Ergh!

I am so sick of getting robocalls, election adverts in the mail, and the incessant political commercials! I can't wait for this election to be over - especially if it means Obama is president. ;)

I had an interesting conversation with my mom today about what "family values" truly means, and we came to the conclusion that it must mean "mostly white, conservative, Protestant Christian, anti-gay, and anti-abortion." It certainly has little to do with the preservation of families, considering the candidate who supposedly supports "family values" is a divorced adulterer...

I was playing an online game today, and several of the other players were talking about how Obama is the antichrist! The things people say and believe! It's totally crazy.

Feeling a little homesick today, so went to lunch at Miller's Essenplatz for some "home cooking" and was not disappointed. :)

Feeling better

I've been sick the last week, but I'm starting to feel better - just in time for midterms! Yep, it's that time again. Ugh. I can't wait for the next week to be over.

I discovered that it's dreadfully expensive to send a package to Finland. Over $10 for just a few candy bars! The candy didn't cost nearly that much...

I'm having a problem at swapbot...I sent two Halloween packages and have delivery confirmation for both of them, but they haven't moved since I sent them two weeks ago! I called the post office and they said "wait and see" and "I guess you should have bought insurance." Ugh. I hate my post office so much. I have never had packages get lost like this before I started using this post office - now these are the second and third ones to go missing in a month! I think there is a thief in the post office, or someone who throws boxes away, or something. Parcel post should NOT take two weeks. I messaged my partners, but now I have the possibility of getting rated poorly, even though I DID send and can prove it. :\ If the packages did get lost, of course I will resend, but they will definitely be postmarked past the due date for the swap.

This is Nice

I feel like, for the first time in a very long time, I belong in my life. :)

I really like my DMS class. Every time I walk into the classroom, I leave thinking - yep, this is really what I want to do with my life.

I'm also really enjoying Swap-Bot and Postcrossing. I had a box full of mail today! It made me very happy indeed. :)

Wanted: Best Friend

Wouldn't life be so much simpler if we could just place want ads for best friends and have interested parties answer? I think that it would be...

I've had several "best friends" in my day. Seth and Ellen were childhood friends whose last names I don't even remember. Beth and I fought all the time until we got sick of it and each other. Then there was Erica, who kept moving and, therefore, kept falling out of touch. I have no idea where she is now; she could be anywhere in the world, literally.

Then came high school. There was Misty, who was a lot like me, and kept in touch until she went to college. Then she changed her name, her hair, her way of dress, and her friend set.

There was Kelli, who was a nice, but odd, girl who didn't really have any friends either, so we sort of gravitated toward one another. I don't know why we fell out of touch, but we did.

There was Mary. Mary was pretty and popular and wanted to be friends with ME. I couldn't understand it. She hated my boyfriend, though. Funny, after my boyfriend and I broke up, she decided that she wanted to be friends with him and completely cut me out of her life without any warning at all, and then she started heckling me in the hallway. I never understood that one.

There was Lisa. Our friendship just couldn't withstand an abusive relationship (that I was in), the distance, and my abrupt change in religion. Religion meant more to her than me. But the reason we're not friends any longer is 95% my fault. I was so wrapped up in my own pain that I wasn't there for her when she needed me, and I still regret that.

There was Shay, who would have been a life-long friend had cancer not cut her life way too short.

And then there was J, the latest one. I loved her so much - not romantically, just as friends. I could see us being friends forever. I could see me attending her wedding, I could see my (future) kid(s) calling her "Aunt J," I could see us being little old ladies writing crazy letters to one another about the fun things we used to do when we were younger. That wasn't meant to be, apparently. J has all grown up, and now she has "grown up" friends and a boyfriend, and she doesn't need me anymore.

I really have rotten luck in the friendship department, it seems. Either that, or there just aren't life-long friends like I have been led to believe. Maybe they are just a Hollywood legend too, like so many other things are.

I'm not sure what I would put in my want ad, if I could.

Wanted: Someone who doesn't treat me like I'm expendable.
Wanted: Someone who will be there for me like I'll be there for you.
Wanted: Someone who won't toss me to the curb because you don't need me any longer.

That doesn't really seem like I'm asking for too much...but apparently I am.

Yay!

I got mail! :) Specifically, I got my first official card from postcrossing, and then I got a postcard from a tag too. I was so happy to get mail, and they were both beautiful cards. They are both scanned (my scanner is actually working today, hooray!) and in my flickr account.

I did not almost get run over again at the post office, which is a good thing.

Getting up so early is hard for me, but I managed today. The class was very short, only fifty minutes once a week. I do not think I will be learning much, but then again, it is only supposed to be an introductory course. So far I am really excited about my new career choice. I think I will like it much better.

Ick

Today has been one of those days. I was up most of the night with a really bad stomachache, and I only managed to get a few hours of sleep.

Anatomy was dreadfully boring, and it looks like it will be dreadfully boring the whole quarter.

It looks like I'm going to be cheated out of $20 and I have no recourse about it. PayPal is useless if you don't pay by credit card, which I will certainly do from now on, let me assure you! I know that $20 isn't a ton of money in the scheme of things, but since I don't have a lot of money right now and won't for a while, it means a lot to me.

I was almost run over at the post office because an elderly man didn't look when he was backing out of his parking spot. He did manage to hit my calf with his bumper, which was rusty and sharp, and it tore into my jeans and my skin. My calf is now bruised and I had to get a tetanus shot at the health department.

My battery module is broken through no fault of my own and I can't find my receipt, which means that I can't send it back to be repaired and I'll have to buy a new one, which I can't afford. Ugh.

Yes, today was definitely one of those days.

