I ♥ learning!

I started college straight out of high school and finally received my associate degree after 6 years (rather than the commonly achieved two). What can I say? Quick decision making has never been my forte. While there are some things I certainly could have done better or differently, what is done is done and the hands of time cannot be turned back, but even if I could go back in time, I probably wouldn't. The experiences I had along the way, the people who have weaved in and out of my life, and the lessons learned, have all contributed to the shaping of my persona. Sometimes I feel a bit frustrated, like I am "behind", since most of the friends I graduated with (and even several younger than I) have a bachelor degrees and are now plowing through grad school, and/or have spouses and children even. It is often a daily struggle to remind myself that it is okay that my life is not a cookie cutter of a young adult in this geographical area. It's okay and I am right where I need to be, learning and experiencing the things that will most benefit me and I trust that the Lord will direct my paths as I look to Him for guidance.

Going on Week Two of my University career, I feel like a "big girl" now. Figuratively speaking, I gave up the diapers and upgraded to real undies. The night before my first day at the "big school", my dad gave me a blessing and I felt like a kid frightened for the first day of kindergarten. My mom wrapped me in a hug as tears quietly rolled down my cheek.

Lucky for me I have a friend in my same major and in 3 out of my 4 classes this semester. This helped calm my nerves greatly (especially because if I got lost, which is something I am famous for, then I wasn't alone! hehe). For the record I didn't get lost. Well, we had to stop and ask some students if we were anywhere close to the building we were looking for, but actually we were right by it, woo-hoo!

During these past few days I have become very aware of something: I love learning.
My classes are awesome! I am learning so much and my mind is constantly flooded with ideas and concepts that interest me and make me want to look into it further. It's really exciting! Maybe it's the fact that I actually have a goal I'm working toward now, or because it's a fresh new start. or probably both! In fact, even my Stats class is proving to be interesting (and I am NOT fond of math).

I feel really lucky that I have the opportunity to go to the University and learn from others, hear different perspectives on the world in which we live, understand my own thinking and behaviors in a clearer way, and see how everything is connected. I am also fascinated to see the things in our world that aren't working so well and hope to make some kind of contribution change those things. I feel blessed to have a loving and supportive family that encourages me to succeed and is there to help me, and for kind friends who check up on me every now and then and make sure I take the time to play and do fun things!

Sorry about this post being "Dear Diary"-like (I try to stay away from that), but I couldn't help it. I just wanted to share that learning, by formal education or otherwise, is WONDERFUL! I will try to post stuff I learn from my classes and find interesting (in addition to whatever random stuff I decide to put on here). Enjoy and feel free to comment! :)

Cha-Ching!

Man, life is expensive!  What a crazy week it's been...I'm pooped.

School just started. By the end of this month I probably will have spent more than in the past entire YEAR!  For instance:

 

Bought a car. $$$$

Got the car insured. $$/month

Title and Registration $$$

A few light bulbs to be replaced $$

Gas $$ (lookin' like one tank will last me about a week and a couple days.

Safety and Emissions $$

 

Safety failed which means I need new tires $$$

Started school.

A few new clothes (of course!) $$$

Tuition and fees. $$$$

Books. $$$

School supplies (like a calculator for my stats class, etc) $$

Parking in the visitor's parking because I don't have my permit yet because I needed to do my safety and emissions to get my plates, which I still won't have until I get new tires.)

Parking permit {I'm thinking of getting} $$$

 

Yeah.  I think that covers most of what I've spent this week.  Ouch.  And that's probably not too bad considering I live with my parents and they provide nearly all my other living expenses such as home, food, etc)  Yowza.  How do couples survive??  How do families survive??  It's just nuts.  Guess it just gives me that much more motivation to succeed in school so I can graduate and get a better job, right?

 

Goodbye social life for the next 4 months.  Hello new boyfriend named math book.

Wrong Email

Got this in my email today, here's a good laugh.......

This one is priceless…A lesson to be learned fromTyping the wrong email address!!!

