Things I'm Missing

I miss writing. Now that I've quit school and have slightly more time on my hands, well I'm still not writing much of anything other than these blog posts. I miss my poetry.

Reasons I'm not writing:

• I don't have the energy. 
• I don't really have a lot of spare time. The spare time (and energy) I do have goes into looking for jobs. 
• I haven't felt motivated or inspired in quite a while. I feel like I just don't have much to write about or say lately. Aside from my exhaustion and pending possible unemployment, my life has been pretty great lately and I've been happy. Considering 99% of what I write is heavy, depressing stuff, well "happy" doesn't exactly help me get any writing done. 
• I also feel like I tend to focus on the same things, and I'd like to branch out to other topics (even if they're still depressing), but I'm not quite sure how to do that. Maybe I need some writing prompts or something (although most of the ones I've seen I completely hate and think they're dumb, so if any of you know of some good ones, send them my way!).

Reasons I should be writing:

• Even though my poetry is generally depressing, writing makes me really, really happy. 
• It makes me feel accomplished (even if none of my poetry is ever published again). 
• Poetry is something I can create. I'm not a good cook, or a crafty person, or an artist, or anything like that. Poetry is my art. That's something I can create. And I can destroy (unlike meals which I mostly just destroy :p). I can mold it into whatever I want it to be. I can share it with the world or keep it to myself. 

I really need to get myself a new journal. One small enough to fit in my purse so I can take it with me everywhere I go. So I can write down lines that pop in my head. Or really great quotes I find randomly throughout the day. Yes, I have an iPhone that I could easily do all of these things on. But it's not the same as putting pen to paper. I love journals--although I rarely fill any up--and I think it's time for a new one. 

Something else I really miss is playing my violin. It has been a very, very long time since I've played. The reasons I haven't are pretty much the same reasons I haven't been writing: I just don't have the time or energy. 

I also miss running. I really can't remember the last time I went for a run. My body actually aches from the lack of physical activity. I'd give anything to trade the soreness and pain I get from spending 4 hours in my car every day for the muscle soreness I get from a good (or even a not-so-good) run. 

I did just find out that I've got eight sick days (yes, EIGHT) to use before my last day. I have no idea how I'm going to fit in that many days off, but I'm totally gonna try because I could definitely use them! And I'm hoping those days off will allow more time for all these things I've been missing so much lately. 

I'm Back!

I know it's been quite a while since I've written on here :( Because of my recent move and grad school, I had to take a little break from the blog to focus on everything else.

We've been living in our new house for about a month and a half now and it's been pretty wonderful. I love the house, I love living in St. Louis again and getting to see my family more often.

Spending 4 hours a day in my car really sucks though. And school on top of that? Well that was a recipe for disaster. Technically, I'm only in my car an extra half hour each way than I was before when we were living in Farmington. I didn't think that would make that much of a difference, but it totally did.

I was exhausted, cranky, felt like I was wasting lots and lots of my time and money, angry, depressed, etc. So I made the decision to quit grad school. At least for now. My last day at my current job is the beginning of January and I have to have a job by then. Spending a ton of time on school work that I wasn't interested in doing in the first place became even more frustrating when I knew that was precious time that could be better spent elsewhere, like looking for jobs.

So I quit. And I feel so relieved. I now have a little bit more time in the evenings and tons more time on weekends to scour the internet and apply for jobs (I've applied for 4 or 5 so far...not having a ton of luck). Plus, I get to spend my extra time doing stuff I actually want to be doing like reading books I'm interested in reading, and maybe running again! It's been a very, very long time since I've gone for a run. I'm hoping to change that soon though!

Here are a few other things that have happened lately:

My aunt and uncle had a baby! Contrary to what certain people may think, I'm extremely happy for them. I'm just not a baby-person, so I'm not all gushy over her and holding her and whatnot. But as far as babies go, she's pretty darn cute (coming from a person who thinks most newborns look like tiny aliens). Her name is Madison and she's about 3 weeks old now. So her and I will hang out in like 3 years. lol

Copper got fixed. Finally. It was expensive. And kind of stressful. Although those sedatives they gave us to give to her were awesome for a while. Until they were gone. And she chewed through her cone. Yep that's my dog. And she'll be a year old on Monday the 11th! I can't believe she'll be 1 already. :( And yes, we're getting her a doggie cake and a party hat!

As I already said, I quit school. It was a difficult decision to make, but once I made it, I felt so incredibly relieved. I'm not saying I'll never go back and finish my master's at some point, but now is just not that time. I'm ready to have a career I love and be able to come home at night and go for a run or read or watch movies or do whatever the heck I want because I don't have homework to do.

I got hit in the face with one of Copper's toys and broke my glasses. That started as a fantastic day and turned into a crappy one real fast. So now I'm stuck wearing the glasses I hate until I can go to the eye doctor this Friday and get a new prescription for contacts and glasses (I can't wait to wear contacts again!). Lack of contacts is part of the reason I haven't started running (or trying to run) again since quitting school. I just can't wear these glasses and run. Doesn't work for me.

I think that's just about everything. The important stuff anyway. I tried several times and several different ways to upload photos to add to this post, but I'm still having problems with it, so no pics for this one. I will keep trying to figure it out and hopefully I'll be able to add some photos to one of the next posts (which I promise will not be months from now!).

Thanks for stopping by to catch up! I hope you all have been doing well!

Falling Off the Wagon

Last week I fell off the "30-Day Squat Challenge" wagon. Hard. Tuesday was my first day of classes and it went pretty well. I had a decent day over all even though I had gotten little sleep the night before: class was good, and I was looking forward to going home, doing my squats and then relaxing.

Instead, I came home to a house that smelled of poop. I had no clue which animal had done it or where, but I knew what it was the second I walked in. I wanted to cry. Of course, it was Copper. She had diarrhea. And she had managed to get it all over her kennel and herself. So I had to clear all of the cat's stuff out of the bathroom so I could give the dog a bath (still in my nice work clothes--didn't want to risk her getting her poop-covered self on any of the furniture). She was not happy about the bath, which she made quite clear when she got out and shook off, soaking everything in the bathroom.

