The Hobbit, The end of school and a bit about me...

The Hobbit was a wonderful, funny, scary, magical, moving romp through Middle Earth, as I thought it would be.  Beyond amazing!  Especially in 3D!

So now, I have one more final to do (macroeconomics...egad) and I am done.  I am sad to be finishing with school, at least for a while, although I will still be in the school as I will continue to work as a volunteer there. I'll miss the other students, and the teachers. I have met some truly amazing people in this program!

I have to admit, though, that I am getting tired.  I've been in a IC flare for a few days, and the pain is worse than it has been in a long time.  I feel like I have knives cutting through my abdomen.  I am grateful, though, that this didn't happen sooner.  Having loads to do and feeling like this makes me feel so pressured that I have a tendency to get really down.  I do feel a bit low, but it's just the pain.

 I am especially blessed that I am able to work even when I feel so ill, because I find my time with the people I work with so enjoyable, and so unstressful, and I have the freedom to spend it in a way that doesn't tax me. For example, on Tuesday, I worked for four hours, and spent it playing cards with two of the sweetest little boys ever.  I was tired when I got home, but I told Grace, I don't believe I get paid for this!  I am glad I do, but wow, what a blessing!

I was thinking, as it is the holiday season and I feel like taking things a little lighter, that maybe I would do a few "things you didn't know about me" posts.  I know that I have many readers that I don't know, and some that I don't know very well, and wish I knew better. Maybe you'd like to know me better, too? *she says hopefully*

I express a lot of opinions and ideas in this blog, and maybe giving you all a bit of info about me might add a bit of context to my posts?

Or maybe I'm just lazy.  That could be it, too.

In any case, I'll start with this - I love chickens.  I'm not just talking chicken as food, although I am not one to pass up a good coq au vin.  I really, really, really love chickens ~ live chickens, free-range chickens, hens and roosters, scratching around the yard, pulling worms out of the garden, peering in the windows, pooping on the steps, leaving feathers and eggs in corners of the front porch...chickens.

I have also (and this may come under the category of confessions) spanked a chicken.  On purpose. Hard.

It was a hen that was tormenting another hen, her sister. They were the only two Americauna hens that we had, and they had come to us in the same cage. They were fine together in the cage, but once let loose, one became quite aggressive with her sister.

After several attempts at isolating both the bully and the poor, hen-pecked victim, I let them loose together with the flock and little miss bully cornered her sister hen behind the coop door and was pecking her to bits.  The rooster tried to intervene, to no avail.

So I marched up to the battling hens in the corner behind the door and swatted the top hen on her bottom.  The first swat basically just hit feathers - I love little feathery chicken bottoms! - and so I swatted her again, hard.  She went flying across the coop yard, squawking and complaining. Talk about righteous indignation.  But she left her sister alone after that.

Desperate times call for desperate measures.

More later...