In Medias Res

Sometimes things look like beginnings or endings, but, upon closer inspection, Readers Mine, they turn out to be the middle of things. That’s my life lately: I’m right smack dab in the middle of things, and that’s a good place to be.

Wedded Bliss – First and foremost, I got married 9 days ago. I’ll spare you considerable sap and corn and just say that I cannot remember a happier day in my life. After 38 years I found my Best Beloved Mockingbird, and honestly, the ceremony on May 1^st just formalized the commitment and vows we’d made to one another some time before. I am insanely lucky, and she is a grace in my life. (Trust me, someone who will spend a week sleeping on a hard recliner in a hospital room so I wouldn’t be alone and scared is not someone I intend to let get away if I can help it!) I chose a titanium-ally wedding band as a symbol of it all: it will get scratched, dinged, possibly even develop some minor dents, but it will never break. She wore blue, and remains beautiful.

School’s End – For a few months, anyway. Yep, that’s right, another semester at the community college wrapped up neatly in a 4.0 bow. (I know, it’s bragging. I’m proud. Suck it up and deal, I’m sure life will right-size me if my head starts to swell too much.) In fact, this marks the end of my career at this particular institution of higher learning. God willing, I’ll be donning a cap and gown (well, the gown anyway) Wednesday to receive a “congratulatory scroll” from the college president, and in 8-10 weeks I’ll receive an Associate of Arts Degree in the mail so I can start planning my I-Love-Me Wall. Turns out that if you show up for class, do the work, aren’t in an altered state or hung-over, and make school a priority, you can do well. Who knew?

An Academic Stake – So, now that classes are over it’s time to start writing. I’m presenting a paper at the Fourth Bi-Annual Slayage and Whedon Studies Association Conference on the Whedonverses, to be held at Flagler College in St. St Augustine, Florida on June 3 – 6. I’m presenting Friday morning, and am pretty excited about it. The Whedonians are a good group of folks, and I hear the keynote speaker on Sunday is really going to knock our socks off.

One of These Days, Alice – We’re off to a late honeymoon at the end of July. Two full weeks at the beach, and all of it paid for and them some after a year-plus of saving. Amazing how the lack of financial worry can make a vacation so much better! It leaves so much more time and energy available for more important things… like staying in bed.

School Daze – Then it’s time for the fall and a new school. Where is still up in the air. My first choice school has until May 15 to let me know if I’m in or not, and appears to be planning to draw out the suspense until the last damn minute. Still, I’ve already been accepted to two other fine universities, so I’ll have a place to hang my academic hat in 2010-2011 no matter what. Wildcat, Terrier, Spartan, or Ram, there’s some sort of totem animal in my future.

So that’s it. I am in the middle of things, and loving every single minute of it. It’s all a gift, and I try to remember that, even when I’m absolutely batshit.