The Aerie

Okay, NOW it's autumn

The skies are gray as they were when I started this job last week, but the temperature is down around 45 degrees Fahrenheit and it's intermittently drizzly. In other words it's autumn in Minnesota.

For the past two days I've been trying to convince my self to bike to Buy More, despite its being 12 miles away from home. For the past two days I've successfully convinced myself to do almost anything else instead, so the first bike ride will have to wait until I get back from Rotterdam.

Today I'm feeilng (needlessly) blue and anxious about the Rotterdam trip. I mean, it wall turn out fine and everything, but I really regret having committed to go. At the end of the trip, I will have been traveling for three out of the past five weeks, and it's just a bit much is all. I'm not in a mood to tour Europe right now, regrettably, and I'm not in a mood to battle jet lag for a week, and I'm not in a mood to experience variety and change. This is an unusual situation for me, I usually thrive on such things. But right now I'd like nothing more than to settle into a routine for a few weeks - home, work, school, exercise - and get my finances, my coursework, and my life into some kind of order. Well, time enough for that when I get back from Rotterdam I guess.

But I'll go, I'll teach, I'll yawn a lot, and I'll sleep on the flight home (after Stockholm I've decided to just stay awake until the plane leaves the next morning, then sleep all the way across the Atlantic). And I will get to see Iceland, however briefly.

And then, the week after that I'll have a chance to settle into a quiet routine, and we'll see how long it takes before that drives me crazy and I'm begging for some overseas teaching opportunities...