Yahoo Astrology

Virgo - "You need to push yourself hard today -- discipline usually comes naturally to you, but for now, it takes all you've got just to get out of bed! Once you get moving, inertia should keep you going."

Ugh, so true today.

Finals CD

For the last two years, I have created a CD to listen to during Finals week, usually by hitting random in iTunes. Tonight is the night that I burned a CD for finals. This year, I was listening to my iPod on shuffle while grading and liked what I heard. So I wrote down the list and made a playlist. Here is what is on the CD:

1. While My Guitar Gently Weeps - Across the Universe Soundtrack
2. Again - Lenny Kravitz Greatest Hits
3. Absolutely Not [Chanel Cox Mix] - Deborah Cox
4. Opium - Marcy Playground
5. One Day In Your Life [Almighty Club Mix] - Anastacia
6. She's Countrywide [Digijuan Mix]
7. Sweetest Goodbye - Maroon 5
8. Wednesday - Tori Amos
9. Mr. Brighside [Jacques Lu Cont Thin White Duke Mix] - The Killers
10. Muhammad My Friend - Tori Amos
11. Silent House - Dixie Chicks
12. Feel the Quiet River Rage - Live

Gonna listen to this on the way into work tomorrow.

A Sad Reminder

I just found out that my great aunt Julia tore out half of her journal page for this past Thursday, she didn't want to remember the funeral. She also called her younger sister and left a message, not knowing why my grandmother didn't pick up. 97 and she is the last of the five Godoy sisters alive.

My mom's cousin Sally is responsible for reminding her mother that my grandma is gone. Sally also told my mom that when she told great aunt Julia, aunt Julia cried and said, "Not my baby sister. Why did she leave me?"

Great aunt Julia has been in great shape up until this past April when she fell and broke her hip. Since then, she has been confined to a bed at a rehabilitation hospital. My parents say that she is still as cheerful as always but that you can see her mental agility declining since she has no stimulation like she did when she was living with her daughter Sally. But still, if I am as healthy as great aunt Julia is at 97, I will consider myself blessed.

Here are two pictures of the sisters together. In the first photo, great aunt Julia is on the right and my grandmother is on the left.A more recent photo of great aunt Julia and grandma

Kids These Days

So, one of my cousins very excitedly posted that two of her cousins had babies yesterday, one on each side of her family. The poor kids' names?

Talon River

Hayden Michael


Okay, I was not crazy about Hayden (our mutual new sobrino but considering which cousin it was, I'm not surprised. Afterall, her older boy's name is Justice and this cousin has always been a bit drama prone. But Talon River???

Either his mom reads way too many romance novels or she expects he will become a porn star. Poor kid is going to be saddled with the question, "Wait, are you serious?" for the rest of his life.

Ew.

The Status That Didn't Make it to FB

M C is going to change to remove the smell of defeat that clings to her work clothes.

FML

Goody Two Shoes

INSTRUCTIONS:
1. Put your iPod or other music player on shuffle.
2. For each question, press the NEXT button to get your answer.
3. YOU MUST WRITE THAT SONG NAME DOWN NO MATTER HOW SILLY IT SOUNDS!


If someone says “Is this okay” you say?
Intuition - Jewel

What would best describe your personality?
Jump - Madonna

What do you like in a boy?
Mi Vida es Cantar – Celia Cruz

What is your life’s purpose?
Bliss – Tori Amos

What is your motto?
Cruel – Tori Amos

What do your friends think of you?
D.A.N.C.E. - Justice

What do you think about often?
Waiting for you - Seal

What is 2+2?
Torn - Creed

What do you think of your best friend?
Somersault – Zero 7

What is your life story?
Quimbara – Celia Cruz

What do you want to be when you grow up?
Sympathy – Jane’s Addiction

What do you think when you see the person you like?
Popular – Darren Hayes

What do your parents think of you?
Soul – Matchbox Twenty

What will you dance to at your wedding?
Something More – Train

What will they play at your funeral?
Lola’s Theme - Shapeshifters

What is your hobby/interest?
If I Fell – Evan Rachel Wood

What is your biggest secret?
Say I - Creed

What do you think of your friends?
Eyes Like Yours – Shakira

What is the worst thing that could happen?
Wake Up Alone – Amy Winehouse

How will you die?
She’s on Fire - Train

What is the one thing you regret?
Love on my Mind – The Freemasons

What makes you laugh?
It Doesn’t Really Matter – George Michael

What makes you cry?
Blue Skies – BT feat. Tori Amos

Will you ever get married?
The End – The Beatles

What scares you the most?
Last Dance – Sarah McLachlan

Does anyone like you?
Older – George Michael

If you could go back in time, what would you change?
Hallelujah – Jeff Buckley

What hurts right now?
Soul Free – George Michael

What will you post this as?
Goody Two Shoes – Adam Ant

Yahoo Astrology

Your communication requires greater finesse today -- and while you've certainly got the chops for it, you may not have the patience! Choose your words with care of stay entirely silent.

