ledarising

This is mostly a post to use myself as a reference of shit I should get done while on break.

Short-term goals:
-Study for Weather/Climate exam (this one, plus another for geology are the last exams I have til finals!)
-Look over Geology lab stuff for quiz
-Finish Anthro/Family paper by the end of the weekend
-Play with new jewelry supplies when time is available
-Clean up the house, catch up on laundry
-Get groceries
-Catch up on work. Srsly.

Long-term goals:
-Get in contact with Dr. Boston for research stuff
-Stay caught up on work
-Keep room and rest of the house organized
-Decorate for Christmas!
-Make/buy Christmas gifts
-Prepare for and take GRE, and prepare for other grad school stuff
-Do well on finals!
-Take it easy until next semester
-Sort out money problems before next semester :(

( More stuff )

I hadn't cooked much more than a frozen dinner or grilled cheese before I moved out this go around. Even when I lived on my own before, I was usually just cooking a piece of chicken or steak and calling it a meal. Now that I live with someone else, its certainly easier to cook for two people. Especially when one of those people is more conscious of eating healthy. Its definitely a good thing to have to take into consideration.

I'm cooking a lot more, and a lot healthier. Granted, I'm occasionally baking a batch of cookies, but I do make a healthy dinner. And I'm not wasting money buying pre-made meals or eating out. Cooking healthy food doesn't take nearly as long as I thought it would. My new love is fajitas -- chicken or steak with peppers and onions, and the seasoning. So easy to make and tastes awesome. A good stir fry is easy too, and I'm a big fan of all the veggies. I still get lazy from time to time and throw in a frozen pizza or we'll just go out somewhere. It is still a major improvement from what I was doing when I lived on my own before. Yesterday I made flatbread :] It was super easy and good with a variety of stuff.

I wish there was somewhere where I could consistantly buy good produce. There's always the farmer's market, but there's not a whole lot of selection, since Wisconsin only grows so many different types of crops. I'd love to have my own veggie garden, but unfortunately, that's next to impossible. The patio here gets minimal sunlight. Most grocery stores are pretty hit or miss, no matter where I end up.

I guess I've been kind of motivated to get healthier. Like, actually motivated this time and not just talking about it. The weather has been decent and there's been a few times I wanted to go for a nice, long walk or work out. Unfortunately, my foot still hurts like a bitch, but it has been getting better. Don't mean to use it as an excuse, but it is really painful. I'm hoping the motivation keeps up once its fully healed.

The point is that I have been making some positive changes in my life, through money, eating, physical activity, and general health. Health and money stuff have always been my major problems, so its good to know that I am capable of changing habits I've had virtually my whole life. I know I'm not even close to perfect and that the changes are small, but I don't think I'd stick with it if I tried to change all these habits drastically all at once. I have a long way to go, especially health wise, but I know its within reach. I just have to keep reminding myself of the benefits to myself.

All this really isn't anything new, but I'm really bored lately :(

I've been thinking about getting another job for awhile now. My current job is 10 hours a week, from home. And I'm embarassed to say, but I'm not entirely sure if I'll still be working this coming Fall. When I first started, my boss said the grant ended after summer, but I did fill out paperwork to continue working in the Fall. The paperwork was from the secretary though, so it could've been some miscommunication, as my boss has about 4 research grants running at once. I am too much of a noob to just ask :(

Beyond that, I've got a ton of freetime on my hands, and I could always use the money. At any rate, I've been looking at the paper and school job board.

-I'm looking for somewhere between 10-20 hours a week. While I could easily handle 20 now, my schedule is actually pretty full for next semester.
-I can handle all my expenses with just what I'm making now, but if I got another job, I'd like to make about $600 a month. This way, I could use the extra I'm making to put toward paying off some of my higher interest student loans.
-I live on a goofy side of town, so there's not a whole lot of businesses here. I'd like to stay on this side of town, though, since getting anywhere else takes a good 20-40 minutes.

( Now here are some of the jobs I've found, or options I'm considering )

Zoe celebrated her 1st birthday today at my Mom's house. Although I feel a bit guilty about dragging Nick into the chaos that is any family gathering, it went pretty well, and I don't think he was too terrified. We had fun. Hard to believe she's already a year old.

