7 More Days

I will be graduating with my first college degree in seven days!

"Temptation, thy name is P.O.D."

I recently came into a bit of money, the refund of my Pell Grant for the spring semester, and am going to try to put it in my savings and sit on it. Three things that will most likely immediately draw from this little bit of money are an oil change for my car, the graduation fees for college, and some more paper for my classes.

However, as parsimonious as I may seem to other people, though not many, I find that the fact that I have a little extra money tends to make me feel that I am free to spend what little extra money I have. This would not be a healthy thing to do as I don't know how much I will make each pay period. The best idea would be to save this money in case I have to miss some hours at work and don't have enough for rent, the electric bill, gas, and food (why gas before food? As most college students will attest, Ramen noodles are cheap and easy to fix).

So, as much as I love my music, it will have to wait until I myself can afford to purchase it, which is at it should be. I don't think the new secretary of the treasury or my fellow tax payers really want to foot the bill for music that would probably not be as aesthetically pleasing to them.

REFLECTION:

This may be a whole post unto itself in a few days,
but I would like to reflect on the passing of Coretta Scott King.
We lost Rosa Parks last year.
That generation that won so many
freedoms and civil liberties
for so many
who had gone without them for so long is all but gone.
As many people have been saying on the news,
and will doubtless continue to expound upon,
it is now falling to the subsequent generations to
grab hold of the human rights torch and carry it
flaming into the future.
I hope to do my part.

Nutrition, Religion, and Music - Oh my (pounding headache)!

All gears are definitely switched into school and work mode. Just beginning the second week of classes I am feeling quite content, happy even, to be back in school. I honestly missed the demands of reading and writing as well as the pleasures of class lectures and discussions.

For those of you who are curious, I am taking Nutrition, Intro to Music, World Religions, and World Literature 1650 to present. These are just your regular old core classes, but it's so much fun to be introduced to all this new information. In Nutrition we are building our base for the semester by discussing the Daily Food Guides and nutritional recommendations set forth by the government and health experts.

This morning in World Lit we discussed A Modest Proposal by Jonathon Swift. My goodness! Who would want to eat babies?! The discussion was definitely rich and explored the reasons behind his writing this piece, which was originally a pamphlet. It definitely would have gotten my attention. Another thing to be happy about is that I know some of the other students in the class, in particular a friend of mine for many years. Sharing a class is a good excuse to get to see her more often.

And that pretty much measures my academic life to this point in the semester. Now I have to run to the bookstore and see if they have received a shipment of the books needed for said World Lit class lest I fall behind and post lots of frowny faces on here. For today, a happy face :)

New Rockin' Hair Colour

Okay, that is not an objective view on the current state of colouration on my crown, but it is temporarily not itself. Yes, in honor of the New Year, my sister and I both used a temporary hair dye on New Year's Eve. The picture is not a shot of either of our noggins, but it does somewhat illustrate the hue. The name of the colour was "Chill Plum," one of the shades in the L'Oreal Color Pulse line of temporary hair color mousse.


On their website, the color shows up as being more purple, which is what I was hoping for, but our hair came out more red. This was actually a nice result for both of us as our natural hair color has some red highlights, especially my sister. The color is also complimentary to our fair skin tones. It was fun and inexpensive, coming in at just under $5. Another nice thing about going the temporary route is that the dye shouldn't damage healthy hair as it has no ammonia or peroxide. My natural hair color is wonderful, but I just occassionally feel the need to have some fun with it.

In other news, I have finished my schedule for the upcoming Spring semester and revised my 5-year plan from becoming Registered Nurse to becoming a Doctor of Physical Therapy. I'm trying to still look around and see what my options are, while maintaining some grounding and not being blown by every new breeze of an idea that comes my way. (Thankfully I'm of a stout young woman and not easily moved.) The decision to change my course of study came with some degree of serious consideration. I had been planning on nursing mostly because that was the way I had been nudged for a while. Nursing would probably be challenging and fulfilling, but I think that I would enjoy and be more challenged and fulfilled by Physical Therapy. I will still keep my eyes and ears open. Thankfully I have a plethora (buzzword of 2000 anyone?) of advisors to gain insight, wisdom, and the understanding that I shouldn't try to do some things on my own.