Ummm, this is interesting. Yeah, totally my day. Booo! Some days my Tuesdays really feel like Mondays.

M needs...

So, I posted a version of this on FB, but used Bing for that one. Here is the real google search.

1. to reveal her true identity to him but is concerned about the consequences – not only for herself but also her colleagues.

2. to be stopped now before anyone else is taken advantage of from her deceitful web of lies.

3. more than a Band-Aid to patch up the hole in her career(which would be pretty damn funny), but I'm whipped.

4. for her treatments and doctors visits.

5. A ROOMIE!!!

6. some costume ideas.

7. now.

8. to be sitting on my face. (sigh, the trials of having the same first name as a supermodel. I won't even tell you what I find on a google image search)

9. to come visit me at my. Cage, its a littel small, but it has a great view of timurs, computer chair.

10. my home

11. food badly.

12. to go to bed right now!!!

13. to tell him what really happened, but will he listen?

14. to accept that no one is self-sufficient all the time, and to be gentler with her "childish" emotional needs

15. some better role models than her Rio cousins Bettina and Bianca Haegler who are above high maintainance

I like number 14.

Life

This week, I received two pieces of news that made me incredibly sad.

On Monday I found out that a retired professor in the Chicana/o Studies department was killed in an auto accident on Friday. I did not have the opportunity to work with her professionally but I did meet her and liked her immensely. I remember her as sharp witted and very kind. It is shocking to hear news of someone who passes so quickly and unexpectedly. The outpouring of remembrance and shock being expressed via email through the department, college of humanities and professional organization we all belong to is sad and bittersweet at the same time.

This morning, my mom received an email. My cousin found out that she has a 1 cm tumor in her breast. Yes, its the big C. I am trying to think positive and remember that she has good medical coverage but I am frightened for her and her family - especially her daughters who are on the verge of becoming teenagers. We are all praying for the best and trying to honor her wishes to not talk about it but this is scary. Now on to treatment and the whole family rallying to help with meals and watching the girls as she embarks on medical treatment.

Both bring the frailty and mortality of humankind to the forefront of my consciousness. Life is so precious, we must make every effort to enjoy and appreciate each moment.

Settling In

Yesterday was my first complete long day. I teach at 8 am, 2 pm and 7 pm on Tuesdays, which means I wake up at 5:30 and return home shortly for the night a little after 10. I have now met all my classes.

We shall see how the semester goes. I have been off to a little bit of a rough start at both Universities, both because I had trouble with the HR systems and because I didn't prep my classes well. I'm playing catch up. I am in a HR orientation meeting today (Or else I would just be waking up now instead of being on campus already - trust me) and then will spend the rest of the day prepping for my 8 am Thursday class and also the Friday class. Tonight will be prepping for the 2 pm class. I really have to buckle down and finish prepping all four classes this weekend - no messing around. There are assignments coming up that I have yet to write or update and the students need the information so they are not doing the work at the last minute due to my slacking rather than their own slacking (hey, I'm being optimistic here).

Anywho, back to work for me.

September Horoscope

"Everyone always has something good going on in a chart, indicated by the position of Jupiter, the planet of gifts and luck. Jupiter is protecting your ability to find work if necessary (say, if you have been unemployed, or if you own your own business and want new clients). You seem to really enjoy what you do, so if the drama in your life gets to be too much to bear this month, throw yourself into your work for a little quiet relief. It's clear that at the office, others will appreciate your efforts."From: AstrologyZone.com

Boy - was that ever accurate.

First Day of School - Complete!

Woot!

I have to say, I have been overwhelmed by the birthday wishes I have received today. FB came through for me.... And I think I can honestly say that I am one year wiser since finally have finished the M.A. program.

