All I have to say is

 

 

 

 

 

Enjoy the turkey and pumpkin pie.  Try not to eat too much.  Hard to do I know.

Did anyone get a craving for nachos because of that picture MSN has on its home page with the article about the appetizers that are really bad for you? 

 

Or is that just me?

 

Talk about the opposite effect from what you wanted to accomplish.

It is snowing.  Like actual snowflakes.  Isn't that crazy?

 

I know I haven't written in awhile and I am sure everyone is really broken up about that.  Actually not much as been going on and I didn't want to blog about nothing, although that seemed to be a successful premise for a tv show (which I hated btw).

 

I did do something intereting on Friday.  I took a poll dancing class.  It was with my bookclub.  We sometimes do other activities besides read books.  It was so much fun and I may do their 6 week class sometime.  The only problem is that today is the first day I have been fully able to use my arms again and I am still a little sore.  Wow was I in some pain this weekend.  I could barely lift my arms.  I also have some interesting bruises too.  I used to swing around the pole in my garage when I was a kid and it was fun to pretend to be that carefree again.  I just may have to go down to the garage and practice once my body heals completely. 

 

Last night I also saw The Secret Life of Bees (also a bookclub event).  It was fantastic.  I recommend the movie as well as the book.

Sorry I haven't written in a while as there has been interesting stuff going on in my life.  Unfortuanately I ccan't blog about it in the event someone from work stumbles across my blog.  on't worry it really isn't a big deal and prehaps I will be able to tell you about it some time.  Just for now wish me luck.  Anyways on the school front it is kind of weird that I don't have classes anymore.  I guess what you could say I'm doing is a prep for my final paper.  So I still have readings to do and papers to write but it's kind of on my own terms.  I need to have a 10 page paper proposal turned in sometime in November so I can register for the next semester.  This proposal will basically be the first 10 pages of my final paper.  I am not doing a thesis I am doing what is called an extended research paper.  Don't ask me what that means.  I don't know and neither does anyone else.  I don't get a grade on it and I don't get credits for it but I have to do it in order to graduate.  I hope to finish it by the srping so I can graduate then becasue I am quickly losing my will to do this.

 

Anyways the other big thing that happened to me happended this week.  I turned 30.  I was really excited.  Everyone keeps asking me if it feels different.  It doesn't.  I guess that because my body went to pieces when I turned 20.  Anyways I got a  lot of cards and phone calls and well wishes.  I went to lunch with my friend and dinner with my parents.  The card my mother gave me made me cry in the restaurant and that embarrassed my father.  All in all it was a good day.  I don't believe in dreading a birthday.  I have limited energy and I need to conserve it.  I can't be wasting it on something that is inevitable.  So everyone have a piece of cake on me!

 

 

 

The last message I posted was on July 14th.  In that post I talked about trying to register for the fall semester.  That was over a month ago.  Everything finally came together today.  Yes I said today.  The procedural elements of grad school SHOULD NOT be more stressful than the class taking elements.  I have lost more sleep over this than I think I did over my hated research methods class.  I mean the semester starts on Monday people.  What the hold up was is that I am not taking anymore classes but I still have 6 credits to complete so I'm doing some independent studies, which I needed to get permission to take, which I didn't know I needed.  Why didn't I know this?  Because it is not stated clearly by my dumb program.  I am doing what is called selected readings.  I read a bunch of stuff and right some papers on it that will eventually be my literature review for my final paper.  I had to get permission from a professor to work with which I thought I got in February.  No where is it stated that that permission must be in the form of a written contract that I had to fill out with her.  Well when I found this out in July I hadn't brought my stuff with me so we couldn't do it then.  Then someone at work was on vacation the next week and I couldn't get away.  Then my professor was on vacation last week so we couldn't do it then.  So we met this past Tuesday and filled the sheet out.  But then my advisor has to fill it out but he wasn't there yesterday.  I called this morning and was told this.  So I said I would check back in the afternoon.  I called and was assured that my paperwork has all been signed and passed on the the necessary people.  I may doublecheck tomorrow as well.