I made a few attempts to dry her off then set out to clean her kennel. I wanted to puke. It smelled so, so bad. Meanwhile, she went and took a little nap on the couch. While she was still soaking wet. On top of all that, I couldn't even shower until later that night because Chris was working late.

Needless to say I did not get any sort of workout accomplished that night. The next day was my other class, Advanced Publishing, which is my night class. I had coffee twice that day because I was so exhausted. The class was good though. We watched Helvetica (if you're into typography and that sort of thing, you should watch it) which was pretty good. I'm pretty sure it's on Netflix, so once we move and have better internet, I might watch the whole thing. Since I work all day on Wednesdays and then have night class (not to mention the fact that I was exhausted), I didn't work out that day either.

By my afternoon class on Thursday I was completely off the wagon. I had given up hope of working out at all that week, or on catching back up on the squat challenge.

I spent the weekend doing homework, laundry, and napping. Copper's diarrhea slowly went away (thank God!!) and she's doing much better now.

Labor Day marked Year Two for me and Chris. We stopped at the Boat House in Forest Park for a beer and then went to the Zoo (mainly to see the sea lions!). After that we went to Pi for a late lunch and then headed home. Aside from burning my fingers with hot grease from our breakfast (much better now but hurt like hell at the time!), it was a really great day :)

Despite all the obnoxious kids that kept getting
in the way, I was able to get a couple good pics.

The Sea Lions/Underwater Tunnel is definitely
my new favorite place at the Zoo :)

Cute little elephant :)

View from one of our favorite spots.

Grizzly bear!

And last, but not least, the penguins!

I hope you all had a fun, safe Labor Day! Sorry that I also seem to have fallen off the "blogging wagon" as well. I promise I'll try to write more regularly ("try" being the key word there!). 

Grad School: Year 2 Starts Today!

My "last weekend of summer" was pretty good. Spent time with my family, went to the Cards game Sunday (which they lost...), and went to see our new house (which isn't quite ready yet). 

Before I show you pictures of the house, here's a couple of the coffee table Chris made:

Copper wouldn't get out of the picture. 

We also got a brown slip cover for our futon, since we can't
buy a new couch just yet thanks to the dog! 

And now for the house! It's being inspected this week (I think), so hopefully we'll be able to move in a couple weeks. 

Front of the house. Adorable :)

Itty-bitty, teeny-tiny kitchen--with no dishwasher! But it's
so cute :)

Front door/living room

Bathroom (yes, those walls are purple, lol)

Dining room

Copper's big back yard :)

Back of the house: on the right side is the garage, and the
doorway in the middle is the breezeway/mudroom. 

I can't wait to move!! Hopefully we find out this week a set date so we can start planning and packing! 

In other news, I'm on day 8 or 9 of my 30-day squat challenge. It's going pretty well so far. We'll see how I do once school is in full-gear. 

Speaking of which, I have my first class of the semester today. I'm so glad it's not my night class because I didn't get much sleep last night. I woke up around 2am sneezing and coughing. Finally I just got up around 4:30am. Not fun :( So my Tuesday/Thursday afternoon class is Contemporary American Poetry and my Wednesday night class is Advanced Literary Publishing. I'm excited for both classes. I think this is going to be a pretty great (although probably exhausting) semester! 

And just for fun, here are a couple pics of Copper and Cocoa :)

Left this laundry basket out for her all weekend
while we were gone. Both of her toy mice were
in it when we got back lol

Copper had to sit at my feet on our way back
on Sunday. Luckily, she behaved most of the way.
She did not behave herself most of the weekend though :(

30-Day Squat Challenge

I saw this on Pinterest and decided to give it a shot. I actually like doing squats, and I definitely need to strengthen and tone my legs, so this sounded like a good idea to me. I started on Sunday, so today is day 3 for me. Here's the link to the 30-Day Squat Challenge if you want to do it too: http://www.fitsugar.com/30-Day-Squat-Challenge-30806625

The first couple days haven't been too difficult so far. The biggest obstacle for me is keeping Copper out of the way! Basically by the end of it, you're doing about 200 squats. And I think that's a pretty awesome thing to be able to say you can do.

Speaking of Copper, she's been super hyper lately. So Sunday I decided to try taking her for a little jog instead of just a walk. I think she had fun and she was tired/well-behaved the rest of the day!

After I did my squats yesterday I decided to try taking her for another jog. Again, she did pretty well, seemed to have fun, and appeared to be really tired once we got back. Granted these were both pretty short jogs as there isn't really a safe place for us to really run anywhere near our house, but after she drank some water and sat around for about 15 minutes or so, she was back to being hyper and obnoxious and chewing on everything in sight! So while I was plenty tired, she was not :( 

And, as far as the chewing goes, well, like I said, she's chewing on everything. She has a couple bones she likes and a ball and a rope...and that's all the toys she has. Every toy we buy her lately gets destroyed within ten minutes--even the Kong toys, which are supposed to last a long time and be "indestructible." I got a few suggestions from people on Facebook and it seemed like the best option was to get her a Nyla bone. Unfortunately for her, she has to wait until the next time we need something from the pet store. Pet toys are so expensive! If you have any other suggestions for toys that she won't immediately destroy, I'd love to hear them! 

Between chewing on our remotes and terrorizing the cat, she's driving me nuts! 

Poor kitty. 

Chris is going out today to get us some pallets to make us a coffee table! I can't wait to see how it turns out! I'm hoping he doesn't get much started today so I can take some before and after pics for you guys :) 

And school starts next week. Yikes. I'm almost ready for it. Almost ready for all the interns and grad students. Almost. I have a few things left to do. I am ready for my classes. Except I still have a book to get. And it'd be really nice if I could order my Kindle now, but I have to wait for my loan money to go through first. It'd be nice if I could use that money to pay for my books too, but that money doesn't go through until like the second week of school. It's a tad irritating. 

