Sincerely Deprived

At this time, you may have to excuse me for writing a post that is totally not related to my children-themed blog. I have every good reason to write this so I can share what had just happened.

I warmed up my lunch of yummy rice topping (more like a Malaysian dish to me) and started off eating. At the same time, my head was hurting so badly. There was this annoying throbbing similar to when I get migraine attacks once in a while. But right after finishing my food in a jiffy, (so hopefully I can take some rest), I was sure that something wasn’t going right with my schedule.

Later did I find out that I missed the symposium! I felt terrible ‘cause it didn’t dawn on me that at 11:00, right after my advertising class, we are to proceed downstairs for an exciting session with a guest speaker. That I surely missed today all because of my terrible headache due to my early morning sleep of 5:00 am. Yes, I slept at 5 this morning to finish-off my journalism news assignment.

It’s a wonder why I slept so early—I mean, so ‘late’. Yesterday, my class along with the other class sections in our journalism course, went to City Hall to attend the council meeting. It was a good experience for me. Dressed for ‘field assignment’, I managed to scrum with the rest of my batch mates to talk to several councilors and even with Mayor Sam Katz. It was a fairly short council meeting which ran from 9:30 to 11:00 in the morning. I made sure that I was prepared for it by reading through the online documents posted in the City of Winnipeg website the night before.

To make the story short (out of a very long story) regarding my experience, I interviewed several people from the streets and at the airport. I even went to the office of an activist group and waited for a very long time---only to be stood up. It was a tiring yet fulfilling day. At the most part, I knew then that I have a good story to write about. But when evening came, I just can’t seem to write anything on paper. I mean, nothing’s coming out from my head! At that very instance, I realized that I had what we call ‘writer’s block’. Whatever caused it, I wasn’t sure. But maybe, my late night sleeps could have contributed to it.

For several hours, I tried to pound on my head to help me at least start on my news lead. Don’t get me wrong—I prepared myself for the task. I finished my interviews during the day, checked on some periodicals and transcribed my interviews. Plus, I have an ‘idea’ on how I’m going to write my news story—but the big problem was, I just can’t seem to start writing.

For 5 long hours, I was there sitting in front of my worktable; skimming through my notes and listening to my interviews. I even pinched myself on the arm a couple of times, thinking that it could be of any help—but it didn’t. Finally at past 1am, my thought process seemed to have started working. So for the next four hours after that, I finally finished my assignment. It was so stressful yet exhilarating!

When I got to school this morning at 7:30 am to drop-off my paper at the security (where a box was specifically placed to collect our assignments), I even double-checked with the security whether I did hand over my assignment to him. As expected, he said “Yes”. When the box was taken and brought up by Duncan (the other journalism instructor) to the CreComm office, I approached him and asked politely if I can double-check and make sure that I had passed my paper. He checked and yes, my paper was there.

So what was going on with me today? I didn’t like the fact that I missed the symposium this morning (it’s the first ever ‘class’ I missed) since I started school here at Red River College. I am basically the type of person who peeves on missing classes. And of course, if my kids found out that I missed even the half-time of my class, that wouldn’t be a good example. No, mom can’t afford to miss classes!

And so, here I am blogging about what’s been happening since I slept at 5 this morning and woke up at 6. Yes, an hour’s sleep—it’s not good. I have been trying to think hard about that. Maybe, I am just anxious of having my in-laws from L.A. staying with us for the next few weeks (they’ll be arriving tonight).

I really don’t know what happened—but one thing is for sure. Although I got only an hour’s sleep- had a long and terrific field work yesterday (despite of the person who stood me up)- missing my time in the symposium (Kenton, guess you’re taking note of this now)- I have succeeded in finishing and submitting my journalism news assignment. I believe the highs and lows of CreComm life are getting into me. Although I’m tired, I’m still happy!