Life as a student, mother and wife

Idle Hands

2009-04-28T08:01:00.003-06:00

So today is a decently filled up day. We've got:
Speech Therapy this morning
Pre-employment skill testing this afternoon
Soccer, Meet the Coach night tonight

Not to bad. Hopefully the summer stays like this, and hopefully the pre-employment skill testing goes well. I find that when I'm not busy I might actually become counter-productive. When I had a full-time job, my house was always spotless and the laundry was always complete. Now, the house isn't always as spotless as I would like and the laundry is also never 'all done'. I think it's the idea that I can just do it tomorrow because I have nothing to do then either. It could also be that days and days would go by where the only thing I did was clean.
It does seem like things could be worse, but I long for the days when I could be part of a team and accomplish the impossible (and then be rewarded with cake in the boardroom!). I really really hope to find some sort of decent employment where I can utilize my previously gained skill set as well as advance in my career. I really do, I don't just say that to sound fancy, it is truly what I want. Well, wish me good luck on my pre-employment skill test!

S.A.D.

2009-04-27T12:04:00.003-06:00

S.A.D, seasonal affectiveness disorder :( When you live in the great white north this becomes a very real issue. Now why would someone decide to talk about this at the end of April? Well...the SNOW has begun falling again. I have snow covering my deck, there was snow on my car this morning, and it looks like it might snow again. That is why someone might talk about it now.

1. S.A.D (seasonal affectiveness disorder)

when a certain seasonal has dragged on too long and you become sluggish and you lose motivation to do anything.
man, winter is WAY too long. i don't feel like doing anything...even masturbating. it's quite sad that i have S.A.D.

I know that I could have and probably should have chose a little more detailed/scientific/less hilarious description of S.A.D. but this one shines a light on how I feel about the whole thing.
I don't think it would be necessary for me to hit the dr. up for some meds/uppers (or would it?). I just honestly don't want to do fuck all after getting up again this morning and seeing snow. I'm not 'distancing' myself from my friends and family, I just put all my winter jackets away and would freeze on the way to visit them. Simple stuff really.
Now besides my extreme annoyance by people who blame everything on their depression, I think that S.A.D. can be dealt with fairly easily. Now let me clarify as to not offend anyone who has actually suffered from clinical depression. I, as well as most people, have had to deal with a lot of shit in my life. As a matter of fact, for the last few days (maybe couple of weeks) I have been in one bad ass f'in mood. No matter what I do I wake up every morning and just want to punch someone right in the nose. Now, I 'm sure if I went to the doctor he would hook me up with some uppers (good times...) but instead I've decided to change a few things in my life before looking for an excuse to whine all the time. I've committed myself to hitting the gym for a full 10 hours this week. I cleaned out the Tupperware drawer (I'm sure this will pull my husband out of his funk too, lol) I began my summer novels, and have actually finished 3 already. Plus, I'm getting all tanned up before our holiday! All of this is good because my doctor isn't really the kind to just pass out prescriptions.
Anyways to continue whining about people who whine too much. (?) Ya!!! We are going on a holiday, who has the right to complain when they are about to go on a holiday? Oh, people who are depressed and under-privileged, and whom the world is out to get, that's who? Well...yes we are going on a holiday. Which is paid for by our airmiles :) And we will be staying with relatives all but maybe 2 nights. I'm in the midst of looking for a job and being on the other side of the country for 2 weeks might ruin all the leads I have right now. Plus our utility bills are just getting BIGGER, and daycare costs have skyrocketed AND my fiance won't be 'busy' at work for a couple of months AND his bonus just got cut in half. Wow, my life is the pits right now :( Oh, and don't forget the snow! booo....
My point is that pills should not be handed out and people should be taught better life skills. Someone very close to me was recently going through a divorce and without a job she went to our dr. (we share) and he told her to go for a walk 5 times a week, and maybe try yoga. After a couple weeks of this if she still wasn't sleeping right and eating ok he would then consider prescribing her something. Case in point.

2009-04-25T12:59:00.002-06:00

So...a Saturday spent in the library studying. I'm pretty sure that my brain cannot hold anymore information, it is a physical impossibility so I move over to the nearest computer, hook myself up with some good old urban dictionary for shits and giggles....
4. study

pointless action of overworking the brain, memorizing information to find the test has none of that information on it
study or write entries for urbandictionary, either way you'll fail.