We'll be spending our last weekend of summer in St. Louis. No big plans for Saturday, but we're going to the Cardinals game on Sunday. And we're probably going to stop by our house to see how everything's going (I'll take some pics this time!) and measure some things so we have an idea of where to put furniture and what we'll need to buy. I can't wait to move!! 

And don't forget about the 30-Day Squat Challenge!

It's not quite as bad as it looks...yet ;)

I'm still looking for jobs and applying for some here and there. I'm not finding a whole lot right now though. If you guys know of anyone hiring in St. Louis, let me know!

Where Did My Summer Go?

Schools starts in a week. Okay, it's like a week and a day. Whatever. I am both looking forward to the new semester and dreading it. I'm looking forward to the classes I'm taking--Advanced Publishing and Contemporary American Poetry. I'm dreading all the people being back and all the interns I'll have and the fact that I'm so not ready for that. I have a lot to do before the interns and grad assistants get here. And it was one of those things where I kept telling myself I had plenty of time until, all of a sudden, I didn't. Ugh. 

Seriously though, I can't believe summer is already (almost) over. It's been a busy summer. I'm looking forward to what's coming up though. First and foremost, we'll be moving sometime in September and I can't wait to be in our new house (and it's actually a house, not a duplex!). Second, there's the possibility that I'll have a new job at some point. I've been looking and I've applied at a couple places, but I haven't heard anything yet. The hard part is going to be finding a job that I will enjoy and that will also work around my class schedule. Most of the jobs I think I'd really love are full-time 40+ hours a week and not likely to give me the time off I'd need to be in my classes (not to mention the driving to and from part). 

Once we're moved in to our new house there are quite a few projects Chris and I want to do (and most of the work will be done by Chris. Probably. ;) ). I think we're going to paint the refrigerator with black chalkboard paint. And Chris wants to build a coffee table. And a desk. I'm most excited about the desk. It'll give me a place to actually do my homework and stuff for work. Right now my "desk" is either the kitchen table or a tv tray. Not ideal. Plus it means leaving most of my stuff in the kitchen. Not a fan of that. 

I also really can't wait to live in a bug-free home. Or at least I'm hoping and praying it will be bug-free. I'm mostly worried about the possibility of bringing the ones we have now with us to the new house. Having bugs has made me more OCD than I already was. Oh and paranoid. It'd be nice to move into our new house and just relax and not be freaked out all the time about the possibility of bugs. In addition to the cockroaches, we also have spiders now too. Spiders are freaky little things and used to scare the crap out of me. After dealing with roaches for the past few months though, spiders are a lot less scary and slightly more tolerable. At least they aren't dirty and carrying God-knows what kinds of diseases. Ick. And most have been fairly small. 

In addition to not getting rid of all of the bugs in my house, there are a few other things I didn't accomplish this summer: 

Reading a lot of books. I finished one (American Psycho) and started another (The Great Gatsby) and that's it. Fail. 

Running a lot. Sure, I ran, but not nearly enough as I should have. 

Eating healthy. After months of eating Walmart's horrendous produce, I've sort of given up. I'm eating applesauce now instead of apples. We keep buying/eating banana's even though they're awful. I buy pre-cut baby carrots in a bag rather than fresh carrots. We buy frozen broccoli and cauliflower. I gave up on buying stuff like grapes or peaches because they rarely looked good in store and when they did, by the time I ate them, they were practically rotten. Such a waste of money. So I'm excited that once we move I'll be able to eat as much fresh produce as we can afford to buy. And when we run out of money I can always steal some from my mom ;)

I'm sure there's more, but that's all I can think of right now. There's a lot I'm looking forward to this fall though, so although I'm going to miss working from home on Fridays and how quiet and empty campus is during the summer, I'm ready some changes! :)

News!!

This past Saturday we had my dad's 50th birthday party. It was a lot of fun! Here's a couple pics from the day:

My sister, my dad, and me :)

Just me and dad :)
He got about 8 or 9 bottles of crown!
Definitely enough for another party! ;)

This is my Aunt Rose. She's the best.
But she lives in NC, so I don't get to see
her much :( 

So while we were drinking and eating and having a good time, Chris and I were talking to my cousins about this house they're fixing up. It's a 2-bedroom, 1-bath in Florissant and they said they'd rent it to us. We kind of laughed about it and let it go since we had never even considered living in Florissant. 

Well come Sunday we were driving back to Farmington and thinking, depending on what the house is like and how much they'd charge us for rent, it could be worth looking into at the very least. So we drove all the way back to Florissant just to go look at the house. And we loved it. The back yard is huge and has a nice patio. It has a one-car garage, a breezeway/mudroom type thing, and a good-sized basement. The only downside is that there's no dishwasher (but we generally eat off of paper plates most of the time anyway...) and there isn't a ton of storage in the bathroom. The closets are also a little small, but we figure with the basement and garage, that should give us plenty of extra storage for all the stuff we don't use on a regular basis. 

I called them on Tuesday to tell them that we officially want to rent it so it should be ready for us sometime in September. For those of you who are wondering, yes, this adds another half hour or so to my drive. Which will suck. But I have a couple options. 

I can always stay in Cape a couple nights if I really have to. And I'm hoping I'll be able to keep working from home at least one day a week. But I've also decided to start looking for jobs in St. Louis, even if they're just part time. I've got a few reasons for this. 

First, I'm already exhausted and I'm not even in school right now. So adding more time to my drive, plus classes is gonna make that worse. Second, because I'm doing so much driving, I'm spending a ton on gas and car maintenance. Yes, working for the university means I only pay 30% of my tuition, but it also means that I get almost none of the loan money I get approved for (I don't understand why this is but I guess they figure if most of my tuition is covered I don't need the extra money). So this semester--before we even decided to move to Florissant--I decided I wasn't going to take the tuition discount, because I get all of my loan money that way, which I need. So whether I continue working for the university or not, I'm not using that discount anymore, so I figured I might as well start looking in St. Louis. I'll just have to find a place that's willing to work around my class schedule. 