A Minneapolis couple decided to go to Florida to thaw out during a particularly icy winter.  They planned to stay at the same hotel where they spent their honeymoon 20 years earlier. Because of hectic schedules, it was difficult to coordinate their travel schedules.  So, the husband left Minnesota and flew to Florida on Thursday with his wife flying down the following day.

 

The husband checked into the hotel.  There was a computer in his room, so he decided to send an email to his wife.  However, he accidentally left out one letter in her email address, and without realizing his error, sent the email.

 Meanwhile, somewhere in Houston , a widow had just returned home from her husband's funeral.  He was a minister who was called home to glory following a heart attack.  The widow decided to check her email expecting messages from relativesand friends. After reading the first message, she screamed and fainted.

The widow's son rushed into the room, found his mother on the floor, and saw the computer screen which read:

 

To: My Loving Wife

Subject: I've Arrived

Date: October 16,2005

 

I know you're surprised to hear from me.  They have computers here now and you are allowed to send emails to your loved ones.  I've just arrived and have been checked in.  I've seen that everything has been prepared for your arrival tomorrow.  Looking forward to seeing you then!!!  Hope your journey is as uneventful as mine was.

P.S. Sure is freaking hot down here!!!!

Ppppoker face

Melissa, are you reading this?  Hello!  We need to do our Poker Face video still!  Otherwise I won't let you go to Hawaii.  Just kidding.

 

Anyway, the other day I was able to get myself out of an uncomfortable situation, thanks to my lovely little Nokia XpressMusic phone, my clumsy fingers and Lady Gaga.  If you are interested in hearing this entertaining tale, let me know.

Wax on, Wax off.

I recently went to a "waxing party" at my friend's home. She had her cousin do waxing for us, basically for the price of the supplies. Right on! I got my legs done-- which hurt like crazy--and for the first time, my armpits. The pits hurt, slightly, but I would totally do it again. Ah. It was nice. Highly recommend. Maybe one day I will exchange razors for lasers though...that'd be nice! No more shaving or waxing again..ever!! Anyone know where I can get a good deal? Please share.

Where's da fish?

Seriously!!  Please stop bringing the fish!  It freakin stinks!!!!!!!!!!!!!!  BLEH. (See "febreze please")

Chaos

Chaos: a state in which one may experience massive confusion and often discomfort.

No, i didn't just join a dictionary definition league, that is just how i would define the word at the moment. Thanks to the Tower of Babel event, I got to experience my own bit of chaos today. Allow me to share.... I was given a list of patients to call to reschedule their doctor's appointment, which had been bumped. I call one and the mom answered first, then handed the phone the the father. I explained why i was calling and that we needed to reschedule. I explained this in what seemed simple terms, having to repeat myself several times. The man spoke English pretty well, but his comprehension did not quite match.

Finally i asked if we could get an interpreter to help us, and thankfully he agreed to it. I got a interpreter on the line and it was really interesting to listen to. With my background noise plus the patient AND interpreter's it was difficult to tell when the interpreter had finished and was talking to me. He had a thick accent so it was almost hard to tell when he stopped speaking his native tongue and began in English! Anyway, it was cool and interesting but TRICKY all at once.
It was rather chaotic, and something very simple turned out to be rather complicated and...chaotic.

I used to think 'chaos' was supposed to be read 'chaw-ose', silly huh? I distinctly remember thinking this while reading a Babysitter's Club book about Claudia, 'wonder what that word means?!' Then one day it finally dawned on me, DUH! That's how you spell chaos!

One of the greatest inventions

One of the greatest inventions known to man has got to be toilet seat covers.  Really, they are great and I am so grateful for them.  You can also use the middle part to dab at your oily face if necessary (before putting it on the seat, obviously.). 

 

While on this subject, can I just say that one of the most heart stopping experiences is when you are sitting on the porcelain throne and someone bursts in?!?!  Enough to give someone a minor heart attack.  Or even if they just try to open the door and in a panic you check to make sure you indeed remembered to lock it, and to your relief it is locked.

Blahging Marathon Lunch Hour

I've lost count of how many posts I've done today.....and mostly during my lunch hour (minus the half hour or so I spent eating, so actually it was more of a what's-left-of-my-lunch-hour-blahging-marathon). Are you impressed? I just had all these random ideas today and figured I out to let em ought and jot them down before I forgot.