Well this was a good ol' confidence booster if I do say so.
It's true though, if you didn't pick up any of the information during class you're sure as hell not going to suddenly know what the F was happening because you decided to head to the library and 'study'. (Head over to Urban Dictionary using the link, tooo funny. Maybe it's not TOO funny, maybe it's the stress/lack of functioning brain cells that's had me peeing in my pants.)
The countdown is on, I have 1 hour until this exam. The good news...never again will this information ever be used. Downside to this...I paid good money on tuition and texts.

Friday Exams

2009-04-24T13:56:00.002-06:00

I have a final exam this fine Friday afternoon, and then one tomorrow, aka Saturday. It's fricken stupid.
I've been studying the past few days...and I don't feel like I know anything. This always happens and it's usually about a 50/50 chance that I actually don't know anything. Meh, we'll see how it all goes. I just have so much on my mind right now that last night I actually felt like my brain was full. It literally felt that my head was crammed full. So I closed the books and watched Fox and The Hound. It was A-mazing.
The only thing that has been keeping me going these past few days is that after tomorrow it will be a very very long time before I ever see and exam hall again. Thank you Jesus! Sad but true and those of you who have never been able to enjoy those period in a semester...don't judge me. It's tough shit.
Well...obviously my brain is full and I've got limited time so I should get going. Enjoy your Friday!

Childcare

2009-04-23T12:36:00.002-06:00

I try to raise my son thinking first of him and then of the money that it will cost me to raise him. Usually this makes decision easier, but not this time.
This year I was a full-time student with no job. It was a little difficult but nothing to serious but now I've been informed that my daycare cost are about to increase by $500 per month. Well...now money has suddenly become an ugly issue staring me in the face. I don't want to pull him out of his daycare but HOLY SHIT!!!
The grand plan was for me to find either part-time of full-time work, whichever I fancied when the opportunity came along for the summer. Then depending on how the summer went, either go back to school full-time or part-time, just kinda play it by ear.
The problem becomes...if I don't find a good full-time right away I am going to have to yank my son out of daycare. Problem? a) I have to give one month b) Then I have no childcare c) My boys gone to the daycare his entire life
I don't like it when all options seem like the wrong option with possible crippling side effects. I also don't like having to think about money when it comes to the boy.
Oh, and we are leaving on holidays for the first half of May so I have to pay these huge fees to only possibly have the boy there for 10 days! It works out to be about $75/day. Sweet.
So, what's the plan currently?

Go to job interview scheduled for this afternoon
Pick up cheap bottle of wine
Consume cheap bottle of wine

P.S. I have finals for the next two days, whoop whoop! I can't barely think straight as it is let alone cram a shit load of information into my skull. Fuck My Life

When did life become so adult?

2009-04-22T22:11:00.003-06:00

So I've decided to really get into this bloggin deal for a bunch of reasons, the following is an example of why:
Today is just another usual bullshit day in my life. We own ATV's, and we sold my fiance's quad so we could get a nice one for me! I'm bitchy from the moment I wake up today which is kind of my prerogative. The only thing is...I'm not the kind of completely spoiled bitch who can't spit out one nice thing on the day I'm getting a spiffy ATV (we call them quads up here).
Then I come home and check my emails, blah blah blah...click here link to this link to that....and then wham-E, a group titled, "When did life become so adult?".
That is the sole reason for my bitch fest all day. We had a huge wad of cash I've been holding onto forever (ok, 5 days) but fuck was it ever burning a hole in my pocket. Actually not even a hole in my pocket, it was soo big I didn't know what else to do with it then stick it in a ziploc bag. I just wanted to spend it randomly on shiny things that caught my eye. Oh how delightful that would be!
So in the past 15 minutes I have decided that summing up all these random thoughts about how fucked up being a grown up is into a nice little list would make things better:

Interest on money borrowed from the bank=bullshit
The cost of gasoline
the cost of living aka utilities
Money does not, i repeat, does not grow on trees (some days I am more aware of this than others)
Still bitter about having to put new tires on my vehicle that only has 50,000km
Had to pay for said tires from the money I had SAVED for my vacation
Not being able to spend all money in my possession all willy nilly, double fuck

please note-this is just a list from the last several minutes, and it's been a long bitch ass day so we'll see how this goes

Then to top it all off, my fiance who drug me around all day looking for a new ATV, even after I told him I don't care too much, tells me he's going to go wash it. Not a big deal you say? Well he made supper when we got home as I checked voice mails and did laundry etc. Did he clean up the kitchen? Did he ensure there wasn't food left out for the cat and the dog to get into while we were gone? NO

I come home to want appears to be the cat (maybe the dog?) having destroyed the kitchen table, ate food of the counter, coffee spilt all over the hardwood flooring! FUCK! I clean it all up, I've still got laundry to try and get done so I can go to a couple of job interviews tomorrow, two finals left this week, and god damn I'm still bitchy. I'm racing around like a mad lady trying to get this all done and then he calls me.....to discuss how he plans on organizing the garage tomorrow. He works 15 on, 6 off. He just finished his 6 days off yesterday and you know what he did for those 6 days? organized the garage. Our garage is organized!! It is neat and tidy all the time. He makes a mess and then cleans it over and over again. Yet he cannot rinse 3 plates and put them in the dishwasher?

