Mama Mia!

I just saw Mama Mia: The Movie for the second time. I love love love it! I just want to dance through the whole thing! I plan to buy it on DVD and do exactly that, dance and sing. I’m sure it’ll cheer me up or relieve stress. 

I had a horrible day at work. I don’t want to re-live it by writing about it. Too much stress occurred in too short of time. I also officially hate the phone after today. It would have been not so bad if I could have understood the person I was talking to on the phone. But alas she has a really thick accent, talks too fast, and I was on the noisy bus so therefore hearing on the phone was next to impossible. Let’s  just say I’m so very thankful I’m done this job in 8 more work days…. School can’t get here fast enough! (Yes I know I’ll be taking those words back when I’m knee deep in papers and midterms.)

My audiologist appointment has been moved up to Thursday. She didn’t realize she booked me on a holiday until the next day. She phoned me back and offered me an earlier appointment. I don’t know if that is good or bad. I am thankful I’ll just get it over with though….

I’ve been asking more questions/looking into grad school stuff again. It makes my head hurt but its exciting at the same time. 

I’m volunteering at my city’s first “Walk Now for Autism” in September. I’m not sure what I’ll be doing, I offered to do anything, (except be a mascot as I think they are scary so why would I ever get dressed up as something that scares me, which is why you will never see me dressed as a clown. BEGIN RANT: I hate clowns. With a passion. We had Ronald McDonald come to our school to teach the kids about health living, yes ironic beyond belief, and he kept running past me and I would literally shudder every time. There is something so wrong about clowns. END RANT) I’m looking forward to the day. I forgot how much I enjoy doing volunteer work. I did a lot in high school, I had so many unique experiences and met a lot of people, I’m looking forward to getting back into doing more. I am so horrible at asking people for money so I have always avoided fundraising walks, however I figure if I volunteer for the walk I’m still helping out in a way I feel I can do so. 

I’ve been reading a lot of blogs about CI’s (Cochlear Implants) lately. They are pretty interesting, especially to me as it relates to my future career! I’ll have to update my Blogroll soon.

I want a new camera. Mine pretty much died. It only works half the time, if that. It did take a ridiculous amount of pictures in the last year, at least over 10′000, so it was due to die at some point. However, I don’t have the money for one, I’m holding out hope for my birthday (late October) for a new camera or at least some money towards one! 

I think that is enough of my random babble to fulfill my very few readers. I have attempted a new post for the last few days and just never had the energy to get started. Once I get started though, I have a hard time stopping!

Appointment Booked!

Okay, I booked my appointment with the audiologist for Sept 1 at 10 am.

I’m glad I did, although it seems like a long time away. I’ll try not to think about it…

Better Days…

Thank you so much for the encouraging comments. Its amazing how strangers can offer such support and uplifting words. I’ve felt better for the most part over these last few days, although my job has gotten me down. However, I don’t really feel like writing about that. 

I have amazing plans for the next few days. For the next couple weeks my city has a Fringe Festival going on with tons of plays so we are going to go see one tomorrow night. Friday night will be back to the Fringe Festival for more plays. Saturday I’m going to a farmer’s market to help my mom out, they have a big family festival thing happening so the day should be pretty busy. Then Saturday night a friend’s birthday party. I’m actually getting exhausted just writing out everything I am doing this weekend.

I need to make an appointment with an audiologist, however I have been avoiding it. In the past few months I’ve noticed hearing issues: not understanding what people say if they turn away from me while talking, if a noise is close to me it completely blocks out the noises further away from me (ie a baby making the smallest amount of noise in the pew next to me means I totally lose what the priest is saying…), when working at the school if a kid wasn’t talking directly to me and there was other noise in the room I always had to ask them to repeat themselves. I always have had problems with conversation in bars or noisy restaurants I’m sure most people do, but I mean problems as in even if a person shouts in my ear I still can’t understand. Its like my ears can’t pick out the sounds they need to. Along with all of this I’ve had constant ringing in my ears. Now all of this wouldn’t be so bad, except that its really starting to annoy me. I’m tired of just smiling and nodding after asking someone to repeat something for the second time because I still have no clue what they said. It makes being out with people a pain sometimes. I am also worried about my transfer to the University this fall. At the smaller college I was at I would never have a problem with hearing the professor. My biggest class was 60 people and the classrooms were small enough that I was never that far from the professor and if people started making noise they’d always get dirty looks. However, this fall I will have classes of upwards of 200 people. What if a bunch of them start making noise and I miss what the prof is saying. 