I'm starting to like my hair a bit more. Probably because its the only truly no-maintenance hair cut I've had. I got lots of comments on my hair, and while I know some were legit, I wonder about others. My family's pretty traditional, so my short boy-ish haircut might've been a little off. Either way, it looks like I've spent hours on it when I have nothing in it and didn't even blow dry it. I ran a brush through it once, and pushed it around a few times with my fingers.

I am stressed a bit about school. If I had the money for that Chem class, I could get in it right away, finish it up, and get enrolled in the other classes I need, before they get filled up. If only life were easy~

I was going to write more, but I'm pretty tired. I might play some more Valkyrie Profile, but the rom is so buggy that I've had it freeze up on me multiple times, no matter what changes I make in the settings. :\

I was going to go "donate" plasma today, but I need to be deactivated from the Onalaska system, from when I donated there (near La Crosse), before I can go here in Green Bay. I use quotes around donate, because you get paid for it -- think its $30 a go, with up to two times a week. I figure its not bad for extra spending cash, and it only takes about an hour. And its for a good cause too, so that's a plus. Last time I tried, they stabbed both my arms about 5 times each before they finally found a vein. Ultimately, my veins weren't working as they shouldve been, or I wasn't hooked into the machine properly, so they only got a bit out. When they tried to put the saline solution back into my body, I felt a little nauseated, so I asked them to stop. Got a glass of water, $30, and was on my merry way. When I tried to go back in a second time, my arms were so bruised up from the first, they wouldn't let me.

I might stop there after I picked up groceries to give them my ID, so they can fax it to Onalaska. From there, it takes 5 days before I can schedule my first appointment.

Speaking of groceries, its been such a long time since I've gone, that I need a billion things today. I'm terrified to see the receipt, but at least all that I'm buying will keep us covered for awhile.

I'm downloading the Burning Crusade for WoW for their free 10-day trial. I doubt I'll ever play WoW again with any serious intent, but I figured it'd be neat to see some of the new content, even if its only the new starting areas for the new races. Part of me wouldn't mind playing again, and getting back into the raiding scene, but it takes a lot of time/commitment to have any fun with that. It was fun to be in a raiding guild while it lasted, and I definitely got my money's worth for the game, but I don't think I have the drive to level up another character to 70 and do it all over again.

I have a love/hate relationship with grocery shopping. Woodmans is fantastic for most stuff, but they have the shittiest deli imaginable. Wal-Mart actually has decent lunch meat at theirs, but the old ladies who work there seem to think that the customer should wait while they finish whatever task they are currently working on. On top of that, if the main cashier lady is busy with something else, the other 3 standing around won't stop what they're doing to even mutter a "We'll be right with you." Its to the point where I'm tempted to write a letter about how infuriated I am by the service I receive there. And I'm not a letter writer.

I picked up Pokemon Pearl today, and I'm enjoying it so far. Haven't had a ton of time to play it, since I was catching up with work stuff and finishing a lab report, but it seems like they put just the right amount of upgrades into it, since its been upgraded to a better system.

Only a couple weeks left of school, not that I have much school actually happening right now. I am so looking forward to it being over, so I can make a (hopefully) fresh start next semester. I never anticipated myself having any trouble in college, and I think that's been my biggest problem so far. I was able to get away with so much shit in high school, and I assumed the same for college. Unfortunately, I was quite wrong. My grades need to be brought up drastically if I ever intend on getting an internship next summer, and getting into grad school.

I applied for a Health Unit Coordinator job at the local hospital in the Oncology department. 36 hours/pay period, which would be pretty ideal. I hope my resume is enough to impress them, despite not having any medical office experience. Is funeral home experience close enough?

The lady who runs the Space Grant office (department the professor I work for runs) is out of the country on vacation, and I had to e-mail my hours to some other lady. Normally, I just keep track of how many hours per day, and Sue enters them from the earliest start time (like 6am or something), and just goes from there. The actually start/end times really don't matter, but for some reason, this replacement woman has sent me an e-mail demanding my start times. Timesheets are due today, so I hope she just punched them in for random times. It honestly doesn't matter, and I don't keep track anyway. I will be pretty peeved if she doesn't sort it out though, since I didn't get any hours last period, and I caught up some this pay period.

I also think I thrive on worrying/planning. I get antsy if I don't have something to worry about and fix (like making out a schedule for school until I graduate). And now, my current fixation is grad school. Its so far off, and I haven't even taken the GRE, but I'm already looking at houses, apartments, etc. at the various places I want to go. At least it keeps me busy.