So, what's happened since my days of tedium?? Quite a bit, actually.
- I've been offered 3 jobs... one I took, and then left after 3 weeks (sounds bad, but is more unusual than bad... basically the job ended up being not quite what I thought it would be, and I decided that in the interests of my potential future as a music teacher I needed to leave), one I interviewed for, got offered but turned down (I was unbelievably over-qualified and was going to end up being paid around what I was paid when I was a vet nurse) and the third is... pending. I've been offered it, but it's a Catholic school, and in order to be eligible to teach in a Catholic school I need to go through an enormous process of classification which means providing endless copies of identification to ensure I am who I say I am, and who I say I am is a good person and not a criminal. It's very tedious. But, should all go to plan, I will be teaching primary school music 2 days a week!!
- Prior to this influx of jobs, I was having a really hard time of it. It's very.... soul destroying, having to constantly seek for work, to know that you're good at what you do, but to have to constantly prove it, and deal with knock backs. More than once I considered just applying for full time jobs, just so I had more possibilities available to me. I knew it would have been awful if I did end up getting full time work, but at the time all I cared about was having someone, anyone, recognise my qualifications and abilities. I hope I don't have to go through that again.
- I also got very lonely. I am so, so glad that I am still able to function almost normally with my narcolepsy. I've spent a lot of time at home, doing nothing, over the last few months and it has been awful. Sure, I could sleep in all the time, nap whenever I wanted to, take it easy during the day... but heck was I bored. Unmotivated, uncreative. My gorgeous boy would come home and it would depress me to talk to him because he'd ask me about my day and I'd say, "Not much. Watched some Law and Order. Vacuumed... again. Played games on my iPad. How about you?" And he would launch into a description of a busy, usually stressful day with students and other teachers and weird things he saw on the train and educational politics and I would be so jealous. I would just wish that I would be able to describe a day like that again. Thank goodness my narcolepsy isn't chronic, and thank goodness for my drugs. Completely normal I may not be, but at least I have the capacity to get out, see people, do things, experience.
- It's starting to look like I may have another family member with narcolepsy. Aaarggghhh!!! My niece sent me a message asking me about narcolepsy, what my symptoms were and how I dealt with it. I had so been hoping that no one else in my family would have it... but no such luck. She basically has all the same hall marks as me - sleeping for 15 hours, waking up and wanting to nap some more, sleeping in lectures, sleeping on the train, crappy memory, tiredness.... bah. Narcolepsy is not something I wish on anyone, but I hate that it's appeared again in my family. And in my gorgeous niece!!
So that's me up to date. I'm hoping that my next entry may be me talking about how brilliant and in balance my life finally is... we'll see. Within a few weeks I'll be teaching up to 3 days a week, which is basically exactly what I want. Can I cope with that, a relationship, a mental cat, performance commitments and a Masters degree?? You're damn right I can.