another sunday blog post

my first week with the new group of students went really well. they're nice, they want to learn, and we are having fun, too. more good news - i have been offered additional classes from mid-january! this means teaching up to 42,5 hours per week for a while, but i desperately need the money, and it's not too much prep work, because i will be teaching similar levels. and anyway, i can do that for a while.

i wish somebody had told me about progressive muscle relaxation 15 years ago. it's wonderful. sometimes i nearly doze off, and you can hardly be more relaxed than that, right? i have also started psychotherapy. we'll see if this therapist is "right" for me. i had to cancel my doctor's appointment for this week, due to work, but i am going on tuesday. i woke up with a panic attack yesterday morning at 6 - the first in a while. it was not *that* bad, i managed to calm down and go back to sleep eventually. today, i have had numb fingers several times, and i had another attack earlier. so far, i have not taken a pill, but if i keep feeling panicky, i might have to reconsider. :(

i am still not writing. i don't like it, but there seems to be nothing i can do. i have not been reading much poetry either, only ryan murphy's down with the ship; i am in love with a couple of his poems. am currently reading nick hornby's the complete polysyllabic spree, a book about reading/books, and the kind of book that makes you want to take six months off, head to a bookstore, max out your credit card and read read read.

i've been socialising some - hung out with nathan and ronnie at the café kafka most of wednesday afternoon (how decadent), and went to a party disguised as a vernissage on friday evening. on show were eva schuster's beautiful jewellery and leopold schuster's artwork: pencil on paper, plaster, and a mummy. i am now austria's first official mummy groupie - i named him poldi. it'll also be interesting to see if there are any long-term effects caused by spending about an hour in front of a huge drawing of a vagina. someone was taking pictures at the party, i'll post a link if they ever go online.

yesterday i had some close friends (my first-aid-team of the past 3 months or so) over to celebrated my birthday. here are a few pictures:


andi trying to look meeeean (and failing)



dreamy babs



my youngest guest: jakob



michi after half a glass of wine ...



it wasn't really *that* kind of party ...

and now i have to stop procrastinating. prep work to do, christmas cards to write, chapbooks to put into envelopes.

song of the day: dis quand reviendras-tu by martha wainwright.