 

Anyways, I updated my photo album to show pictures of when I went to visit the botanical gardens with my friend Beth (check out her blog).  If you want to check out the botanical garden for yourself here is the website.  Right now the theme of the gardens is chocolate.  It was very pretty.  You may notice the glass sculptures in some of the pictures.  These are permanent displays from an exhibit last year that was very popular.  They are made by Dale Chihly.  I unfortunately due to my own lameness never made it to see the full exhibit but what was left is truly amazing.  Enjoy.

You know the paperwork/administrative side of grad scool should not be the most stressful part of the whole experience.  Yes thats right folks once again I'm trying to register for my upcoming semester and it is giving me fits.  But I have realized something about myself because of this.  When I become stressed or agitated I clean or take care of tasks that I have been leaving to do at a later date.  I used to think this was just because I was all hyped up and needed to burn off energy but I don't think that is the case.  I think I do those things because at that particular moment I feel out of control and those are things I have control of.  It gives me a sense of order and control.  Or else I am just overanalyzing myself, which is also very good possibility. 

I spent last week on vacation in Virginia Beach .  It has been very hard getting back to work.  It was such a nice vacation.  The weather was beautiful and I got  anice tan.  The only problem was all the samn jellyfish.  I have never seen so many jellyfish before in my life.  So we didn't go into the water above our knees and kept looking down the whole time.  Good times.  We were there for the 4th and a very nice fireworks display was put on from a barge on the water.  It was pretty cool, especially hen all these other boats lined up and turned on their lights.

 

I want to make a shout out for my friend Beth who decided to join the blogging community.  Her blog is about all things french.  She teaches it and has traveled there many times.  It is a very interesting and informative site full of little tidbits.  To visit her sight click on her name under the list People I Know.  I encourage everyone to visit her ste and I am not just saying that because she paid me to (just kidding) but because it really is fasinating.

 

Why is it that I am almost 30 and my face still breaks out?  I swear it is worse now than when I was a teenager.  It always happens around that time.  And just when my face has cleared up it is time to go again.  Grr...

 

Why is it forever raining here?  It is oppressively hot all day and then storms around 5:30 or 6 you know just in time for the end of the work day so any shot of fun activities pretty much goes down the drain.

 

My lettuce is really big now.  I pulled some leaves last night and will be making a chicken salad and a dressing with the cilantro that is coming in nicely as well.

 

Thats pretty much all the excitment I have for now.  Until then...

Do you guys remember this show?  I was completely addicted to it.  I used to catch it on Lifetime late at night when I was alone in some strangers house babysitting for them.  Just a touch masochistic I know.  I bring this up now because I had the tv on while I was reading the other night (I like the background noise) and I had it on VH1 and they were running one of their I  the insert the decade here.  Actually it was another 80's one.  They started talking about Unsolved Mysteries and I have to admit the few clips they ran during this segment creeped me out so much I was afraid to take the dog out before bed.  It was dark.  Since Unsolved Mysteries no long run I have kind of replaced that fasination with Forensic Files, which can also creep me out as well.

 

I went to the pool on Sunday and I got a sunburn on my shins.  No place else just my shins.  It hurt a lot.  And is still kind of red.

 

I have a question that maybe someone can answer.  Why does the governement insist on sending me a letter telling me I am about to receive a check?  Why can't they use that extra postage to send the check faster?  Don't get me wrong I appreciate the heads up but it seems a little unnecessary to me.

 

 

 

I haven't posted in awhile because I had my cheer for the Pens on my last entry and I was afraid to jinx them so I haven't posted since.  But since they lost the other night   (still very proud of them) I decided it was time to update.

 

Unfortunately not much as happended to update you on.  It's pretty much SOS here.  My only really exciting news is that I planted some herbs.  I really want to have a garden but since we live surrounded by trees and the wildlife that congragate near woods it is kind of hard to plant one.  But my mother has these hanging baskets so I used them.  That way they can hang from our top deck and out of the reach of deer, turkey, bears...etc.  Ok just kidding about that last one, although it would not surprise me to see one someday.  Anyways in one basket I have planted some lettuce, black-seeded simpson.  It is coming up like crazy.  In the next basket I have some chamomile.  And in the third I have a mixture of dill, parsley, cilantro and basil.  I also have inside a pot of lavendar and oregano both of which are coming up.  It is very exciting to know I can grow stuff from seed.  I also bought a tomato plant and I am crossing my fingers about it.  We tend not to have good luck with these.  So this will be my summer project/experiment.  I will update along the way to let you all know how it is going.

