I’m finally home after a whirlwind afternoon. The weather today was absolutely horrible, alternating sheets of freezing rain, snow and rain. Of course I had to spend a goodly portion of the day walking back and forth between the lab, department office and my office. I was trying to get things packed and organised for the big move. Since the flood renovations are almost complete, we have to get ready to move back into our (new) old spaces. Due to a series of trades, I now have a completely different office from the one I had before, which I am looking forward to assuming. It will be right by the room where I will be teaching, it is large enough for a table plus a desk, and my cabinet with the teaching materials. I also had to get the exams delivered to Disabilities Services for the students who will not be writing in the gym with the other horde of students. It was a lot of running around, but overall I feel good I got all of this done. I could have done without the part where giant chunks of ice fell on my head, but otherwise it was a good day.
We just got back from dinner and errands. I had some parcels to pick up at the post office, and after that we went to look at artificial trees at Sears. We didn’t like them very much, and ended up at Canadian Tire, where we bought a 7.5′ pre-lit Arden pine. It looks almost real, we were quite impressed. I still can’t believe we got an artificial tree. I really love having a real tree, but I have gotten spoiled because my mum always gets a Fraser Fir or a Balsam and those are very very expensive around here for some reason — to the tune of $50 or more for a 5′ tree and going up from there. Spruces are prickly and drop needles and with the limited space we have it is such a pain. You can’t beat the smell though, and I will miss that.
We used to have an artificial tree when we were really small, I remember now, and it didn’t scar us for life, so I can do this, at least until we have children and they are a bit older. Chris told me a story that actually made me think it would be ok to have a fake tree. Apparently, one of his fondest memories is putting the tree together (One of those old broomstick style ones with the colour-coded branch holes) however they wanted while their mom watched them. Then they would decorate it. He said it was the most fun because they got to build the tree, and then had the fun of decorating it. So that was kind of nice to hear.
I am such a nice TA I let my students sucker me into going to their study session tomorrow. We’ll see how that goes. I am sure they will realise that a study session with 40 people organized to fall 2 days before the exam is not going to be very useful, but I applaud their dedication in booking a room and organising the session, so it’s the least I can do.