There's too much math involved to really get into the details. But basically if Chris and I are living and working in St. Louis and I'm only driving to school a couple days a week (instead of 5), we'll save a ton on gas and all that. 

And we get to switch our internet to AT&T! Unfortunately that means paying HughesNet's outrageous cancellation fees. But once that's done, we'll be paying about the same amount for cable and internet as what we're paying for internet alone now. So we'll be saving a lot of money as far as stuff like that goes once we move. 

We're super excited about the house and can't wait to move. The fact that we're so close to moving makes our current house seem that much more unbearable. 

Things will definitely suck for a while with all the driving and possible staying in Cape that I will have to do. But when we talked about it and whether we thought it was a good idea or not, we had to think long-term. I'll be starting my last semester of school this time next year. And we had plans of moving back to St. Louis after I finished school anyway regardless of where we were living at the time. Plus, my cousin said if we want to buy the house from him in a couple years, he'd sell it to us for pretty dang cheap. And we already know we like the city and the area and want to stay there, so if we end up loving the house too, why not buy it? So, thinking long-term, we just couldn't pass this up. 

Plus Copper is going to love that back yard! 

It's been a long time

A very long time. That summer class kinda took over my life and totally sucked. But I managed to get an A so it's all good.

Here's a few things that happened in the last month or so (I'll do another longer-ish post with pics and whatnot later):
Actually, not much happened in June that I can remember. So skip that.

Anyhoo. Chris and I went on a nice long vacation last week to Chicago. We ate a lot of delicious food (and spent way too much money on said food). Was saw Anberlin in concert (and a day or two later on the train...we weren't stalking them--I swear). We walked a ton and I hurt my ankle pretty badly doing God-knows-what. For a while I seriously thought it was broken. It's starting to feel better now though.

I turned 24 on Thursday. Also the Cardinals lost to the Cubs. But I still got to go to a game, so that was pretty cool.

Copper turned 8 months old on Thursday as well. We called to say happy birthday. :) She's still a pain.

The cat still hates her.

We have bugs. Which I eventually figured out were cockroaches. I've been so disgusted. But they are
slowly dying. PS did you know they cause allergies and asthma? So for people like me who have both, well we're screwed.

Work has been crazy busy.

My insurance company is still refusing to pay for my birth control. I will win this battle!

Sensodyne totally works. It just takes a while. My teeth feel perfectly fine now--little to no sensitivity. Pretty sure I've been using it for over a month now though.

Did I mention that 4-week summer class that totally took over my life? Yeah. I was not prepared for it at all. Turns out, the class was all about issues in education. You know who couldn't care less about education issues? Me. So I had a difficult time coming up with things to say in the forum and whatnot that didn't include mean things toward others. But like I said, I got an A in the class, so I'm happy. And happy it's over.

Like I said, I'll do another, longer post later with some nice pics and whatnot so be on the lookout for it!

First year of Grad School

So now that I've had a decent break from school (right before my summer class starts, haha), I thought I'd do a little reflection on my first year of grad school. 

In a lot of ways, it was what I had expected, but in some ways it wasn't. My first semester was far better than the second. I had an American Lit class and an editing class and enjoyed both of them. It got a little stressful at times, but I managed. And I got A's in both classes. I was proud of myself for accomplishing that in addition to the stress of moving back in October and adjusting to much, much longer days and a really long commute. It was exhausting. But I made it work. 

Second semester came around and I was a little nervous. I took poetry, which I was excited about, but I also had to take that dreaded research class and I had heard many, many terrible, horrible things about it. And it lived up to just about every one of them. It wasn't a particularly hard class, but it was extremely time consuming. Which meant for me that I spent all day Saturday and sometimes Sunday doing homework for just that class, plus occasionally making trips to the library during the week. 

That class was horrible and stressful and made me consider quitting a couple times. And, as it turns out (and as most people had warned), the class was pretty useless. Most of the people I heard that from were people doing a creative thesis. Which meant that the class was even more useless for me because the editing project I'm going to do is brand new so my teacher really didn't know what I should do or how to help me. That made it even more difficult for me to stay focused and put in all the effort I needed to in that class...why should I if it isn't helping me in any way? 

But, I did. I worked my butt off all semester--now not only did I have long days and a long commute, but my night classes were back to back (Wednesday/Thursday) which was even more exhausting, plus I had a puppy who really got a kick out of interrupting my homework time with all her shenanigans. 

In the end, I got A's in both classes. And I'm proud of myself. Toward the middle of last semester I had to really figure out what I'd be doing for my thesis. I went back and forth for a while between doing a creative thesis or doing the editing project, mainly because the editing project hadn't been approved yet, and I didn't want to get started on it only to find out I couldn't actually do it. 

Eventually it did get approved, so I decided to be the pioneer of the editing project. Seriously. I'm the only person currently in the program who is doing it. No pressure. So I have the book that I'll be editing. I've done a little research (which I had to do for that god awful class last semester--about the only thing that class was good for). Now I just need to actually start it. I'm having trouble motivating myself to do it though. After editing and stuff at work, it's hard to want to do all that work on my project later when I'm at home. 

Plus, my online class starts next week (I should probably figure that out for sure), and I'm working from home on Fridays. I'm guessing what I really need to do is just pick a specific time(s) each week to work on it. Part of me wants to wait until my class starts to see how much I'm going to need to do for that, but another part knows that if I do that, I'll just make more excuses not to get started on it. 

I have until Fall of next year to finish it though. And I know the longer I procrastinate, the worse it will be later and I'll have to become a hermit just to get it finished in time. Yikes. The good thing is that I'm not taking an actual class next summer. I'm taking my "thesis hours" so I get credit just for working on my thesis all summer. That should help a little. 