Hmm I haven’t actually written that all down yet, its been more or less stuck in my head. That felt good. I am avoiding the appointment though, I mean chances are its nothing. But what if it isn’t? I went to the doctor to make sure it wasn’t excess wax or an infection. He said I needed to go get a hearing test as I have signs of early hearing loss. Lucky me. Okay that being said, I would be very thankful if thats all it is. That I can deal with. I just don’t want it to be something more. I have the numbers of two audiologists on post it notes right beside my computer. I look at them constantly but I pretending I don’t see them. Tomorrow morning I’m going to call and find out about booking an appointment. I will post when I do. If I continue to avoid booking an appointment I give anyone reading this permission to virtually kick my butt!

I had no intention to turn this blog entry melodramatic again, but I think I sort of did. I guess that has been sort of my life lately, looking too much towards the negative. So I will now post 5 happy things from my life lately to balance out the negativity in this entry.

1. My friend came home from a trip overseas to Australia for WYD, I surprised her with balloons at 12:30 am when she got back in town. It was all very exciting. I got lots of presents! 

2. I had 3 bellinis at lunch on Saturday with my friend who is like my older sister. Really the happy thing is that we found time to get together, the bellinis were just icing on the cake

3. I saw Mama Mia. Great movie! I wanted to dance the whole time! 

4. My friend hosted his annual BBQ where he cooks us massive amounts of ribs. It was delicious. I ate an excessive amount of ribs. 

5. I spent my Friday night watching One Tree Hill (with the friend from happy thing #1). That was awesome. 

Okay I feel like I’ve lessened the depressive event this post may have had on you. Hope you feel better now

Light Years Away

I’m hoping this post will turn out okay, I’m writing it on my Mac which does not seem to be very compatible with wordpress, so I’m keeping my fingers crossed.

I can’t really even adequately update everything that’s happened since I last wrote, I don’t even remember the last time I wrote. My life has been full of too much drama. I feel like I am in high school, except I didn’t have this drama in high school, so maybe its just catching up with me. I guess I’ll just sum it up in bad relationship, bad break up (both being 6 months ago), him continuing to treat me badly, a “friend” getting involved with him and it all just blowing up into too much drama. No one needs the details, I don’t feel like rehashing it all yet again. However, all this in the last 6 months nearly destroyed me. On the surface I kept together but inside… let’s just say its been rough. I just want to move on. I’m trying very hard to basically pull a 360 and go back to being happy and focused. I can’t go on letting him wreck my life. 

I’ve refocused my energies on grad school. I wrote about Gallaudet a few months ago and for a while I gave up on that dream. I don’t know why I did but it seemed impossible, too many obstacles. But now I realize I can overcome any of those so called obstacles. Its my dream, why don’t I try and follow through with it?

I plan on putting a lot of hours into studying this year. I start school in three weeks. I’m very excited! I can’t wait to get back to the routine. 

This entry will be short. I’m tired.