 

It is also hot as Hades here today.  about 90 degrees.  Hot stuff.

 

We are dog sitting this week as well.  A little pomeranian named Ruby.  She is so cute.  She barks and growls at my parents, which I find very funny.  I attribute this to my parents being away this weekend when she was dropped off so she thinks they are enterlopers or something.  She gets very excited when my sister and I come home.  She dose this little tapdancing thing.  So cute.  Not so cute, this morning we met the black lab that lives next door.  Boy did he come bounding over.  But I grabbed him and he is actually a good dog and I don't think he would have hurt her he is kind of a wuss.  Although he then promptly pee on our one shrub.  She barked her head off and I had to take her back in and have my sister take her back out a little later.

 

So thats pretty much it here is colaland.  Have  agood weekend everybody!

Well my semester officially ended this past Monday (more on that in a minute) so I now have some time to blog.

 

I was finally able to bathe in my bathroom.  It is so nice to be back in it and it looks really nice too.

 

Question:  If you find out that your hairdresser is sitting behind you in church is it completely inappropriate to turn around and request a haircut?  (I didn't really do this.  But I though about it.  I got my haircut on Tuesday).

 

Remeber way back a couple of months ago how I was freaking out about my classes, espeically the one with the professor I heard was really dificult?  Remeber how I was near hysterical everytime I thought about that class?  Yeah well my grades were posted today and I ended up with an A in that class.  And I don't mean I actually got an A- and I'm just calling it an A.  I got an honest to goodness actual A.  I really need to stop listening to the other students in my program.  All it doe sis freak me out and make me doubt myself.  I actually liked this woman a great deal.  Although I thought her class a little heavy on thr lecture and I would have liked more discussion I would take her again, if I had to take more classes.  I learned a lot.  I ended up with my usual B+ in the other class. 

 

So now my semester is over and I can get back to doing fun things.  It usually takes a couple of days for me to adjust and to stop feeling guilty for doing something enjoyable when I am still in the mindset that every available minute should be dedicated to schoolwork.

 

On another note:

 

 

 

I have been kind of silent lately.  But April is a pretty bad month for me school work wise.  I have had an exam in the one class which I have since gotten back and got an A- on.  Then a week later I had to turn in the term paper in the very smae class.  I have had several papers and readings to do for the other class.  Sigh... fortunately it is almost over, but with all that writing to do I have just not been inspired to write on my blog no matter how much I wanted to say.

 

 

The bathroom was finished this past Friday.  Kind of.  The big work is finished and we can use the toilet (more on that in a minute) and the sink but we still can't use the shower.  Everything needs to be cleaned because there is a lot of dust from the grout left and my mother is going to do that today.  But then she wants to spray the tiles with something to seal them I guess.  Then we have to wait for that to dry.  So we probably will still have to wait until next week before we can fully use it again.  Still a little is better than nothing I guess.  About the toilet we had installed a silent toilet seat.  It is pretty cool.  It closes itself and does so in a way that it doesn't bang.  My mother was really excited about it and I have to admit I find it pretty cool too.  The rest of the bathroom came out really well.  It is very nice and I can't wait to see it all put together.

 

 

A couple of weeks ago I bought a little MP3 player.  I had been thinking about getting one for a while now, because lugging around a cd player was becoming a little cumbersome.  It isn't anything fancy.  i didn't get an ipod because I didn't want to spend a lot of money since I just wanted something to put some songs on that also had a radio.  Well the day I bought it I made sure I asked the sales guy a lot of questions to make sure I understood how to use it.  He assured me it was very easy all I had to do was plug the usb cable into my computer and plug it into the mp3 player.  Simple right?  Well I took it home and plugged it in and nothing happened.  After severl attempts I called the store and explained what was happening and aske dif I was doing something wrong.  They said to bring the thing back to the store so they could take a look at it.  I took it back and there was actually something wrong with it and not me just not knowing how to work the thing.  So they changed out the old on for one that worked and I set off home on my merry way.  Well later on I I wanted to put some songs on it and I went to look for the directions to do so and I couldn't find them.  I had all the other worthless pieces of information form the box but no the directions.  I realized they must have come out of the bag at the store and I hadn't put them back in.  At this time I was laughing because this is pretty much my life.  Fotunately I was able to figure out how to put songs on it so I guess I don't really need the directions.  I should have been studying for my exam while buying the thing so maybe that was a bit of karma.  Who knows.