When did life become so adult?

And when did I turn into one of those women who bitch about their husbands all the time?

The Annoying Professor

2009-04-21T18:39:00.002-06:00

I had a term paper due back in the beginning of March.
I handed said term paper in; at the end of the class, just like everybody else.
'The Annoying Professor' doesn't have mine to hand back to me at the end of the last day of classes. He asks me to stay afterwards.
He asks me when I handed it in, if I handed it into the big pile or the little pile (?). He tells me he just assumes that some people didn't hand their's in.
So I ask him, "why wouldn't I hand one in?"
He says he doesn't know.
I'm angry but trying not to yell so....I say, "well I'll just run down to the library and print it off, and if I don't have access to it at school here, I'll run home and email it to you and then bring a hardcopy to your office tomorrow."
He says, "OK"
I turn to walk away and he says, "ya know, I just don't understand how I would have lost it."
note: he lost 2 other students papers (out of a class of 25) and he had them for almost 2 months.
Now I'm pissed. I turn on my heel and say, "I do well on all of my other assignment in this class and the rest of them, I come everyday and sit at the front of the class, why one earth would I not hand in a term paper worth 30% of my mark?"
He still doesn't know.
I say, "You don't know becuase it doesn't make any sense, I handed it in and you misplaced it. You'll have a copy within the next hour."
That was that.

BBC's top 100 novels of all time

2009-04-09T15:21:00.000-06:00

I'm sure everyone's heard of or seen this. The BBC put out a list regarding the top novels of all time. I've been really stumped about what novels to read lately so I figure this is a great starting off point. If it's been bolded I've read it. This will be a work in progress. Since I like 'to-do' lists and usually bang those things off maybe this will go the same way.

Note: I probably will never read Tolkien or Harry Potter.

Note#2: At first glance I've only read #4.