And I'd like to thank you all for taking time out of your days to read about all this nonsense. I do appreciate it! :) 

Copper loves her blankies :)

Enjoying My Break

I have been enjoying my time away from school. A lot. I'm a lot more relaxed and less stressed. It's a nice feeling. And working from home on Fridays is awesome. :)

I don't have my "official" grades yet, but I'm pretty sure I got As in both classes. I still haven't finished American Psycho yet. I needed a few days to just be lazy and watch tv and not use my brain more than I had to. Seriously, I watched movies on tv all day on Saturday. And I enjoyed every terrible second of it (most of the movies totally sucked, but there was nothing else on lol).

On Sunday we went to my aunt and uncle's house for breakfast to celebrate Mother's Day. We'll be taking my mom to the Cards game on May 31. After breakfast, we went to the Cards game with Chris's parents. Unfortunately they lost, but we had really good seats.

I couldn't get any better pics, but we were about 15 rows or so
behind the Cardinals dugout. 

Chris got a new car! Which I didn't take pictures of because I never took any of my new car so that would just be unfair. Haha. Now that he has a fancy new car that isn't falling apart, he gets to drive me around everywhere! Starting with last night when we went to the Cards game and they WON! First game we've gone to all season that they've won. Finally.

And here's a picture of Copper with one of Chris's socks that I took the other night:

She likes to steal his dirty socks and throw them around
like she's playing catch with herself. It's adorable, which makes
it hard to tell her not to do that lol. 

Last Day! (officially)

My last class of the semester/year is tonight. We don't even have a real final in that class. On the one hand, that's nice. On the other hand, we have to sit through lectures on the rare book room and Faulkner center at the library, which most of us have heard before, so I feel like it's a huge waste of my time. I'd much rather just turn in the rest of my stuff and go home. But, like I said, it's the last day, so I suppose I'll just be happy about that.

I finally started running outside again last week. The weather has been great (mostly) and my runs have been average-ish. I kind of thought I would be doing a little better given all the cardio I had been doing all semester. I guess nothing ever really prepares you for the hills of Cape Girardeau. I ran 6 miles over the course of two days and was in major pain for the next four or five days. Not my brightest idea.

The past three runs I've done have been pretty difficult, and two days ago I pulled a muscle in my hamstring (maybe? I don't know anything about all these muscles...whatever), so that's been bothering me quite a bit too. I'm hoping if I rest for a day or two, it will feel better and I can get some more miles in next week.

I've been doing fairly well about eating healthy (surprisingly), except eating healthy every day (or five days a week at least) has had some not-so-great side effects. My teeth have been extremely sensitive lately. Not because I drink too much soda or wine or juice, but because I eat acidic fruits almost every day. If this sensitivity had been caused by soda or something, I would have just cut back or cut it out completely, at least for a while. But fruit? I can't really cut that out of my diet. Sure, there are less-acidic ones out there, but I happen to like the acidic ones lol.

So Sunday when we did our grocery shopping I bought some Sensodyne Pronamel toothpaste and mouthwash. I haven't noticed huge differences yet, but my teeth are slightly less sensitive when I'm not eating fruit or drinking Sprite. So that's a plus. It says it will take about 4 weeks before I'll notice any major difference. So far so good though. You know what else I learned about eating/drinking acidic foods? Not only do they break down your enamel, but they also make your teeth look much less white. So not only is the fruit I eat every day tearing my enamel to pieces, but it's making my teeth look way more yellow than they already did. Wtf.

Personally I think it's kind of cruel that these healthy foods would do such horrible things. Definitely not fair. At least when I was eating more junk my teeth didn't hurt as bad lol.

Anyhoo. Tomorrow I get to work from home (YAY), and possibly every Friday for the rest of the summer (BIGGER YAY!).

Sometime next week-ish I'll probably do a "first year of grad school recap" thingy. But right now I just want to forget it all for a few days. :) I'm sure once I find out my grades I'll have more motivation to write about it.

Have a great weekend and Happy Mother's Day to all the moms out there--and someone please tell my boyfriend that having a puppy does NOT mean he should buy me something for Mother's Day. No thank you. ;)

(un)Officially DONE!

I'm back!!

I hope you all are as excited as I am.

I'm technically not done with this stupid semester because I still have to go to my class this Thursday night. But I do have all of my assignments finished and printed and ready to turn in on Thursday. So pretty damn close.

I really, really want A's in both of these classes. I'm 99% sure I've got an A in my poetry class (speaking of, the book review I wrote is going to be published! more on that later). I'm fairly certain I'll get an A in my research class (a well-deserved one if I say so myself), but at this point, I'm not sure I even care anymore, just as long as I get a B so 70% of my tuition is covered ;)

The unorganization of that class is pretty much what made it the worst class ever. Oh, and the fact that half of what we did was totally irrelevant. To anything. Ever. I definitely plan on celebrating when I get home Thursday night ;)

My summer class starts in June (I think?). I'm not sure what to expect as I've never taken a summer class before and I've never had this teacher before. But it's only a month-ish long (pretty sure it starts in June and will be over before my vacation in July). Next semester is gonna be pretty great. I'll be taking Advanced Publishing (which I took as an undergrad, so I know I'll love it) and Contemporary Poetry. It's going to be a million times better than this semester. Plus, the poetry class is an afternoon class, so I only have 1 night class!

As you can imagine, my 100 Book Challenge is not going so well. I officially have 4 books read. I still haven't finished Book 4 yet (American Psycho). For my poetry class we had to write a review on a book of poetry. Thanks to all the books I bought at AWP last year and still haven't read, I had plenty to choose from. I did my review on A Hotel Lobby at the Edge of the World by Adam Clay. I got an A on the review and it will be published! So that book is technically Book 5. I plan to finish American Psycho within the next two weeks so I can move on to whatever's next on my list.

                       

Copper has pretty much been the pain in the ass she always is. But a cute one :) She's getting really good at sitting and giving high-fives. Yes, we taught our dog to give high-fives instead of shake. We're cool. One of these days I'll get a picture of it.

