Weekend time...and I don't really get to enjoy it.

Well, it's the weekend. I don't normally have classes or practicum on Fridays; we are to keep it open for conferences and make-up classes, but this particular Friday I don't have any of those, so I basically have a long weekend this weekend. It's nice that I don't have to go anywhere today. However, I don't really get to enjoy my long weekend for three reasons:

• I'm sick (not bad at this point, but enough to make me achy and tired and not up to going out)
  
• I have a lot of reading and homework to do
• I currently have a birthday dinner for my dad scheduled for Sunday evening, though depending on how I'm feeling tomorrow I think I may postpone that until I am healthier. I haven't bought him a present yet, either, hmm...yeah, I'm thinking dinner and gift presentation are likely both postponed, as I'm not up to gift-shopping at the moment...okay, so there are now just two reasons I'm not enjoying this weekend much, plus the guilt over the birthday thing :P.

The second point above is a real sore spot for me...I have several sets of readings to do for next week, and I hate doing readings. Some texts are more interesting and readable than others, but even when I'm reading the interesting and readable ones I find myself wishing I could do something else after not too long. The easy solution is to read a bit, take a break, read some more, and so on, but that does interrupt the flow of the text (so I have to take some time to remind myself what the author was talking about prior to the bit I'm about to read) and it also means that it takes a longer amount of time to get all the readings done...and when you're under a time crunch to begin with, that's not helpful. I remember having this hate of doing long readings from textbooks in Bible college, too, and when I took an intro-to-psych course by correspondence last year it cropped up now and again, too. I think it didn't come up as much when I had to read science textbooks because often while reading those I would have to pause and double-check their equation (textbooks usually skip more steps than I'm comfortable with in going from line to line, so I usually have to take some time to show myself that yes, indeed, this line can be rearranged and then operated on to get the next line) or to think hard through what was actually being said (especially in courses like "modern physics" where all the weird theories get discussed). Essays and other non-fiction works, however, are structured in such a way as to try to convince you that what they are saying is indeed the truth; in good, thoroughly-reasoned works, there is no equivalent of line-skipping. Certainly I should still be thinking critically about the author's arguments, but I have to read it first as-is to know what the author is saying before I can go back and critique it (other than any points that really stick out for me and make me go, "wait a minute, I don't think I agree with that")...and it is that first reading that makes me yawn and nod a lot, especially when I am sick and reading on the couch as a result. Anyway, at this point I know of four sets of readings that I have to do for Monday and Tuesday, plus an "issue paper" due Monday and a summary of/response to my readings for Tuesday...and for practicum on Thursday I need to prepare a lot more for an activity I'm taking my grade 12 chem classes through...and I need to organize the notes I've taken up to now and make sense of it all...and I need to come up with some "reflections" on my practicum thus far for my practicum binder...plus anything else that gets assigned to me via postings on our FirstClass bulletin board system...argh. Life these days consists of school and not much else. Please be understanding if I seem to be somewhat anti-social over these 9 months; it may become a necessary survival strategy, other than the odd day when the survival strategy will be to get away from it all for a while.

I'm off for now to do my morning routine (including de-smelling myself...I hate how being sick can make me all sweaty and gross in a fairly short amount of time), which today will basically serve to prepare myself for a day of reading on the couch and trying to rest and drink fluids so I can get better. Stay healthy, everyone! If I'm not feeling better by Sunday I'll stay away from church to try not to infect everyone else (though Martin will likely go).