1. The Lord of the Rings, JRR Tolkien

2. Pride and Prejudice, Jane Austen

3. His Dark Materials, Philip Pullman

4. The Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy, Douglas Adams

5. Harry Potter and the Goblet of Fire, JK Rowling

6. To Kill a Mockingbird, Harper Lee

7. Winnie the Pooh, AA Milne

8. Nineteen Eighty-Four, George Orwell

9. The Lion, the Witch and the Wardrobe, CS Lewis

10. Jane Eyre, Charlotte Brontë

11. Catch-22, Joseph Heller

12. Wuthering Heights, Emily Brontë

13. Birdsong, Sebastian Faulks

14. Rebecca, Daphne du Maurier

15. The Catcher in the Rye, JD Salinger

16. The Wind in the Willows, Kenneth Grahame

17. Great Expectations, Charles Dickens

18. Little Women, Louisa May Alcott

19. Captain Corelli's Mandolin, Louis de Bernieres

20. War and Peace, Leo Tolstoy

21. Gone with the Wind, Margaret Mitchell

22. Harry Potter And The Philosopher's Stone, JK Rowling

23. Harry Potter And The Chamber Of Secrets, JK Rowling

24. Harry Potter And The Prisoner Of Azkaban, JK Rowling

25. The Hobbit, JRR Tolkien

26. Tess Of The D'Urbervilles, Thomas Hardy

27. Middlemarch, George Eliot

28. A Prayer For Owen Meany, John Irving

29. The Grapes Of Wrath, John Steinbeck

30. Alice's Adventures In Wonderland, Lewis Carroll

31. The Story Of Tracy Beaker, Jacqueline Wilson

32. One Hundred Years Of Solitude, Gabriel García Márquez

33. The Pillars Of The Earth, Ken Follett

34. David Copperfield, Charles Dickens

35. Charlie And The Chocolate Factory, Roald Dahl

36. Treasure Island, Robert Louis Stevenson

37. A Town Like Alice, Nevil Shute

38. Persuasion, Jane Austen

39. Dune, Frank Herbert

40. Emma, Jane Austen

41. Anne Of Green Gables, LM Montgomery

42. Watership Down, Richard Adams

43. The Great Gatsby, F Scott Fitzgerald

44. The Count Of Monte Cristo, Alexandre Dumas

45. Brideshead Revisited, Evelyn Waugh

46. Animal Farm, George Orwell

47. A Christmas Carol, Charles Dickens

48. Far From The Madding Crowd, Thomas Hardy

49. Goodnight Mister Tom, Michelle Magorian

50. The Shell Seekers, Rosamunde Pilcher

51. The Secret Garden, Frances Hodgson Burnett

52. Of Mice And Men, John Steinbeck

53. The Stand, Stephen King

54. Anna Karenina, Leo Tolstoy

55. A Suitable Boy, Vikram Seth

56. The BFG, Roald Dahl

57. Swallows And Amazons, Arthur Ransome

58. Black Beauty, Anna Sewell

59. Artemis Fowl, Eoin Colfer

60. Crime And Punishment, Fyodor Dostoyevsky

61. Noughts And Crosses, Malorie Blackman

62. Memoirs Of A Geisha, Arthur Golden

63. A Tale Of Two Cities, Charles Dickens

64. The Thorn Birds, Colleen McCollough

65. Mort, Terry Pratchett

66. The Magic Faraway Tree, Enid Blyton

67. The Magus, John Fowles

68. Good Omens, Terry Pratchett and Neil Gaiman

69. Guards! Guards!, Terry Pratchett

70. Lord Of The Flies, William Golding

71. Perfume, Patrick Süskind

72. The Ragged Trousered Philanthropists, Robert Tressell

73. Night Watch, Terry Pratchett

74. Matilda, Roald Dahl7

5. Bridget Jones's Diary, Helen Fielding

76. The Secret History, Donna Tartt

77. The Woman In White, Wilkie Collins

78. Ulysses, James Joyce

79. Bleak House, Charles Dickens

80. Double Act, Jacqueline Wilson

81. The Twits, Roald Dahl

82. I Capture The Castle, Dodie Smith

83. Holes, Louis Sachar

84. Gormenghast, Mervyn Peake

85. The God Of Small Things, Arundhati Roy

86. Vicky Angel, Jacqueline Wilson

87. Brave New World, Aldous Huxley

88. Cold Comfort Farm, Stella Gibbons

89. Magician, Raymond E Feist

90. On The Road, Jack Kerouac

91. The Godfather, Mario Puzo

92. The Clan Of The Cave Bear, Jean M Auel

93. The Colour Of Magic, Terry Pratchett

94. The Alchemist, Paulo Coelho

95. Katherine, Anya Seton

96. Kane And Abel, Jeffrey Archer

97. Love In The Time Of Cholera, Gabriel García Márquez

98. Girls In Love, Jacqueline Wilson

99. The Princess Diaries, Meg Cabot

100. Midnight's Children, Salman Rushdie

Somebody's got a case of the Mondays :(

2009-04-06T18:48:00.003-06:00

Ok worst day in a long time and here's how it played out...

I get up, get ready and head to the post office. I hate the mail as it usually brings bills but I'm sure my books I ordered are in. Get there and they are not but my box is full...of bills.

Drive to the daycare to find out that my sons room is at the park. This park is the largest park in the city. Since the sign says that they won't be back for an hour I figure they are at the playground. We get back in the car and drive to the nearest entrance. I see the daycare group half way between my car and....the daycare, heading in the opposite direction. Nice. So we get out and run! I'm wearing dress shoes (brand new to boot) my son's in full winter gear plus rubber boots.

I had big plans to drink a starbucks coffee this fine Monday morning as I do every Monday morning.(My way of saving during the recession) This plan is ruined because I have a meeting with my advisor in ten minutes.

My advisor talks, and talks and talks. Fiance is waiting in the parking lot to take me for a quick bite to eat. Then when I finally think she can't possibly have anything else to say she lets me know that fees are going up in the fall. Nice.

I forgot my sons bedding for daycare so my fiance and I plan to drive home during his lunch break to get it. (He works out of town alot so when he's home when spend as much time as possible together) We go home, I make myself a coffee, we leave. We get back to the daycare/college parking lot and realize...we don't have the effin bedding. Nice.

After class I pick up the boy, we drive home. I give him a sucker in the car, nice mom thing to do, right? Nope, he chokes I panic he throws up everywhere. Nice.

We get home I clean up vomit, and open previously mentioned bills. Our home insurance is due :( The final bill for the carpet installation is in and it's 25% more than quoted. Nice. I check the phone and the stupid garage door company that fixed our garage door and still hasn't sent my an invoice for it, left a msg wanting payment. WTF???

