I am sitting here trying to deal with fact that we have not updated this blog for almost two weeks and I am not sure what to do about it. Recognizing that our stress levels were off the chart, we sat down two evenings ago and made a list of the things that are weighing on our minds so that at least we would know why our guts are in a permanent knot, if that helps.

Steve, on his second course is an old hand at this Master’s thing and there is not much he enjoys more that writing a good research paper and is, of course maintaining his 100%. Nevertheless he is frantically trying to finish out this school year well, and preparing for all three of his classes to present Waiting for Godot at the Drama Fest the first week in May. In the midst of that, all of his students are preparing their final ISU’s for the semester and needing an incredible amount of support. Add to this the almost daily requests for him to take on tasks to support the other staff and students and that is why he is not blogging.

I, on the other hand am frantically trying to come to grips with writing a research paper for a most unhelpful professor and wondering what made me think that I wanted to spend four hours trying to get the punctuation marks in the correct place for a Turabian style citation. Meanwhile, I am attempting to plan for a week long training session in Cambodia amidst a huge number of obstacles that will undoubtedly impact this project over the long term. Praying that somehow my passport will be returned by the Malaysian government in time for that to happen.

We are wrapping up our sixth year here and planning for all of the details of our trip home like buying and insuring a vehicle, and looking after all of the financial staff that always need to be dealt with. Given that Steve will only have four days in Ontario we need to basically schedule them by the hour. We are missing our kids and grandkids and so looking forward to seeing them but already know how hard it will be to say good-bye again and this time to a new little grandbaby. Part of the preparation for going home always involves getting the apartment ready for Steve to manage on his own which means repairs and air con maintenance which is always a battle here. The brightest spot in my day is when I get to suck up thousands of little ants with my vacuum in some kind revenge for them having taken over the entire 27 storey complex.

However the real problem with the blog is that much of what we are dealing with right now is “unbloggable” either due to its sensitive nature or because it is news that just can’t be shared yet because details are still being worked out. We have been busy with meetings and even a trip as part of the planning process and are hoping to be able to share that soon. But… in the meantime there just is not much to blog.