Have a great Tuesday!

Still Alive

I'm here--barely! The past week or so has been crazy busy and I've got 2-ish weeks left (I really don't know anymore...I'm taking it week by week now or I'll punch someone).

Between work and school and going to Cardinals games and our house-hunting adventures (which mostly involves looking at places we can't afford on Craigslist), I'm a little stressed. I honestly have no idea how I'm getting any of it done. But apparently I'm doing pretty well in both of my classes, at least for now. There are still quite a few things to turn in before the end of the semester which could change things drastically. I did get an A on my research exam though so I was super happy about that.

But there's a light at the end of the tunnel (2-ish weeks from now). And then I get a month-long break from school before my online summer class starts (which is also only a month-ish long).

Summer will be fantastic though, simply because it means I'll be getting off work at 4 every day, I won't have homework to do every weekend, and I get to go to lots more Cards games. And I'm kind of hoping we find a place to move to and we can move over the summer. That'd be nice. And I'd really like to be in a neighborhood with sidewalks so I can run and take Copper for walks.

So if any of you happen to know of any houses (or townhomes--basically anything with a fenced yard) for rent in the Arnold or Imperial areas, pass them along!

In the mean time I'm going to get back to my busy schedule (which is now written in a planner, on a calendar on my phone, and on post-its--so I don't forget!) so I'll see you all again sometime in May!

Updates

Sorry I've been M.I.A. for over a week now. I've got three weeks of school left (yay!) and a lot to get done in that short amount of time (boo!). So you may not hear from me again until after finals.

Aside from school (which isn't going too badly, just lots and lots of work), things are going pretty well lately. We had a good weekend.

Oh and last Tuesday was day 30 of being gluten-free, and also the last. Chris talked me into going to Buffalo Wild Wings that night, so I got the pepperjack steak wrap and had a beer. I didn't eat most of it--we had an appetizer too so I got full pretty quick (and I wanted to finish my beer since you can't take those to-go lol).

I've been eating foods with gluten in them since then and I haven't noticed a big difference, except that I'm definitely not eating as healthy (which makes Chris happy). I talked to my mom over the weekend and she agreed with what I had said previously--that most people who have a gluten allergy and go gluten-free notice major differences almost immediately. And it made me feel better that she's heard that too and I didn't just imagine it!

My next step is to try fiber pills I think. Apparently fiber just kinda works in whatever way your body needs it to. So I'm gonna give those a shot for a while and see how that goes. I really can't afford to go to the doctor right now anyway, so I'll just keep experimenting and see what happens.

Chris and I are house-hunting again. We probably won't be moving until after our lease is up in October, but we're starting to look anyway, just in case we find something really great. We're looking to rent a house (or townhouse) in the Arnold area mainly so Copper has a fenced-in yard. Arnold will only add five or ten more minutes to my drive depending on how far away from the highway we are and I can stay on one main highway the entire way. Highway 32 sucks, especially at night when the weather is bad (like it was last week).

Copper got some new toys this weekend and she destroyed a couple others including her tennis ball :(

We got her a tire/rope and she really likes it :)

You can see the tire/rope better, but she has
crazy eyes in this one lol. RIP tennis ball.

And this is a random picture of the cat that's
always outside my office--I like to text Chris
pictures of it and tell him I'm going to bring it
home because Copper needs a friend hehe :)

Most of my free time over the next couple weeks will be spent on homework, so you may not hear from me again until May! I'll try to post again soon though :)

Grad School Crises

So I've had a few freak outs since starting grad school last semester. Although I think all of them have occurred this semester.

1. Trying to figure out what to do for my thesis. Not a terrible one, but it was stressful for a while.

2. Trying to figure out what to do for my thesis intro for my research class. I'm still not 100% sure what it is I'm doing, but I started it...and I'm still stressed.

3. Registering for my classes for next year. First, I thought my only other option besides the required Advanced Publishing class on Wed. nights was a Brit Lit. class offered by the same teacher who teaches the research class I'm currently in. So my schedule for next semester would have pretty much been identical to this semester. And I have never hated having two night classes in a row so much in my life. It sucks.
After I talked to my boss, she told me there were two classes offered during the day that I could take because neither interfered with her teaching schedule.
I want to take both.
The problem? They're only offered in the spring of odd years. So they aren't offered again until Spring 2015. Which leads me to number 4.

4. Far too many of the graduate courses are only offered every other year or whatever which makes it so hard to plan your schedule and makes it even more difficult to take classes you might actually enjoy for your electives.

5. I eventually made my decision based on whether I wanted to take a morning or afternoon class. And I went with the afternoon class.

6. Trying to figure out what I need to take to graduate and when I can possibly/hopefully graduate.
I'm still not 100% on this, but I'm signed up for a class to take this summer. Then I'll have two classes each semester next year, and an independent study that summer. I should only need one or two classes in the Fall of 2014 and then I can graduate! (I'm trying really hard to avoid staying until 2015 because I'd only need 1 class that spring semester.)

7. Aside from the constant worry/stress over homework assignments, tests, my thesis, and trying to make sure I have my schedule planned out correctly so that I meet all the requirements, I think that's about it. No pressure.

A Few Not-So-Important Research Findings

So, I actually learned a few things while I was doing homework for my Research Studies class. Crazy right?

1. I get a lot more work done in less than half the time when I don't have a puppy throwing toys in my face in an effort to get me to play with her.

2. Apparently people thought (some still do?) that Mary Todd Lincoln was insane and her son had her committed at one point. My non-expert opinion? PTSD.

3. Google is superior. I had to use Yahoo! Directory to search for one of the answers to a question (because my teacher hates Google and Wikipedia--even though I'm pretty sure that's how we all finished undergrad, but whatev). I eventually found a reliable, accurate, and current source. Out of curiosity, I decided to Google the question to see how easy that same site would be to find. It was the second search result. As opposed to the sixth or seventh on Yahoo! Out of even more curiosity, I decided to bing it, because I'm sick of seeing those stupid bing commercials where they do a blind comparison between it and Google (and they always choose bing!). Bing was as bad, if not worse than Yahoo! So those commercials are lying to you. Just fyi.