Hmm

I think I am really going to like my Intro to DMS class! The professor was so nice and friendly, which is a welcome change from the rather sour professors I've had lately. Almost all of my classmates are my age or older too, so that's a definite plus.

I kind of feel like I belong here, and that makes me happy inside. :)

All of that energy I spent on worrying about stuff? I think it was wasted...

The only thing that didn't make me too happy was getting up before the sun today, but it's only one day a week this quarter, and I came home to take a nice nap. :)

I don't know why it is, but naps are almost always so much more refreshing to me than a full eight hours of sleep at night. Give me two hours to nap, and I'm ready to go!

I bought the novelization of The Dark Knight today at Walmart, so I'm really looking forward to reading it! I know that it's probably just the movie regurgitated into book form, but I loved the movie and can't wait to get a fix again before it comes out on DVD.

Also, my very first official card sent through Postcrossing was registered today! :) I dropped off a bunch more tag cards in the mailbox today and can't wait to start getting some back!

Schedule

I am trying to make a reasonable schedule so I don't fall behind this quarter, yet somehow still have a little free time. I don't have my first DMS class until tomorrow, so I won't know what the time requirements for that class will be, but so far my week is shaping up to this:

Monday: read one chapter of Medical Terminology; read 1/2 chapter of Anatomy
Tuesday: read one chapter of Medical Terminology; read 1/2 chapter of Anatomy
Wednesday: study Medical Terminology; read 1/2 chapter of Anatomy
Thursday: study Medical Terminology; read 1/2 chapter of Anatomy
Friday: take Medical Terminology quiz; do Anatomy homework and watch Anatomy videos
Saturday and Sunday: review Medical Terminology; review Anatomy

I think that looks okay...

I suppose my DMS stuff will be thrown in on Friday, since that is the least busy of the week days, and I want to mostly have the weekends for myself.

I'm oddly not nervous at all about my class tomorrow (at least not yet). I take this to be a good sign. Maybe I'm where I'm supposed to be after all.

I've been tagging up a storm on Postcrossing and have a pile of postcards to send out tomorrow morning. I can't wait to get some back! I'm also looking forward to some of the swaps I signed up for on Swapbot to get going - I want to shop!

Oww

I went to the gym today for the first time in about three weeks, and my body is telling me that it is not pleased. I've been trying to go regularly for a while now, but then I went on vacation and I didn't get back into the rhythm of going three times a week again. I think that I am going to wake up very sore tomorrow, but it will be worth it.

I watched Sabrina again last night, and it was just as wonderful as I remembered it to be. I'm really surprised that more people don't like it, or maybe I just haven't found the people who do.

So far, so good when it comes to college. I'm a little ahead on my homework already, which is definitely a positive. If I can get a week ahead on my Anatomy class, I will feel much better.

I Survived

Well, it wasn't as bad as it could have been. I was almost late to class because I couldn't find a parking spot anywhere near the building my class was in, so I had to walk about fifteen minutes from the middle of nowhere to get to class. I wasn't the last person there though, and the professor hadn't even arrived yet when I got there, so no big deal.

Someone had actually brought her baby to class! Who brings a baby to class? A person who couldn't find a babysitter, I guess. Anyway, the professor didn't seem very pleased about this and made her sit with the baby outside of the lab, since there are Dangerous Chemicals and cadavers in the lab, so the school doesn't allow people to bring children into the lab (for good reason).

The professor herself seems to be very nice and bubbly. I liked her. My classmates, however...well, maybe it was just the table I was sitting beside. They were rude and continually chatted through class, so much so that I had a difficult time hearing the professor at times. I wanted to smack a couple of them upside the head. I think it's so disrespectful to talk when a teacher is talking, not to mention disruptive.

I think most of the girls sitting at my table will be okay though. Two of them, at least. The third was part of the annoying other table and proclaimed loudly that she wouldn't work with anyone else but her friends, even though she wasn't sitting at their table. Ugh. Hopefully she'll move in next week's lab to sit with them, and someone who isn't so annoying will be in our group instead.

Other than that, though, things weren't too bad. We got out fairly early, and then I just had to buy books and then go home.

I went to get a post office box since I just discovered a couple of cool sites (Swapbot and Postcrossing), but I'm not really comfortable giving out my home address to a bunch of strangers. I don't really go to the local PO very often, and now I remember why; the clerks there are so rude and annoying. It took me almost half an hour to get a post office box, and twenty-five minutes were the clerks talking to one another and ignoring their customers. Look, I know it's probably a boring job and it was kind of hot in there, but come on. I guess that's what happens when people have a monopoly: customer service isn't a big priority at all. That's why I generally drive seven or so miles out of my way to go to the St. Louisville post office instead, since the workers are so much nicer. Their lobby isn't open 24 hours a day though, so I didn't get my post office box there. Maybe I should have. :P

Anyway, today hasn't been that great. I'm off to study for a bit, I guess.

First Day of Classes

Well, today is the first day of classes, except that I don't have any Wednesday classes this quarter, so I don't officially start until tomorrow morning. I'm a little nervous about starting back to school; I'm afraid that I'll be a lot older than my classmates. This is a community college, though, so that might not be the case. At least people tell me that I don't look my age! (I take that as a compliment.)

Tomorrow I have Human Anatomy & Physiology for two hours. I also have to buy my books. Then I don't have class until Monday, when I have Intro to DMS Technology for fifty minutes. Other than that, I don't have to go to classes; they're almost all online.

I don't understand why I'm so nervous! I've gone to college before and managed to graduate with honors with a bachelor's degree. It's just been years since I was in that world, and I'm afraid that I won't fit in any longer. Plus it's going to be a lot of work, with all of the studying and all. I just keep telling myself that I can do this, and I will do well. If I keep saying it, hopefully I'll eventually believe it.