On a final note, I’ve been playing this song on repeat for the last two days. I heard it on “One Tree Hill” (my new OBSESSION tv show!) and it just really felt like my life, as lame as that sounds. 

t’s almost like you had it planned 
It’s like you smiled and shook my hand and said 
“Hey, I’m about to screw you over, big time” 
And what was I supposed to do? 
I was stuck in between you and a hard place 
We won’t talk about the hard place 

But I don’t blame you anymore 
That’s too much pain to store 
It left me half dead 
Inside my head 
And boy, looking back I see 
I’m not the girl I used to be 
When I lost my mind 
It saved my life 

It’s how you wanted it to be 
It’s like you played a joke on me 
And I lost a friend 
In the end 
And I think that I cried for days 
But now that seems light years away 
And I’m never going back 
To who I was 

Cause I don’t blame you anymore 
That’s too much pain to store 
It left me half dead 
Inside my head 
And boy, looking back I see 
I’m not the girl I used to be 
When I lost my mind 
It saved my life 

I think that I cried for days 
But now that seems light years away 
And I’m never going back 
To who I was 

Cause I don’t blame you anymore 
That’s too much pain to store 
It left me half dead 
Inside my head 
And boy, looking back I see 
I’m not the girl I used to be 
When I lost my mind 
It saved my life 

That life seems like light years away 
Light years away 
And that life seems like light years away 
Light years away

 

I really want to get to the point where “I don’t blame him anymore” but I’m not quite there yet. 

Sorry, this entry was really teen angsty… like I said, I feel I’m back in high school, 3 years after I’m done… Future entries will not be this horrible

Too Long!

It’s been way too long since I’ve posted. My weeks have been flying by. I was also pretty sick for two weeks so my nights after work mostly consisted of lying on my couch waiting til it was acceptable to actually go to bed.
The job is still great. These kids seem to get even more awesome each day. I never seem to run out of funny stories about them. I’ve also been going on field trips with a few different classes. Since I didn’t go to elementary school in this city I’m now getting to experience all the things my friends did when they were younger. Although I did come to the realization that fields trip are a lot more fun when you are the kid and not responsible for all the kids. Oh well, they are still pretty fun anyways.
I only have three more weeks in this job, I’m hoping to get a job working with kids with Autism Spectrum Disorder. We’ll see how that goes/ if I get the job.
Went camping on the May Long Weekend in an area famous for dinosaurs. Got rained out which was actually pretty funny. The tent I was in just completely collapsed. Climbed some Hoodoos (really cool sand/rock formations…google it…easier than me trying to explain it!) went to the museum. One of the guys I was with is a paleontologist so it was like having a personal tour guide in the museum. A few of us went to Mass while we were camping in the nearby town. During the sign of peace an elderly gentleman turned around and said “Oh wow, aren’t you three fine looking ladies.” Which make us all giggle. We were probably the only people in the church under 40, so we drew some attention. I felt really welcome though which was nice.
I love that it is finally BBQ season. We didn’t have our BBQ for the last two summers so now I’m pretty sure we’ve eaten BBQ every night for the last two weeks. Yum yum.
Well that’s a quick update of everything in my life the last few weeks. Posting may be sporadic throughout the summer but I will try and post every once in a while. When school is back I’ll have plenty of time to procrastinate and write blog posts

Jobness

I seriously love my new job! I’ve only been there two days but I feel like I’ve been there forever! Yet in such a good way. The days fly by and it doesn’t even feel like a job.
I help out in a couple different classrooms and then in the computer lab as well.
My favorite class (I know I shouldn’t have favorites but I love them so much!) is the class I’ve been volunteering in for the last 4 months. All the kids are cognitively and mostly socially behind where they should be. However, they have the hugest hearts and are incredibly sweet, even when misbehaving.
This job is probably too good for my ego, I get hugs and compliments all day long! “You’re pretty! You’re beautiful.” I get pictures and dandelions. Its great!
Tonight I’m going with a friend to see “Bella”. Its supposed to have a really good “pro-life” message without intending to be pro-life. And we are, of course, making the pre-movie trip to Walmart to load our purses with candy
I don’t have too much to say so I’ll leave it there. I hope to catch up on all your blogs in the next couple of days!

Blogroll

I’m working on updating and adding to my blogroll. I’ve divided the links into categories. I don’t know if I’ll keep it that way but for now thats how it’ll be.