And in case you were wondering, I used the exact same phrase in all three searches. I suppose if you're not concerned with the credibility of your sources or with how up-to-date they are, then Yahoo! and bing are the way to go.

4. I don't like change. More specifically, I don't like changes to websites. Especially drastic ones. I went to a site that I used several times last semester, but it looked completely different. I began questioning if I was going to the right site in the first place (I double checked with my boss and I was). I'm all for updates and stuff, but doing a complete overhaul is just too much. For me at least. I had a hard time finding what I was looking for because I didn't know where to look.

5. Seriously, Google.

6. My Research Studies class homework is so much more enjoyable when it doesn't involve lugging around a gigantic book full of gibberish. (Okay, it's not gibberish--it's English. But it may as well be in a different language because it's confusing as shit.)

7. I made my boss laugh by telling her how my teacher always uses this excuse for making us learn to use that book: "What if the power goes out and you don't have internet access to do your research?" Um, I'm pretty sure that if my power goes out, the last thing I'm going to do is research. Even if I'm in the middle of doing research. Power's out? I'm done. Let's tell stories or something.

8. I hope my teacher can appreciate sarcastic answers to her questions. That's not really something I learned. Deal with it.

9. Cuties are not just for kids. Adults like them too! Those commercials piss me off. And if you're wondering what the hell that has to do with research, it doesn't. Except that I was eating one towards the end of my research assignment.

That was more than a "few." Oh well. You survived! And I survived another round of Research Studies soul-crushing!


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Long One

Brace yourselves, this is gonna be a long one. 

The short version is I got sick. 

The long version:

I skipped my workout Wednesday to meet a deadline. I knew if I worked out at my usual time, I wouldn't get the project done in time, so I decided I'd go once I got the project finished. Well, by the time I got it finished, I was exhausted and my throat was hurting. So I decided to just give it a rest and I'd get back in the gym on Thursday. 

I got through my class that night okay. My throat still hurt, but nothing terrible. I got home, had dinner with Chris (eggs, asparagus, and sausage) and then went to bed. 

By the time I woke up Thursday morning I felt terrible. If it weren't for my class that night, I probably would have stayed home that day. But I went to work and progressively got worse. I did however make time to stop by My Daddy's Cheesecake to get some cookies to bring to class. 

I'm assuming they were good since there were only
a couple left by the end of class. 

By the time my class started that night I was miserable. Sneezing, sore throat, body aches, chills, etc. And of course, not only did the class go the full time, but it went over. My friend Angi let me borrow her sweatshirt to use as a blanket, and everyone just kept giving me these pitiful looks all night. Not fun. 

I finally got home and went straight to bed. And felt terrible for not eating the dinner Chris had cooked for us. Unfortunately, I didn't have the option of staying home all day on Friday. I did get to leave around 1:30 though. I stopped at Walgreens to buy some Nyquil and then I went home and straight to bed. Chris came home later and brought me a Sprite and a York Peppermint Patty to make me feel better :)

Saturday morning we got up early to get ready for my friend's wedding. I would have taken some pictures, but I felt like crap. It was a small wedding and the reception was almost immediately after (pretty early in the afternoon). We stopped at the Schnuck's next door and found a nice little Gluten-free corner. So I bought myself some bread to try. Probably should have bought more, but oh well. 

I was only able to eat the salad at the reception, but it was pretty darn good. And everyone else's food looked good lol. After the reception we went back to my parents' house to pick up the puppy and head home. 

We ended up staying for dinner (I had another salad while everyone else had pizza--luckily I don't really like the pizza they got, so it wasn't torture or anything to watch them eat it). And we stayed until the end of the Blues game (which of course went to overtime). I'm glad we stayed though. Even though I felt like crap, I had a good time--and we got a free dinner out of it ;)

And Copper tried really hard to make friends with my kitty Cocoa: 

You can't really see her, but Cocoa is under the chair.
They stared each other down for a good ten minutes.
It was hilarious. 

I woke up Sunday morning from my Nyquil-coma to the smell of bacon. We had bacon and gluten-free bread/toast for breakfast. Super healthy :)

After that we headed out in the stupid rain to go do our grocery shopping. Thanks to Chris, we actually found some gluten-free stuff, like the Quaker rice cakes/snacks and stuff. (I swear those did not exist last week when I was there!) It was a pretty successful shopping trip. I got some new gluten-free snacks to try, and we bought corn flour tortillas for our tacos that night. 

The corn flour tortillas were interesting. They don't taste too bad, but they fell apart pretty easily. That could also be because we were trying to stuff too much into them ;) 

I went to bed Sunday night feeling a little bit better. We had done some laundry and watched a couple movies and I took a nap. At some point in the middle of the night that all changed. I woke up the next morning feeling terrible. I got up, fed the dog, and then texted my boss to tell her I wouldn't be in. 

Once Chris got up around 7, I took some more Nyquil and went back to bed...and didn't wake up until almost 5. After I got up though, I felt significantly better. I showered, watched some tv, and then made dinner. I made spaghetti squash with ground beef and tomato/alfredo sauce, and a side of asparagus baked in the oven with a little olive oil and parmesan cheese. It all turned out really good. 

After dinner we caught up on some shows and watched Bates Motel--not bad so far although kind of confusing since it's the prequel to Psycho, but it's set in modern-day. And then we went to bed. 

I woke up feeling quite a bit better this morning. Not great, but a pretty big improvement over the past few days. I spent most of today catching up at work and I'll spend the rest of my week at work and then at home doing homework. Lame way to spend Spring Break. 

Daylight Savings Effects, Gluten-Free: Day 2

So while everyone else was complaining about losing an hour of sleep and that makes Monday suck even more, blah, blah, blah, I was busy being super productive.

