I'm a big kid now!

My uncle and cousin brought over my 'new' full-size mattress today! I had sent an e-mail out to some of my aunts and uncles in the area trying to see if anyone had or knew someone who had a mattress that they wanted to get rid of for a cheap price because my mattress was in -really- bad shape and I wanted a new one. It turned out that one of mom's brothers had a full-sized mattress that was just sitting in his shed and not being used, so they offered it to me.

I was going to buy a twin mattress, but I thought that it was time for me to move up to a bigger bed because I'm tired of not having room to spread out when I sleep. It may be a silly reason, but I figured if I could find a mattress and a frame for like $200 or less, then it was worth it. It turns out that my uncle might be able to find me a bed frame, too. So, it could turn out that I won't have to invest any money in a bigger bed. That would be fantastic! I love free stuff!!

I'm so excited about the new bed! I still need to get new sheets and, if my uncle can't get a bed frame for me, then one of those, too. Even though I'll have considerably less space left in my room, it's totally worth it! Having room to spread out when I'm sleeping is more important than having a path to walk on around my room. ;p

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In other news, I'm actually pseudo-ahead on my reading for this week. I really need to get as much done tomorrow as I can so that there is more time for me to concentrate on the 12 reviews that are due for my literature class a week from this Tuesday. It makes me really nervous that I only have about 6 books, so I'll need to make a trip to the library this weekend and get at least 6 more and get the reviews written before the 3rd. I'm definitely a little stressed about that.

Jake and I were supposed to have a double-date at Olive Garden with his sister and her fiance, but there was a 55-60 minute wait for a table, so we decided to try and find another restaurant. The best thing that we could find that didn't have a long wait was IHOP. The food was okay, but I got dressed up and ended up not going anywhere remotely fancy. So, my feet hurt from the pumps that I was wearing and it was all for nothing.

Maybe the next time we plan on going to Olive Garden, we'll actually think to call ahead and make reservations before we're in the car heading to the restaurant...

P.S. Jake and I saw "Inkheart" on Friday and I would just like to say that it was a pretty good movie! It actually only cost us $6 to get the both of us in and get a drink and some Sour Patch Kids because I had $20 in gift cards for Regal, so we basically got a free movie! I would have been okay with paying to see the movie, though. It was good! There were a couple of other movies that we were considering, but I'm definitely glad that we went with "Inkheart" instead of something else. The others I can wait to see until they come to Wapak or the Dollar Theater.

Week 3 down...

Today marked the end of my 3rd week of this quarter. Because we had Monday off for MLK Day, the week was pretty short and that was definitely awesome! I'm still really behind and I have a ton of reading to do for next week. I'm pretty sure that I won't get everything done, which means that I will need to make a priority list and get to the things on the top first and figure out which things can be pushed back for another day...

I really hate this time of the quarter because I always start feeling the pressure when I start to fall behind. And then scheduling windows come up and so a lot of the students coming through the office are crazies that are trying to squeeze an adviser visit in with everything else that's going on. It's just not a fun time at all.

I tried to get things done while I was at work today, but distractions kept happening and copies needed made, and I just had too much to do for work that I didn't have time for homework. So, that got pushed aside and it probably won't get touched again until tomorrow afternoon, at the earliest. Unless, by some miracle, I decide to do some reading before bed...yeah right!

Procrastinating, again

I procrastinated all weekend. On Sunday, when I was thinking about everything that I had to get done for Tuesday & Wednesday, I freaked out, and therefore got nothing accomplished that day. Finally, yesterday I sat down and read for a while. I only had about 50 pages total to read for today, but the first book that I read out of was so boring & seemed so drawn out.

So, I took a break & went upstairs with Darien (girl mom babysits for). We played a few games on her "Family Fun Night" game for the Wii. We played 1 game of "Connect 4" & 2 games of "Yatzee." I won the "Connect 4" game, she won the 1st "Yatzee" game & then I won the 2nd game. It was a ton of fun, but I decided that I needed to finish my reading. I actually got it all done before midnight, which was my goal.

I still had a paper to write today & a ton of stuff to read for that, but I got it all done. Now all I have to worry about is going to class & being bored for the next 2 hours. My second class tonight should be pretty fun and not so boring, hopefully. I actually like going to that class, even though it's like 2 1/2 hours long and it's an evening class. It's not too bad.

Can't focus...

I've been at work since 10 this morning and have gotten absolutely nothing done as far as my homework is concerned. Nothing seems important to me right now except getting out of work and going home. That's probably not a feeling that I should be having right now, and maybe it's being brought on by the long weekend that I have ahead (because I don't have any class/work on Fridays and we have Monday off for MLK day), but I just can't seem to care.

