Top 5 reasons for my hiatus:
5: I came down with a nasty lung infection. Trust me- you do NOT want to be the person who sounds like they're hacking up a lung on the bus during a swine flu outbreak. And you thought you knew what being glared at felt like after cutting in line at Wonderland. Well let me tell you something, even the ferrel looking homeless people with varying degrees of festering sores and livestock in their hair were shooting me get-off-the-bus death stares. The anxiety about coughing on the bus actually made the coughing worse to the point where I started avoiding the bus altogether. I even switched temporarily to the more expensive, yet within walking-with-groceries distance grocery store just so I wouldn't have to endure another episode of humiliation. Sigh. Even my classmates and teacher stayed just a bit farther away from me than they did each other... luckily it wasn't too serious and I got better just in time to...
4. Catch the sniffles that my housemates lovingly brought home... Yes the old immune system wasn't at its finest and just as the coughing/ fever/ nausea subsided on came the runny nose and sneezing!!! Luckily I didn't feel like I'd been run over by a mack truck like I did before so I was able to study for my exams. Which brings me to number...
3! EXAMS. First round of first year law exams and they don't call it the weeding out year for nothing. Yikes! The competition is INTENSE and I literally camped out in the library for three weeks to prepare for the two exams I had to do (they gave me an extension for the third due to the material I missed from being sick (see #5)
2. Other than the above mentioned items the intense amount of rain (aka daily monsoon type downpours) has made it pretty impossible to do anything remotely worthy of mentioning, oh other than a pretty cool garage sale I stumbled upon one Saturday a while back. I was thrilled to find the two things on my mental list of things to find...namely a birthday present for my house mate Anna and something in which to make coffee (at $4 a pop at a cafe I figured I'd recover my expenses in no time.) Anyhoo, I was delighted to find both items at this little sale, nay they were practically the only items AT the sale. The present was just perfect. Anna was very excited to be taking her first overseas trip to New York City where she and a girlfriend were celebrating their 30th birthdays but she didn't have a stitch of luggage to speak of! Imagine my excitement to discover the perfect black luggage set, reasonably priced ($15 for 2) and in excellent condition! The set comprised a larger size case with an expandable zip-out part and a smaller one that I think would just about make carry-on. Both had wheels and handles and I will never forget the look on Anna's face when I presented them to her. She was so shocked but very thankful. I hope they are working out for her as she is still living it up in NYC as we speak!
And now for numero uno: Next we (the 'Royal "We"') purchased an Italian espresso maker, a type of which I had never seen before. It looked very elegant in its stainless steel and black finish and even had a milk frother to boot! I had been using said espresso machine without incident for about three weeks when the unexpected occurred. Just after finishing making my coffee I added a bit more water to the leftover already boiled water in the receptacle, to make steam for the milk. After completing the procedure and just as I was about to sit down to an impressive vanilla latte I heard a whistling sound, presumably from steam escaping from the seams of where the water receptacle joins the base of the machine. I thought I would just remove the lid to release the pressure and stop the annoying whistling. As I was unscrewing the lid I heard an ear-splitting bang and was stunned to realize the lid had exploded off the top of the machine (landing in the laundry room next to the kitchen,) along with all the boiling water and steam from inside of the machine. My whole right hand and wrist felt like it was on fire and I immediately ran over to the sink. The 15 minutes under the tap helped a bit but I was still in excruciating agony. To my horror I realized I was pretty seriously burned and should probably get myself to emergency. A quick call to the parentals confirmed the reason for the explosion (something about purified water and superheating...) and the decision to go to the hospital. Needless to say I had to ask for ANOTHER extension, this time for my exam that was meant to be today (the accident happened yesterday). On the bright side after the treatment at the burn clinic today they wrapped up my hand/wrist and then gave me a little white cotton glove to wear overtop. Next time I am walking with my black umbrella (which will be tomorrow as rain is forecast for the next century) I may have to break into a moonwalk (dance, a la Michael Jackson, in case you didn't catch the reference).
Failing that...
I was thinking, maybe I'll go find a ladder to walk under whilst spilling salt and watching a black cat cross my path... perhaps then this bad luck will move on. Until then I am still studying, well into the Summer Break* whilst my classmates are on the 48 hour countdown to Summer* as we speak.
*I know I know, technically it is "Winter" however it's still too warm to wear a toque, or even a jacket, other than that of the rain variety, and in light of that AND the absence of Christmas and New Year's I just can't make myself call July's school hiatus, "Winter Break." Sue me ;p
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