What a strange day

Today started out awfully strange. First of all, the dreams are back. I went about a week and a half without having a single strange dream or nightmare, but last night and the night before marked the return of my restless sleeps. Pretty bad timing, if you ask me, considering how busy I'll be in the next month and a half (Why? I'll discuss that later in this post). Even though I wasn't really asleep, I was rudely awoken this morning by a maintenance man who came to check ALL of our smoke detectors (we have 6). So there was no going back to sleep after that mess. I ate breakfast, watched a little TV, and then geared up to go run. As soon as I stepped outside, I knew it was going to be a great run. Perfect temperature, the sun was vaguely shining through the thick cloud cover, a nice breeze. My body was feeling good despite my bad night's sleep and I was eager to get going, seeing as how I haven't run in a few days. I get moving, and after about the first mile of my 3-mile run, I know I need to stop. I walked a little, eventually sitting down on a little stone step, and then it hit me. This wave of nausea washed over me, my head began to pound, and I start seeing black spots. I'm going to pass out or throw up, maybe both, but definitely one of them. I probably sat there for 8 minutes ( I know it seems strange that I know exactly how long without looking at a watch, but when I'm running, my body can feel time. ) before I finally got up. My run was over. I knew it. My brain was so angry; I knew I should be able to keep running, but my body refused. Dejected and a little embarrassed, I turned around to walk/jog the mile back to my apartment.

This has happened to me once before, back after I ripped up my ankle and I was swimming a lot. I don't know if it's dehydration or if I just didn't eat enough, but I carried around hard candy with me a long time after that just in case I needed sugar immediately. Well, I didn't have anything this time. So slowly, carefully, hesitantly, I made my way back home. Worse that the confusion my body was feeling was the shame I felt for not being able to make it through my entire route. Seriously? I'm not a walker. Ask my mom, whenever I go walking with her, I'm always 'casually mentioning' that I'd rather be running, much to her annoyance. :) Oh well, I guess I can't win them all. I may try going again tonight after class.

Speaking of class, I haven't had any in the past two days. As I mentioned in a previous post, my professor had surgery and will not be taking his classes for the next two weeks. Rumor has it that John Tunney, resident early Irish history professor at GMIT, is taking over, but because I don't have any other classes with him, I have no idea if this is true. Instead, I just stayed home the past two class periods. Don't worry, I've still been doing work. I knocked out one paper, one HUGE project, and finished reading a book. I only have one paper left to finish in the next two weeks, and a quiz. I think. Unless something else gets assigned. I need to start figuring out how to do my finals. I've talked to my professors and they both assured me we'd get it worked out. Today is the 6th, and I have about 1 month left here. We better start working it out soon!

I have a lot of things taking my free time in the next month. As promised, let me tell you about my Nov/Dec schedule:

I leave tomorrow for London to see Elyse, and we will be there until Monday night. Immediately when I get back to Galway, I'm meeting Anso's parents who are visiting from France until Tuesday morning.

Elyse and I will meet back up when she flies into Galway late Wednesday night (12th), and she will stay until Sunday (16th) or Monday (17th). Also here next weekend is Oliver, Anso's boyfriend.

The next weekend (Nov 21-23) is the semi-planned trip to Belfast.

Wednesday Nov 26 is the American students' observed Thanksgiving Day, for which I'm in charge of a lot of the food. We're celebrating early because...

Nov 27-30 I will be in Germany with Stephan, Stephen, and Derek.

Dec 1-5 is my last week of classes.

Dec 2 is Stephen's birthday and I'm sure we'll do something fun.

Dec 7 is Stephanie's 21st birthday and I KNOW we're doing something fun.

Dec 9 (or maybe the 8th) I'm throwing a big party as my "Going Away/Graduation" party, which means..

Dec 10 I catch an early bus to Dublin, and I fly back to Charlotte!!!

Oh, but it's not over yet. Dec 11 I'm doing a sleepover with the girls back home, Dec 12 I drive to Boone to pick up Chelsea, then will continue on to Cullowhee where I'll reunite and celebrate with WCU friends. Dec 13, graduation morning, I have rehearsal, and then it's GRADUATION! Dec 14 is my party at home, and then I'm possibly getting graduation pictures taken on Dec 16. Ri-dic-u-lous. But you know, I'm so excited about it all. I love feeling like I'm doing something.

I don't have class until 4, and in the meantime I've got a P31 devotional to work on!