I was pretty busy at work yesterday, but I got a lot done. Then I went home, cooked dinner (spaghetti squash with italian sausage--which is gluten-free, btw--and pasta sauce), did the dishes (and by that I mean I rinsed them and put them in the dishwasher), folded laundry, showered, fed the dog...about the only thing I didn't accomplish is write a poem for my class tomorrow. So hopefully I'll get that done tonight...

Copper woke us up at 3:30am Monday morning, which I suppose is sort of understandable since technically that would have been 4:30. I think. I'm confusing myself. And I still haven't changed the clock in my car...just when I had it figured out on my old car, I bought a new one and it will probably take me just as long to learn that as well...I digress. This morning she woke us up at 1:30am and then again at 3:30am. I had all sorts of mean things to say to her. She better get her shit under control because that is more exhausting than just waking up at 4:30am every day. Ugh.

It's my second day gluten-free. So far I see zero difference in my intestinal health. I know, I know, it's only the second day and I'm sure it will take more than a week to notice a difference (if any), but it's frustrating.

As I mentioned earlier, we had spaghetti squash with italian sausage and pasta sauce for dinner last night. Pretty tasty if you ask me. Chris liked it too even though he gets cranky with me for making him eat vegetables :p I had enough leftover for two lunches this week, so that covers today and tomorrow. Tonight I'm on my own for dinner because Chris has to be in St. Louis late tonight and then work early tomorrow. After I go pick up the milk I forgot to buy on Sunday, I'm going to make eggs with spinach and asparagus. And maybe throw in some tomatoes. And top it off with parmesan cheese. And my boss baked me more bread, so I'll probably have that with it too. :)

Since I'm going to be in St. Louis this weekend for my friend's wedding (really, really hoping for good weather), I think I'm going to stop by Trader Joe's. I know they have a lot of gluten-free stuff that most grocery stores don't have. Do any of you have any favorites I should try?

Where is Spring?

It's March! It's Friday! It's finally the end of an awful week! It's snowing (again). Nope. No exclamation point there. I had to scrape snow off of my car this morning. I hate winter.

I have a wedding to go to in two weeks. It better not be snowing. What the hell do you wear to a wedding in March if there's snow on the ground?! Any ideas? Because I'm clueless.

I didn't go to the gym on my lunch break yesterday. Instead, I spent it in my office doing my homework for my class last night. I also left work a half hour early so I could go to the library and work on it some more. I finally got it all done--and good thing too because we got through the whole problem I was assigned to present on. Thankfully these are super informal "presentations."

I'm feeling a little relief now that all that's over. Except in two weeks we're supposed to have a substantial amount of research done for our thesis to discuss in class. I haven't started that. I've barely thought about it. So I'll start stressing/freaking out over that now. Yay.

But like I said, it's Friday, and that means fish for dinner and doing nothing else but watching tv or a movie. I love Friday nights. :) And I've got zero plans this weekend (other than the usual homework...oh and researching my thesis apparently).

Happy Friday everyone! And enjoy your snow day if you got one--lucky ducks.

One Year Anniversary

A year ago today, I started my new big-girl job as Administrative and Editorial Assistant for Southeast Missouri State University Press. 

I can't believe it's been a year. What did I do on my first day a year ago? Left for Chicago for the AWP Conference. I had very little money--had to ask my parents for money to pay for my food while I was there--but I bought as many books as possible and got several signed by the authors. I still haven't read all of them yet, but I'm working on it.

It was my first time in Chicago--I loved it and hated it all at once. It was freaking February. It rained. It snowed. It was sunny and warm one day so we walked all the way to Navy Pier. It was painfully windy. And somewhere along the way, I lost my coat--go figure.

We got to see the premier of Being Flynn, which is based on the memoir Another Bullshit Night in Suck City by Nick Flynn (if you haven't read it, you should--it's fantastic...and how can you not want to read it with a title like that?!). I couldn't get my book signed by him because I had loaned it to a friend :( Getting to meet and talk with so many authors and other small presses was pretty awesome though.

A week later I was back in my apartment in Cape and learning my new job. I feel like it took a really long time to understand everything. And it took even longer to get things cleaned up and organized (the lady who worked here before me was not super organized, and by that, I mean not at all).

A year later and I still feel like there's a ton I don't know or understand and still have a lot to learn (which I guess is good in a way). And my office is not currently all that organized. Like most other "spaces" in my life, my office is an organized mess. Everything isn't neat and perfect, but I know where to find things (most of the time).

I started grad school last fall--being a full-time employee means I only have to pay for 30% of my tuition (as long as I pass). I was nervous last semester--worried about having enough time for work and classes and homework, etc. Last semester went pretty smoothly though.

This semester? Not so much. My research class is quite possibly the worst I've ever taken. I'm quite thankful that I only have one other class this semester (although only taking 2 classes a semester kind of kills me inside when I think about how much longer it will take to get my degree). I will be one of the happiest people in the world after finals are over in May (the other happiest people will be the other 15-20 people in my class).

Overall, it's been a good year. So much has changed since I started here. I moved twice. I went to Chicago twice. I bought a new car (all by myself the way grown-ups are supposed to). I've gotten to proof/edit several of our magazines and books. I had to take 4 sick days (which feels like a lot, but considering how much I used to get sick, that's a major improvement). I was kind of excited Monday morning because I felt good and realistically thought I could make it to today without getting sick, which would mean I would have only used 2 sick days (back in the fall when I had that awful UTI).

My stomach had other plans. You can read the full sick post here, but I was really, really upset when my boss sent me home. Partially because I had just thrown up and I'm a big baby and partially because I knew this meant at least 3 sick days in the year (which turned into my 4 total). And being sick means getting behind on work (she wouldn't let me take anything home to work on), behind on homework, behind on chores at home, etc.

I'm excited for this next year. We've got some really great books coming out this year (one that's almost ready to go to the printer!), I'll officially be finished with my first year of grad school (assuming I survive my research class), I'll be taking my first vacation in July, etc. Here's to another year!