breathing again

This semester was arguably the most stress I've endured in my academic life. It wasn't so much the difficulty of the subject matter -- it was the confluence of circumstances that left me spent.

I realize that most of this stress was due to choices I made, but I survived it, in large part because Leo kept me pointed in the right direction and did all he could to help me keep it together.

Here's a snapshot of what I've been up to since January, which may explain why the hell I haven't been blogging on a regular basis:

1. Academic highlights: My two classes in two different colleges included midterms one day apart, short papers due biweekly (one day apart), 15-page research papers and 30-minute group presentation projects one week apart.
2. Professional highlights: Getting and starting a new jobby job, one with corporate hours and a very steep learning curve in an industry that's new to me and a product release cycle that's dizzying.
   
3. Health highlights: A "routine" surgery on my right wrist that was anything but routine and required Leo to feed, bathe, and dress me for a while.
4. Family highlights: Adopting Ruby, who is super smart, amazingly cute, awesomely gentle, and very willful and taking the time to properly socialize and assimilate her into the pack order of our home.
5. Mental health highlights: Agreeing to do a big favor for a friend when I should've held my ground after saying "no" several times. Feeling bad about doing a crappy job for that friend because I really didn't have the time to do the job correctly. Coming to terms with regret, finding peace, and saying goodbye to a different friend whom I should've been a better friend to while he was still alive.

I'm just grateful that I got through it all and managed to taking a week to get out of dodge with Leo and enjoy the California coast between San Diego and Monterey. There are plenty of other things to celebrate, like good friends getting engaged, me regaining almost full range of motion in both hands, and other friends finishing chemo and radiation. But right now, I'm just glad that I don't have to be in a classroom for two whole weeks and that there are only 219 days until my MBA is done and I get my life back.