I realize I have not posted much lately and this is because I really have not had much to say that wouldn't have been overly personal (ok I kinda want to stay away from my blog turning into a public journal/diary), revealing, boring or depressing. This blog is mundane and unremarkable, sorry. I'm not crafty, I haven't gone on any cool trips. I don't have any super amazing skills. I do have a lot of drama sometimes....but I am saving that for my reality tv show that I will never do (I have been told by a couple people that I ought to have my own tv show, why this is so I utterly cannot fathom. Like I said, my blog=unremarkably bland..

The Sixth Toe

I once met a teenage girl who as a little girl had 6 toes on one of her feet. She had it surgically removed, and kept it as a souvenir in a jar (I think with formaldehyde?). I know, pretty gross. True story. If I had been born with 6 toes, I think I might have just kept it attached...Maybe not, who knows. I suppose it might be uncomfortable because shoes wouldn't' fit quite right, and also uncomfortable to have people point and laugh.

Salad

I really like that salad you can buy that has all the stuff you just throw together.  You know what I'm talkin' about? It's like Super Cesar or something.  Mmm Mmm.  I also like salad with cucumber, tomato and onion...with salt. Delish!  :)  Another great one I had was at a friend's baby shower.  It had broccolli and bacon and the dressing was made with mayo and sugar I think?  I'm not sure, maybe I'll put up the recipe later.  What's your favorite salad?

My new obsession

Chocolate covered pretzels are my new favorite treat.  They are soooooooo good!  They are like the perfect salty, sweet goodness....YUM!

How do you solve a problem like Maria?

I schedule appointments.  I don't like common names.  Why does every other female spanish speaking client have to be named Maria?  Are there not enough names to go around?  And if some family has 3 girls, they are all named Maria.  Why...WHY!?!?!  On the other hand, I'm not keen on super wierdo made-up names either. 

Giant Toothbrush

The other day I went to a small town fair. It's a bummer it was so expensive! Most rides required three or four tickets and each ticket was like a dollar! My sister, nephew and I rode the spinning strawberries. We got spinning really fast!!! What a thrill.

They also had a bunch of game booths. One game was balloons and darts. The man was nice and gave us a couple extra darts which we threw at some balloons to try and pop them. We won a little penguin. My sister wanted one of the monkeys because she collects monkeys, so the man said: "I'll give you 10 darts for 10 bucks and you only need to pop 6 balloons to get it" We figured we could probably just buy a cuter monkey for that much and declined.

We moved on to the lucky duck game. This was a little moat thing that had rubber duckies floating around in a circle. For $5 one could pick up 3 ducks and adding up the numbers on the bottom, win a prize. My nephew won a gecko and the booth man threw in a giant plastic toothbrush for a bonus.

Next we played a game which had a ramp and balls that rolled into slots with a different number assigned to each slot (sounds like a casino huh!). Adding up the points at the end, a particular prize was awarded. The boys won swords after we traded up two smaller, (lame) prizes.

The game I found most exciting was a racing one. So there was a guy that talked fast like an auctioneer once the race started, and the cars were wooden cutouts with the Flintstones as drivers. To get them to move, the players had to get a ball into a color coded hole. The better the hole the ball went into, the further the car went. My nephew won the game and got a cow.

It was interesting and I saw a real, live cowboy, he wasn't just pretending. We enjoyed the fireworks show from the car afterward. Hooray for small town fairs!

My lips hurt real bad, gosh!

I love that scene from the movie Napoleon Dynamite where Napoleon calls home to see if someone can bring him some chapstick. Chapstick is one of my essential items i cannot live without it! My two favorites-in case anyone ever needs a gift idea- are Burt's Bees Beeswax Lip Balm (a smidge pricey but worth every penny) and Chapstic Mint (which is rather hard to find!). Burt's Bees is true to it's label, reading: ' Soothing. Cooling. Refreshing'. Another favorite is that one that you can buy at Bath & Body Works, that falls into the lip gloss genre with its goopy consistency and colored tint. It is also flavorful and refreshing! :)