Conflict and Calmness

Don't have too much time to type, but thought I should since it's been a while!

Things that have frustrated me this week -

1) Conflict. There seems to be a lot of it in my life right now. And while I fully recognize a lot of it isn't to do with me personally, the nature of some of it makes it hard to separate personal from political. I feel like a magnet as it's on all fronts too - home, school, even in the areas of my life that I consider to be removed from all else, like the Burma Update that happened earlier this week. (That is a whole post on its own, which I will try to get to before my reactions become lost in other thoughts. And just to clarify none of this is about Simon and I either, he's been super supportive throughout this week!) I'm trying my best to not do the self-pity thing, as its pretty unhelpful. Instead focusing on methods of eliminating conflict, which is working well so far.

2) Stress. I'm sure the fact that I am also dealing with three major deadlines is pressing on my brain too. While I've been working really hard on everything, just the fact that there are deadlines looming (just realized I need to look into where the origins of the word deadline comes from, I'm sure having the word dead in there subconsciously doesn't help!), is stressful in itself.

3) Lack of sleep. This has probably served to compound the other two!

Things that have made me really happy this week -

1) I have a really supportive group of friends and colleagues, and they have been sympathetic enough to let me vent to them on a number of occasions, for which I am very thankful. Not to mention they are just all around really cool people.

2) Simon. He's my ongoing happiness. Cheese ball, but true! It'll be 5 years we've been together come September, which I still can't believe.

3) Hockey. Apart from today where I see we're down 3-0 at the moment, watching the Canucks has been really great. Particularly the 7-3 trouncing, even if it was largely because of one Sharks' ugliness. I am also really excited by the rumour of the Thrashers moving to Winnipeg. Not because I want less teams in America, but because I want more teams in Canada. It just makes me happy. Though the proposed names all sound terrible. The original name was the best. Bring back the Winnipeg Jets!

4) There are more, but the last one I want to write about is Culburra. We are back here and in the company of Simon's Uncle, which is great. It's nice to be around family, even if it's not *technically* my own. I am also typing this sitting in the warm lovely sunshine, the birds are singing, and there is a slight breeze coming off of the ocean. What a great way to finish writing my essays :-)

Will try to write more again soon, and incorporate some pictures too. Haven't been taking many lately as there isn't too much to take pictures of when you're in front of the computer all day!

Til soon!