That was Monday :(

Staycation

2009-04-05T13:42:00.003-06:00

2009-The year it became cool to be thrifty, and for this I am thankful.

I've convinced my fiance to sell our holiday trailer at the beginning of the season and we will get a new one at the end of season (cheap). So what will we do alllllll summer long? Well last summer was the first where I had my own yard and garden. I spent so much time and effort getting it all beautiful and then...we went camping. So to answer the previously mentioned question;

This summer we will have a staycation.

Sounds exciting, right? Well today I'm surfing the web and of course am bombarded by pages regarding how to be thrifty and eco-conscience. I came across this article, 8 Rules for a Successful Staycation. I'm thinking this is going to change my life! Then I read it and realize that I focus on all of this everyday (with a few exceptions)

Change your routine (this is one of the exceptions)

Unplug-maybe it's from my days as a receptionist but I ignore phones all the time. I can actually feel my skin curdle when one rings and I'm somewhat busy

Skip the chores-weekly I personally declare an evening to do nothing, I still read and do schoolwork. (just only what I want to do)

Eat out-I'm blaming this on my fiance, we eat out a lot. We cook alot, but we both have busy schedules during the week and the young lad needs to be fed regularly.

Spend some time with nature-as mentioned previously, I do this.

Become a local tourist-we also do this, if there's something going on in the area you can consider us there.

Pamper yourself-guilty as charged

Relax-this one is a little more subjective than the rest.

So a staycation it is!

Writing without a background in liberal arts

2009-04-04T14:41:00.001-06:00

I love books, I absolutely love them. When I get bigger I want to be a writer. I considered myself a writer until my prof's starting marking my papers. What do they know? I've found it's the professors in the sciences that are jerks, and the arts prof's that are absolutely amazing. Maybe that's why all of sudden I want to be an english major. Which is weird considering that I have always thought I was going to live the corporate life. So where do I go from here you may ask. It's really simple actually, and is as follows:

1) Obtain business degree

2) Obtain lucrative career

3) Obtain MBA

4) ???

5) Obtain liberal arts degree

6) Enjoy...

It may have some holes but it's there, and now that I've written it down it truly exist. This is a great article on a liberal arts education. Please look over 'VI' carefully. Happy, a liberal arts education will make you happy. That is just fantastic. Where has my liberal arts education been during all these hard times? According to previously mentioned list, I will be able to fully comment on the level of truth involved in this statement in approximately twenty years, please check back then.

April is Upon Us

2009-04-04T08:30:00.001-06:00

April, it's only the fourth day but even thinking about all the things I need/want to get done:

My son is 3 and a half and this year will be the first in which I allow him to decorate easter eggs.
Semester ends, finals begin.
Register for spring classes.
Register for summer classes.
Try to convince my doctor that I need to be heavily sedated for my first plane trip, which is at the beginning of May.
Get my entire families shit together so we can go visit my in-laws.
Begin the cleanup of the yard (if this god forsaken snow ever melts)
Install the hardwood in the master bedroom which is soooo much more difficult than it sounds (various reasons for this, mainly having my haven torn apart and allowing my fiance and his sweaty beer drinking friends into it)
Get everything straightened out as to what, if any, preschool we can get the boy into. (All of this will more than likely lead to me needing to re-arrange my fall classes and finding new part-time childcare)
Dump everything on the external hard-drive onto the newly revamped laptop
Get photos printed to give to my mother-in-law
Get a massage becuase it has been.......2 months.....since the last one
Everyone will need a hair cut before the trip

The Beginning; giving a bitch an outlet

2009-03-31T21:12:00.000-06:00

Justifying spending what little time I have left blogging

My goal for 2009 was to keep a journal. So I could look back and remember where all the time has gone. I think when I realized that it was the last day in March this morning was when I decided that this needs to change. Since I failed miserably at the journal I'm hoping that maybe a blog will work out better. This seems reasonable since I manage to keep facebook up to date.
On a daily basis I find myself pissed at how stupid people and/or their situations are. I vent to my fiance he only acts like he's listening. I wouldn't vent to my friends cause I know how much people who never have nice things to say drive ME f'in cRaZy.
I have alot of thoughtful opinions on life, love, family, education, careers, politics.
I lOvE writing, absolutely love it.
Sometimes when my fiance's gone and I'm at home alone I find myself writing a few pages in an unnamed word document and then closing without saving.
Hopfully other people will read this (fingers crossed) and have advise to give on the broad array of topics I will cover/vent about.