turning forty-three has, for some reason, felt very different than my delighted 'Answer to Life, the Universe, and Everything' last year. Realizing that forty is firmly in my rear-view mirror now, as well as the steady estrogen decline, has resulted in a sensation akin (as I believe I've mentioned once before) to the scales falling from my eyes. I abruptly realized last week that I am, unmistakably now, seeing the world in a fundamentally different way than I did for many years; and many things that were closely-held pieces of who I was no longer seem to be part of my makeup. Life begins at forty, indeed! How much of our 'first life', I now have to wonder, is an estrogen/testosterone watercolored dream? /geek on) If any of you have ever read Larry Niven's Ringworld series as far as "Protector", where he hypothesizes that humans age after they leave their reproductive years because Earth lacked the necessary enzyme to produce an alkaloid in a plant that was to transform individuals between age 40 and 45 into the next developmental stage (every middle aged person's crackpipe dream of superstrength and supersentience ;) ), that book alludes reasonably well to the very real midlife metamorphosis.

By the same token, the landscape of my life, which seemed familiar and somewhat predictable also now looks totally new and in some ways quite forbidding; I find myself somewhat lost and wondering what the heck I'm going to do with this next huge chunk of life which radiates out in all directions around me. The psychology books say that the crisis of midlife is that of generativity versus stagnation; and while the prospect of spending the next 20 years teaching in Laredo seems like a death sentence, I haven't, as of yet, found the necessary traction to escape it (have done a lot of thinking about that issue today though and sent off an application to an ultra-liberal college in Naples, Florida :) ).

It's been a quiet day - I worked today and am currently writing my final exam for my Summer I class for tomorrow; Faervas is up in Dallas for a wedding and to visit some relatives up from Mexico. (He has been accepted, I am happy to say, to the Art Institute of Chicago and starts in August, assuming we can find enough money :) ). I did speak to him and to my father on the phone today and went out for Chinese food (chicken and dumplings not currently being on my allowed food list, although I did have some green beans); the waitress, my usual, left an extra fortune cookie for Faervas, and mine read: "Fortune cookie say: You will find happiness in mind and heart."

So perhaps there's hope for me yet :).

Warm regards, and hope everyone is well,
Nydia

Happy Birthday Nydia!

You forgot to /geek off :p

Well you know what they say - forty-three is the new, err, thirty-three?


Happy Birthday =)

You could always sign up for EQ or something..... fill the last 20 years playing EQ :) That should help !

Happy Birthday and Merry Menopause!!!

Well you know what they say - forty-three is the new, err, thirty-three?


Happy Birthday =)

Does my 53 = 43 than? I feel younger already :p