I’m Baaack

July 1. Canada Day. Day that my sabbatical ends. Day I decide to re-emerge in the virtual world.

In honour of it all, I’m changing the name of my blog.

Sorry to have been silent so long, frankly, it’s been nice being away. I do wish that I would have stayed better connected to you all through the blog while I was living in Mexico, but it was either you or the beach in my free time. No offense meant.

I feel that limiting my time at the Internet cafe while in paradise kept me off the news sites and because of that, I didn’t get as bummed out as I usually can. Believe me, now that we’re back and I’m reading the news, I can tell you that not much changes in six months. There are still the same amount of wars, murders and elicit love affairs.

So, Brent and I are back in the “real” world. And, today I’m officially back to the Mount. (Yay, full salary!) In many ways, I’m excited to be back and that’s a good thing. I think. I’ve been easing back to full-time duties with gusto, and look forward to teaching this fall. I’ve spent the past week with really smart and fun people at the annual Society for the History of Authorship, Reading and Publishing conference in Oxford. This coming week I’m in Birmingham. Hard to believe, but our project is coming to an end. We had our last team meeting yesterday, and this Friday, we’ll have our last advisory meeting.

In so many ways, I feel blessed.

This research leave, or sabbatical as we call them in North America, really makes all of the hard work and academy-specific bullshit worth it. I was finally able to get inside the copious amounts of data we have collected. I drafted chapters. I wrote and published articles. I fell in love with Mexico. I lived. I hope I remember how to do that in the days ahead.

Feliz y Prospero Ano Nuevo

Happy New Year, Dear Readers, from the southern most tip of Mexico, where the sunshine is plentiful, and the sea is beautiful if intimidating.

 

 

Our adventure of living in simplicity for six months got off to a grand beginning on December 14, when the snow began to fall as we were frantically doing our last-minute packing. As we headed to the airport at 3:30 a.m., our fingers were crossed that we wouldn’t get stuck on our road. We didn’t. In record speed, but weary with no sleep, we arrived at the Halifax airport in enough time to get through American immigration with no problems. Our boy cat, Lyle, who at the best of times is timid didn’t think the same as we did. Little buddy was overcome with fear at all of the sites and sounds and literally, well, shat himself. The carrier instructions were right: take extra towels for clean up.

 

The plane out of Halifax was delayed because of an ice problem. We had to overnight in Huston on our journey, so arriving late into the USA and missing our connection in Newark was less stressful than it could have been. Promise of no ice along the way was a soothing thought.

 

Our stay in Houston could have been horrible because we were put into a smoking room. I guess cats = smokers. The room was a horrible dive, and I began getting a headache the minute we laid down to rest. Luckily, we were transferred out after my friend, Elizabeth, who lives in Houston and works at Rice University, tried to telephone us for dinner. The calls wouldn’t go through so the desk person had to walk down the hall to tell give us messages. That wouldn’t do. Walking in some parts of America is just too difficult. She changed our room, and even though we had to carry the very heavy bags up the stairs, it was well worth it. Clean bedspread, vacuumed floor, and windows that opened.

 

Dinner with Elizabeth and her husband Bill was at a Thai food place near the airport. Unfortunately, I cannot remember the name of it, but it really was better than any I’ve had in Canada. That says a lot, I think, because VanGroovy has some good places, and even Halifax’s Bon Thai is good. Starting the trip with fantastic people who are as good of story tellers as they are kind gave me feelings of goodness and excitement for our upcoming adventure.

We’ve lived large, the Main Squeeze and I, since arriving. I’ll save the stories for other posts. I just wanted those of you who I haven’t been able to contact by email to know that we’re fine.

Les mando deseos de buen salud y felicitas (not sure I’ve spelled that one correctly).

p.s. the Internet is accessible via satellite only, and it’s often slow so I’m having difficulty posting some of the beautiful pictures I’ve captured. I’ll keep trying.

 

Dinner with 12 Strangers

One of the newest tools to try to connect university alum and ultimately, to maintain or start the flow of much-needed funds, is an event called “Dinner with 12 Strangers.” It appears to be just what the title implies.

I received this heads-up from a MSVU alum and thought that it might be interesting for those MSVUers living in The Big Smoke. I’m not certain I’d have the guts to get together with 12 strangers for dinner, but I do envy those who do. I encourage those of you who live in other cities to do this, too, because, well, those stinkin’ Torontonians get all the good stuff.