I have more to come but I’m trying to limit the time I spend on the computer, to do more productive things and avoid headaches. So alas my time is up for now.

I’ll come back one more time tonight to read all the blogs and leave some comments!

More on the New Puppy

So apparently I am horrible at relaying information regarding my new puppy. Here we go!
Name: Nicky
Gender: Male
Age: 8 weeks
Weight: 2lbs 14 ounces (he just went to the vet today)
Breed: 3/4 shihtzu and 1/4 bichon (roughly)
Cuteness Level: Through the roof!

Okay there are all the basics. It’s amazing the amount of joy a new puppy can bring to a house. It was very quiet after we had to put our other dog down, I was so used to hearing her running through the house or whining or making some sort of noise. Now with Nicky there is no end to the excitement. He loves to play and cuddle and lick faces. He also likes to nibble noses, thank goodness he has very tiny teeth!

I would post another picture but I’m having problems with the uploader! Grrrr.

 

New Puppy!

I’m not sure if I wrote about this but a couple weeks ago we had to put my dog down. She was nearly 10 years old, developed diabetes and went blind. It was horribly sad.

However, we now have a new puppy, which makes the sadness a little less. This dog has a complete opposite personality from our last one. He is friendly, playful and snuggly. He’s calm and doesn’t really bark. He is the cutest thing ever! So sweet. Loves to nibble toes and fingers with his tiny little sharp teeth. He’s just under 2 pounds right now.

     

I’m currently playing around with Excel to create some budgeting spreadsheets. Right now if I were to pay off my credit card bill entirely I would have -13 in my bank account! I have never had this little money. Its scary! Never again, if I can help it! I know this is a result of poor money management (aka no money management whatsoever). Real life is starting to hit me, grown up life! I realize I have very little savings. I know that I will most likely need student loans eventually but I am trying desperately to make it through undergrad without them. I also realize, and maybe this is a weird thought, but if I get married in the next few years (through some miracle ) I don’t want to be walking into a marriage with $-13. I guess I want to feel I’ll be able to contribute something. So that means budgeting and planning ahead!
I’ve figured out how much I need for my “expenses”- ie tuition and books, paying off credit card, phone bills, sponsor child, and my netflix type subscription for an entire year starting in May. I’ve then set the spreadsheet up to allot a certain percentage of any “income” to each category (Did I mention I love spreadsheets?). It looks like I’ll be able to pay my cc debt (~$800) off in the next couple months with 25% of income going there. Once that is paid off that 25% will be re-allocated towards the other categories.

I’m thinking this system will work pretty good. I’ll just have to set up a separate spreadsheet to keep track of spending and make sure I stay in budget (especially with my ’spending money’) but I think this is totally doable.

Go budgeting!

 

Summer Plans

Oh summer, when will you actually get here?
I look out my window and see piles of snow. Its very depressing. The good news its been melting today, which is also bad because it makes everything a mess! Spring is apparently a foreign concept to the weather here…

In response to your question, CanadianSaver, yes I’ll be working two jobs this summer! Not at the same time however. I have a job for the first two months at an elementary school helping out teachers with whatever. I worked at this school last year in the library and had an amazing time. I’ve been volunteering there this semester in a couple classrooms and the kids are all wonderful (lets see if I say that a month into the job…haha). Then the last two months I am working at a local playground. I have a supply of craft stuff and sports stuff and run drop in programs for whatever kids show up. I did that my first year after high school and it was a fun job so I thought I’d give it a try again.
I’ll be using my first few pay cheques to pay off my credit card debt (I really wish I didn’t have any but I do.) The rest of my money mostly goes to tuition. I’m going to work a lot harder at saving money and budgeting thanks to inspiration from a few blogs (Saving4Later, Paid it Down and Moving Forward among others). So I may post a few little tracker things on my side bar like all the cool kids have.
I know my blog is a little random and mish-mashed, with different topics and such, but thats kind of how I am. A little scatter-brained I guess, although I prefer the term eclectic. Hehe.