Eye of the Storm
Feb. 13th, 2012 03:42 pm![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
greenstormWell. Last weekend was rat show leading into two weeks of midterms... 7 or 8, I think. Luckily they're spread out a bit. Lots has happened. Let me see if I can pick out the important stuff.
I've started going to counselling with Blake, to a place suggested by![[livejournal.com profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/external/lj-userinfo.gif)
estrellada. It's SUPER EXTRA VERY helpful. It's useful, not just in that we get to learn how to talk to each other and have a safe space to do that, but because we can easily package up any discussion that's getting weird or heated and bring it there, so it removes tension from everyday interactions. VERY GOOD. Why have I not done this sooner in my life? Oh, right, cuz I've never been with anyone willing to go.
I had one of those rat tragedies I was hoping would never happen. As a breeder, I know there's some risk associated with giving birth; I've had difficult births happen to my rats (and I only breed the best, so that means it's the best you lose if something goes wrong). I had my friend and mentor Lizzy's rats over here for show quarantine, though, and one was very pregnant. I checked on her in the evening... and then in the morning I found her dead, in a little puddle of blood. No babies. I had heard nothing. The phone call that ensued is an experience I never want to repeat; I have luckily never lost anyone like that, but now I understand that it can happen. I will keep breeding rats, but it's scary.
The weather here is pretending to be spring on and off. It's sunny sometimes. Today is sunny; today I was in class most of the day watching slide shows and videos in a dark room. Sigh.
Class is going pretty well, however. We have some more discussion-oriented classes, and a bunch more around urban and rural sustainability and sustainable community elements. I'm enjoying these, though some of them are marathon-long. I'm learning interesting things. I'm also looking very forward to having school done so I can tidy my house, pay more attention to my african violets and rats, reintroduce myself to my friends... you know the drill.
I definitely feel better on sunny days. This house, though it has great natural light, has awful-to-no light fixtures. I need to get my grow lights set up in places strategic for human *and* plant health.
Aaaannndd.... thinking of how or what I'm going to garden with this year. That is a pleasant thought, when it manages to slip in there.
I've started going to counselling with Blake, to a place suggested by
estrellada. It's SUPER EXTRA VERY helpful. It's useful, not just in that we get to learn how to talk to each other and have a safe space to do that, but because we can easily package up any discussion that's getting weird or heated and bring it there, so it removes tension from everyday interactions. VERY GOOD. Why have I not done this sooner in my life? Oh, right, cuz I've never been with anyone willing to go.I had one of those rat tragedies I was hoping would never happen. As a breeder, I know there's some risk associated with giving birth; I've had difficult births happen to my rats (and I only breed the best, so that means it's the best you lose if something goes wrong). I had my friend and mentor Lizzy's rats over here for show quarantine, though, and one was very pregnant. I checked on her in the evening... and then in the morning I found her dead, in a little puddle of blood. No babies. I had heard nothing. The phone call that ensued is an experience I never want to repeat; I have luckily never lost anyone like that, but now I understand that it can happen. I will keep breeding rats, but it's scary.
The weather here is pretending to be spring on and off. It's sunny sometimes. Today is sunny; today I was in class most of the day watching slide shows and videos in a dark room. Sigh.
Class is going pretty well, however. We have some more discussion-oriented classes, and a bunch more around urban and rural sustainability and sustainable community elements. I'm enjoying these, though some of them are marathon-long. I'm learning interesting things. I'm also looking very forward to having school done so I can tidy my house, pay more attention to my african violets and rats, reintroduce myself to my friends... you know the drill.
I definitely feel better on sunny days. This house, though it has great natural light, has awful-to-no light fixtures. I need to get my grow lights set up in places strategic for human *and* plant health.
Aaaannndd.... thinking of how or what I'm going to garden with this year. That is a pleasant thought, when it manages to slip in there.
