the calm

Things are pretty peaceful here in Bridgton, after the buzzing activity of the Labour Day weekend, which saw frothing motorboats and jetskis aplenty in the lake, and vacationing families taking their picnic lunches by the shore and strolling up and down the town streets with ice-cream cones in hand. Now, it seems the boats have been towed back into storage, all the children have gone back to school, and the quietened traffic on the roads reflects only the daily commutes of regular Bridgton residents.

Here at the school, however, things are just heating up. Feels like the calm before the storm, really. We've had a gentle start to our academic programme - only one 'official' class so far, last week Friday - but tomorrow things continue in earnest, with another full-day History of Midwifery review, and then the beginnings of our formal exploration into the realms of human anatomy and physiology on Friday. Then, more A&P on Monday (which will doubtless require an entire weekend's firm commitment to reading chapters out of several textbooks and completing my class workbook) -- and all the while, the BIG fish, "Physical Assessment" and "Normal Prenatal", the classes for which we're all biting our nails in terrified/excited anticipation, are peeking out over the horizon. And there are some serious books piling up on my bedroom shelf...

I've got an assignment on American birth pre-1959 due tomorrow, and some course reading to do too, so it'll be a full afternoon's "work" (labour of love?). I just had a brief chat over the phone with P, which lacked intimacy and direction and caused me a few tweaks of anguish after the call ended... Of course, it's all understandable, given that we are both just getting on with things right now, he with his business and re-established de facto 'bachelorhood', and I with my studies and life here. There can be no room for regret when I have already begun to think of myself irrevocably as a student of Birthwise, as a resident of Bridgton, with a US bank account, with (when I finally get one) Maine licence plates on my car, with my belongings definitively unpacked for the next few years.