Dreaming of Frida

I just woke up from a very vivid dream where I was playing Frida Kahlo in a stage play. Let's just say it involved costumes, pennies, a Christina Aguilar song, and my nephew James. Bizarre.

Somethings I have been thinking about

Time has been stretching out for me in a strange way. I have been officially done with being a grad student since Tuesday, August 4 when I turned in 4 copies of my thesis to the graduate office. I successfully defended my thesis on Wednesday, July 29; met my advisor for final copy editing on Thursday, July 30; got sick and rested for a couple days and then turned everything in.

Since the fourth, which was less than a week ago, I have felt like crap, napping when I can but unable to fall asleep until 4 am no matter what I did that day or if I took a nap. So much to do but no desire to do it.

So, I have been reading a lot online. Here are a couple things I have been reading that I have been ruminating about:

An Immodest Proposal

Is the U.S. on the bring of Fascism?

I also joined Facebook and I have to say, I'm bored with it. It is clunky, non-intuitive, and not much fun. Meh, no big deal.

I'm out. Planning on cleaning up my thesis office and turning it into a teaching office today. And cleaning my room and bathroom. And calling all the friends I have not seen in forever to schedule time together now that I am no longer a student. Not exciting stuff, really.

Tomorrow

So tomorrow is the big day. I defend my thesis at 11:30.

I know I did a good job and my committee chair called me tonight and told me that she has only heard positive comments about my work. She stressed that I did a really good job, above what is expected of a master's thesis and to think of tomorrow more as a conversation about the paper rather than a defense. In other words, there is no need to get defensive, no one will be attacking me.

Still, I am nervous and will take a sleep aid tonight to make sure that I sleep. I am taking a copy of my thesis to my room and reading through the whole thing once more in preparation. Then it will be lights out.

There will be a few minor changes after tomorrow that I will work with my committee chair to make. After that, it is time to prepare my official copies and turn them into the Graduate Studies office on August 4 at 11:30.

I can't believe that I am almost done. It is surreal.

Heh

Results From Formatting Appointment

So I had my thesis reviewed by the Graduate Studies Office. I have only 3 minor changes they want me to make. So cool! They said that they have yet to see a perfect thesis and that I did very well - I get a gold star.

Either they were being sincere or being very kind as they could see how happy I was to almost be done. Either way, yay me!

Suspicion

I have sent out several emails that I was expecting responses to in the last 24 hours but people have been very quiet - not responding. What's going on out there?

Woot!

I finally finished my rewrites of Chapter 4 - well, as much of a rewrite as I know I need to do until I take a look at the comments from my last committee member. I am in the process of printing out the whole darn thing to take into school for my formatting appointment tomorrow. After that, it is back to Chapter 3 for rewrites, then 1 and 2 together. Finally, printing and sending out the final thing to the full committee. Soooo close!

As of right now, my thesis is 198 pages long. And I still have work to do!

Peace out!

Thesis Update

It is 2:05 in the morning and I am not quite tired yet. In order to stay in schedule, I would have to have completed two chapters today and two tomorrow. Not happening.

See, on Thursday, I have an appointment with the graduate studies office to check my formatting of the thesis. They have these really specific rules for thesises, something to do with the binding process. The good news is that I do not need to have everything completely finished when I go in at 1:30 p.m. It just has to look like it is complete. They don't check content, that is up to my committee.
Speaking of committees, I have FINALLY! confirmed with all three committee members that we will meet on Wednesday, July 29 at 11:30 am for my defense. I need to finish all my revisions by this weekend so I can get the "final" product out to them. This is complicated as my chair-and primary reader-is out of town until Sunday and I have to mail a physical copy to one of my committee members. Please shoot me.

****UPDATE****
Hey! This is my 401 post! I didn't even realize that when I posted yesterday, it was post 400. Huh, not as impressive as some of the bloggers I know but still, its a landmark.

Molasses

Still writing, slow process at this point. I have until the end of this week to get everything together.

In other news, I just picked up two more classes at a neighboring college. This is a private university that is located in the opposite direction from the school I attend. Basically, I am half way between my two jobs. So I will be teaching Tuesdays, Thursdays and Fridays this coming semester. At least the two schools are one week apart on schedules. State school starts August 24 (I know, lucky me - Happy B-day M) and the other school starts the beginning of September. So at least I will not be in finals week for both schools at the same time. All I need to do is keep on top of the grading for sure now.