Soon To No Longer Be a Student Without a School

That title sounds funny.

Yes, I found out that I will be able to attend school again in the Spring semester, with help from the local and federal government. I wonder if I will be able to pay that back someday. Hmm...

In the meantime, I have since decreased my daily working hours from 12 to 11. I think that four 11-hour days of work is easier than four 12-hour days of work. It has been nice getting home an hour earlier for sure. This allows for more rest and less coffee consumption.

I have also been enjoying my computer at home. No, we don't have the internet, which might explain why I never post on here anymore, but I have a wonderful computer thanks to my uncle. This computer has afforded me the ability to start keeping a real budget, which I actually try to stick to quite closely. Mix CD's and CD case cover art for work have also been some projects that I have undertaken. It is so much fun to just play and see what can be done. Technology can be so cool sometimes!

If you are interested in more weekly detail of my life, I would like to invite you to swing by my xanga site, at http://www.xanga.com/senoritazorro . I post approximately once a week on there, sometimes more. Once school starts I will hopefully be able to keep better track of both of these blogs.

Please remember that the turkey was originally in the running for America's national bird when you dig in this Thanksgiving, if turkey is part of your meal. I hope that you all have a blessed Thanksgiving Day spent with loved ones!

New Post Past Due

So I spent this past Saturday evening hearing the Good Word, eating good mexican food, and then allowing my parasympathetic nervous system to be sent through the wringer thanks to a bunch of giant Tripods and numerous close-up shots of very scared people. I really view Ms. Fanning as the next Jodie Foster. She is phenomenal on the big screen.

Did you know that there is a second Saw movie set to come out sometime within the next something, October 28th? Yes, I'm a bit excited about that because I am a sicko, as my sister has been unfortunate enough to be reminded of during the past few relatively lengthy drives to and from her dorm at school. She also aided me in diagnosing my olfactory malady: psychosomatic anosmia. She said that we needed to remember that.

Finally, I am looking forward to October 31st even more than I am Saw2. You might wonder why that is. It is because I'm a blood-thirsty pagan who enjoys the revelries of such an evening? Is it the excitement of make-ups, masks, and costumes? Or could it be the expectation of enough sugar to make my dentist really, really mad at me? While those all may be likely reasons, though hopefully not the first one, they are not THE reason. As of this October 31st, I will have three years of driving experience under my wheels. This means that I might be able to purchase less expensive auto insurance coverage! How exciting! Yeah, it's not quite the same without dancing lizards, but we try our best to please.

Does anyone else find irony in the date of my driving test?

I like to think that I helped steel my instructor against any other frights she might face that day.

Sinus No Stopus Runningus

I have come down with some sinus something over the weekend and so decided not to go to my second job this evening. I do not wish to make my coworkers sick nor drip over all of the computer stuff.

Saturday was great. Sister and I got to go to Memphis for the first time, play lasertag, and eat some good food. Better than most of that was just the conversation in the cars on the way there and back. We had spiritual discussions on the way there with a young couple and one of the guys who resides at the ministry's building. Then on the way back, we drove with that guy, as well as the other guy who stays there, and an international student from Taiwan. We talked about Taiwanese political issues, movies, and the classic X-men cartoon series. It was a wondermous trip to be sure!

Sunday was a day of mild disappointment but greater enjoyment. The mildly disappointing part was being sick and not being able to go to church in the morning of the evening. The greater enjoyment part was being sick with my sister, watching movies, eating pizza, and endulging our love for peanut M&M's while simultaneously donating to the Susan G. Komen foundation. It would be great to be able to watch the entirety of Sense and Sensibility some time.