 

 

Does anyone else ever go back through their blog entries and note all the spelling mistakes?  Or is that just me?

 

 

that I cannot wear outfits that are strapless.  I was shopping and saw this really cute dress that was strapless so I tried it on.  It looked stupid.  Idon't know if I'm not wearing these things right or if I don't have the body/chest to pull it off.  I guess I will just have to settle for admiring these garments on the hangers. 

 

To update on the bathroom renovations.  They are still going on.  The tiles have been layed but yesterday the guy had to pull them up and redo them because they didn't dry right or something.  Someday.  Seriously have any of you ever tried to shave your legs in a phone booth?  I have this little basket for my stuff that i carry around with me to whichever bathroom is not occupied.  It's like being back in the dorm.

Really it was gross but I ate them anyways.

 

Good news #1:  I am surviving the semester. 

 

Good news #2:  My sister passed her state boards much to the relief of my parents so she is a real life nurse now.

 

Even better news (sarcasm):  The work on the bathroom finally started this week.  Which means we are now "roughing it" sharing 1 1/2 baths.  Fun times.  I already miss my bathtub and I want it back.  You should see all the boxes of crap that are sitting in my parents' room.  Non of this is mine by the way.  It is all my sister's.  Just boxes and tuperware containers full of hair care products.  Seriously how much does one person need?  Her problem is that she seems to have an allergy to finishing ANYTHING.  This does not apply to shampoo and conditioner alone.  She won't finsh juice or cereal.  She leaves this little bit in the container so that the person who does finish it (usually me) ends up with not even a halfway fulll glass of juice or crumbs for cereal.  Your telling me that at the time she is eating or drinking she can't squeeze that last little bit into her cup or bowel?  But I digress.  The point is we are putting in a new kind of sink.  It won't have all that space underneath the bowel for her to store her crap so I don't know what she is going to do.  Actually she keeps talking about moving out and if she does maybe I will actually have room to put my stuff there.  Ah dreams.

For several months now my mother has been planning on having the main bathroom redone.  This would be the bathroom my sister and I share.  Well yesterday it began.  Part of what my mother wants done is the section of the wall that held the laundry shoot is being taken out and a linen closet will be put in there.  Let me tell you how disconcerting it is to walk into the bathroom and see half the wall missing exhaust pipes exposed and a whole in the floor.  It is also going to be very painful when the bathroom is out of commission and we all have to share my parents tiny bathroom with its tiny shower that I hate.  It's hard enough co-ordinating bathing times we will be lucky is everyone emerges from this experience with all their hair still attached to their scalpes.  Of course loss of hair would cut down on the shower time.  As long as it's not my hair.

 

So it's also Valentine's Day the most overrated day of the year only made a big deal by are over-hyped consumer driven society.  What was once  avery romantic day has been killed by over commercialism and capitalisim.  Does a man really need to go buy his chick a diamond necklace when Christmas wasn't even 2 months ago?  Do we all need to be driven futher into debt when we are just starting to get those bills in the mail and won't have paid off until it's time for the next Christmas splurge.  The exception to this is of course if you are planning to pop the question on this day.

 

Yep.  It's that time.  The time to give up something for Lent.  I decided to give up pizza again this year as it's my favorite thing to eat in the world.  So last night we had it for dinner and after eating my 17 pieces I felt a little sick.  It was also my father's birthday (my sister's is today) so we had cake on top of that.  I will be going to the gym tomorrow.

 

I have had this really weird dry patch of skin on the left side of my faceright around my lip on the left.  Right if you are looking at me.  Now where else on my face it like this.  It is red and flakey.  Looks great.  Actually it was much worse a couple of weeks ago.  I was hoping it wasn't noticable but one morning my father who is noramlly oblivious to everything looked at me and said, "What is wronf with your face?"  Sigh.  So much for it not being noticable.  But that was a couple of weeks ago.  It has improved since then.  It is not as red or flakey but it gets kind of bad again if I forget to put lotion on that particular spot.  I moisturize everyday (with SPF 30) but I have to put special lotion on that.  Like hand lotion for dry hands.  I guess the bright side is that it's not all over my face.  That would be a little harder to hide with cover-up.