Classes were canceled!

All classes that started after 4 pm today were canceled, which means that I got to leave at 3:00 today because my class on Wednesdays doesn't start until 4:30! So, I have all of this free time and nothing (besides homework) to do with it.

When I got home today, Leo (our youngest cat) was looking out the window by the back door and acting like he wanted to go outside. So, I picked him up, took him out onto the deck and deposited him into the snow. When he tried to run off, I grabbed handfuls of snow and rubbed them on him to show him how cold it is outside and how lucky he is that he has a nice, warm home to stay in. I hope that changed his mind about trying to run out the door any time soon. ;p

My impressions of my Winter '09 classes

I really think that I will hate this quarter. Not because I'm taking a bunch of classes, but because they're all late afternoon (1) & evening (3) classes! I feel like I'm living on campus again this quarter, even with having Fridays off. I'm also frustrated because the bookstore didn't have 2 of the textbooks I needed for my classes, so I had to order them online and then wait for them to come in. We'll just see if their '2-day shipping' really only takes that long.

My classes really aren't that bad this quarter, & a few seem to be slightly related, which should help me, but the class periods are just so LONG & all I can think about during the class is driving home & chilling in front of my lappy. That doesn't make me feel hopeful about my grades for this quarter...

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This is totally unrelated (kinda) but I was noticing that a ton of people in my classes this quarter are now engaged and planning a wedding. We had to write an entry in a discussion forum for my one class that was an introduction of ourselves & out of the probably 8 people that have posted already, like 3-4 of them were talking about being engaged/planning their weddings.

I'm slightly depressed by this because I'm sorta feeling like that day will never come for me. I'm not really sure what's bringing these feelings on, but it feels like my life will never head in that direction & that upsets me. Somewhere in the back of my mind I'm sure that I know that it WILL happen, but right now it just doesn't feel that way.

I've been dreaming about getting married & starting a family since I was at least 12, maybe even before then, and it really saddens & depresses me to think that that part of my life will never exist. I don't know where these feelings are coming from. It's very possible that it is a result of the current weather conditions in our area...that's enough to be at least slightly depressed about!

Day 3 of Winter quarter 2009

I'm sitting here trying to do some reading for my Monday night class (since I have tons of reading to do for all of my other classes), and I just can't get into the material. It's like pulling teeth, seriously. It's not a matter of being literate, because I know I am. It's just really hard to enjoy the collection of words on each new page...

I suppose if maybe on another day in a better mood, I might grasp what I'm reading better, but today it's just not sinking in. Maybe I'm tired or something, or maybe it's just laziness? Whatever it is, I have to find a way to shake it off and get this stuff done! These books definately aren't going to read themselves and even if they did, I wouldn't be getting anything out of it.

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I'm looking forward to getting off work today (at 3:00) because I'm starting to get pretty hungry. Jake & I were planning on going out to grab some food the last time I spoke with him...hopefully those plans don't change.

I just have one more class tonight and then I will have experienced all 4 classes for this quarter. The great thing about my Tues/Thurs class is that we'll only meet once a week. Typically we'll meet on Tuesdays, but if class is canceled on Tuesday, we'll meet on Thursday of that week instead. That means that I'll generally be getting done at 3:00 on Thursdays and, since I have Fridays off, that's when my weekends will start! Yahoo!

Unexpected expenses

Well, my car has been making some terrible grinding sounds the past couple of weeks. I avoided getting it checked out thinking that it was just objecting to the cold and that there wasn't anything really wrong with it...plus, I didn't have the money to get it fixed.

This past week it has been sounding worse than ever, so I decided to ask my uncle to check out my break pads, because it sounded like they were going bad and that metal was scraping up against metal when I would break. He discovered that I needed new break pads and rotors for the front end, which is what I had expected (except for the rotors). And he also said it was worse on the right side, which I had also thought, so I felt pretty good about myself for being able to identify that. :)

So, I went out to the auto parts store and bought the new pads and rotors and I'll be dropping off my car at his house in a little while so he can work on it tomorrow while I'm in Columbus with my family. It was like $92 and some change for everything, but labor isn't going to cost anything, so I guess it's not too bad. I was expecting the replacement parts to cost way more than that, so it was a nice surprise.

Thankfully I came into a little bit of money from Mom and Dad for Christmas, and I have some from my grandparents, so it didn't break my bank account to buy the stuff, but I really wasn't planning on replacing anything on my car right now. I'm really trying to save up money, but every time I get a little extra that I think I can put aside, something like this happens...figures!