 

I have to say that my discipline for my schoolwork this time around is just not there.  I very easily distracted.  I even bought a new novel yesterday and started reading it without feeling guilty that it's not school related.  I don't know if you call that progress or indifference.  I can at least say that I am still getting my work finished so maybe I have been too hard on myself these last couple of years.

 

Well that was pretty much all I have to say right now.  Hope everyone has a nice day!

I seriously want to know what is the problem with some of the first years in my program.  They sure do whine and complain a great deal about everything.  This one little girl in particular complians nonstop.  I find it odd considering she went to this school for undergrad you would think she was used to it.  We had to turn in  apaper last night which has to be 4-5 pages in lenght.  She said she struggled to get to 4.  I went to the bottom of the 5th page and had to struggle not to write more.  But I have had this professor twice before so I know what she expects and how to go about doing it.  I will still probably get a B+ while little girl will get an A.  I wonder if I was like that my first year (who am kidding I am like that now) I mean I guess maybe my first semester when I didn't know what was going on but after that you get the hang of it.  Sort of.  But these kids complain about everything.  They hate every class and everything is boring and what do you mean you expect me to read a book and then write a tiny paper on it every couple of weeks?  That is apparently akin to torture.  It is always very interesting to me to see how the age dynamics come into play in a grad school setting, because there is usually such a diverse age range in grad school.  You can have adults in their 50's and kids just out of undergrad.  Very interesting mix.

This past weekend my mother gave me a foam pillow to try and help with my neck and back problems.  I love the thing.  Maybe it's all in my head or something but this past week I have felt pretty good.  I am a little tight today but that may be because I worked out last night so the muscles are a little tight.

 

For the last two nights before bed I have caught some re-reuns of Who's the Boss?  I don't know what channel I am watching but watching that show now is definitely different than watching it as a kid.  There was a lot of sexual innuendo that going on that was completely over my head my I was a kid.  Wtach it sometime.  Or maybe it's just me.

 

Well I am happy to say that I am still going to classes and haven't freaked out and dropped them.  Although the one class I have may be quite a chore but I just have to get through it.  I will get through it.

 

That is all I really had to say.  Gripping life i lead isn't it.

My classes start agin tonight.  I will admit I am a little nervous about this first one since I have never had this professor and I didn't hear good things about her.  But the books she chose for the class seem interesting so maybe there is hope.  If I only have one or two bad classes out of all the other goos ones i have had I'm probably doing pretty well.  We will see what I am in for.  I will let you guys know tomorrow how it goes.  And while I am a little nervous it's also kind of an excited I can't wait to see what this is like excitment too.  I am not having panic attacks or anything.  Hopefully that will last through the class.  At this point I am so close to finished I need to just suck it up and do it.  I am feeling much better physically and mentally than I was in August.  I have been taking vitamins for the last couple of months and I really do think they have helped me.  And the rest did me good.  It shouldn't take long for me to get my groove back.  Wish me luck tonight!

I guess I should clarify.  It's not that I don't believe in them it's just that I think there is too much pressure involved in making them and then worrying about breaking them.  So instead of calling them New Year's Resolutions I decided to just make a list of things I would like to work on.  There is no set time-table to complete these things.

 

 

Things I would like to work on:

 

1) Stop stressing and worrying about everything.  Seriously life is not that bad.

2) Stop letting little things get to me, especially when something is not my problem to begin with.

3) Realize that it is ok to take a step back once in a while.  It will not kill me.

4) Understand that it is ok if I can't handle everything all the time.  I am are not Superwoman and it is ok to say I have too much and I need a break.  This one is related to number 3.

5) Have a little bit more faith in myself.  I do not suck at everything no matter how often I feel like I do.

 

I think that is a very good start.  I may add more as time goes by and I am feeling introspective.  Or I may not. 

 

I hope everyone had a very Happy New Year!