Went to the gym for the first time in months tonight. Half an hour on the elliptical. Better than nothing. I have not been to the gym since before I wrote Chapter 4 on my thesis. That would be....sometime in June I believe. No bueno. My defense date is July 29. Have to turn the whole finished product in by August 4. That is the last day to file. So tired of working on this darn thing. I have no desire to keep rewriting. Can't if just be done the way it is? I don't care anymore!

got to go, more to write. Will update on the 30 day challenge soon. Fell off that wagon pretty darn quick.

Still

Still writing, still super busy, still hating my life, still procrastinating and still tired all the time.

More

So, still no internet at home, there is a problem with our land line that AT&T needs to fix. We have apparently had this problem for a long time but had received a work around solution that actually worked on a permanent basis. Since I don't understand all the stuff they are talking about, I'll sum it up by saying we have two datalines running to the house and one is cut. Has been for a while and we have been running the phone off the other one. Problem is, the one that was cut is tied to a closer fiber optics center and that is the one we need for the new internet and DVR that is being installed. yay, fun.

In other, bigger news, my thesis defense date has been postponed. No new date set but it will be July 27-30. I think I will propose the 28th but need to coordinate schedules with all three committee members.This is not a bad thing. A lot of people have been expressing an "oh no!" kind of sentiment. Although I am bummed that I have to work on the dang thing longer, this allows me to actually finish it and be done for sure at the defense. I can have everyone sign and turn the dang thing in rather than defending and then having to go back and fix stuff. It gives me more time to fix stuff, like typos, formatting stuff and well, content. Because as much as I have been working on this thing, the beast has not been slain yet.

Got to go home and work on the paper, later!

Stuck

I have fourteen pages written of my conclusion however, I have major holes on page 8, and have not answered my second and third research question. Plus, I have the final paragraph of my paper written but not the paragraph before then! I don't write in a linear fashion, as a thought comes to me, I move to that section of the paper to record my thoughts.

The only problem with that is it leaves holes in the text and gives me a false sense of completion.

Damn it! I wanted to finish this chapter tonight, sleep and then proofread the chapter tomorrow morning and send it to my committee before I leave at 10:45 to pick my parents up from LAX. Not sure how I am going to do all this.

And I am not pleased with the final product. I am definitely repeating myself and will need major rewrites on this chapter. How many times can I talk about how this film sucks from a communication studies perspective?????

Grrr

I'll get over myself shortly.

Online, Kinda

So, I went over to the AT&T store yesterday and picked up one of their wireless laptop cards. (Long story, I thought we were suppose to get it for free but I ended up having to sign a 2 year agreement and put $120 on my credit card but that is a story for another day)

The card runs on the 3G, same as if I had one of their phones. The service is absolute crap. It times out and is slow and horrible.

This is why I will not purchase an iPhone as long as there is only service available through AT&T. I was an AT&T customer before it was purchased by Cingular back in the day and let me tell you, they were a great company until that merge. After that, my service got worse, both in the sense of where I could take calls and also customer service I received. You all remember how I could never take or make calls from my cell in the house.

That's why I switched to Verizon. And have been pretty happy since. There have been some billing errors in the last few months although I am happy to report that two emails per incident has resolved the matter and had the charge credited to my account.

Oh and BTW, I have blocked all features but texts and calls. So if you try to send me a picture on my phone, I will no longer receive it. I use to get them, but then they would try to charge me and extra $2.

Not going to happen.

I'm grumpy. Peace out.

Update

At school today cuz the internet is still down at home and the supposed fix fell through cuz my timing sucks. I cannot believe how much I miss the internet. I feel like crap and am having a hard time buckling down to write when I am so close to being done with the damn thesis.

I am currently reading through my draft and other than some editing tidbits and some places where I see I could make a better word choice, I am pretty pleased with and proud of my work. Two more chapters to read and one more to write.

As I get back to work, I leave you with my horoscope from Yahoo for today:

"Your mind is like a deep-sea creature. It's interesting to look at and ponder."

Update

Obviously, the internet has not been turned off yet, lucky me. And guess who has two thumbs and finished a draft of thesis chapter 3?

That's right, me! One more chapter to go, suppose to get it done by 5:00, it will be very close.

In additional news: I tried oatmeal again this morning and on Christa's suggestion, added some maple syrup (the real stuff since that is what we had in the house). The taste was much better but I don't think I added enough water when I was microwaving it - it was a little dry. Will try again tomorrow.

I discovered that half a lime in my water bottle was too much citrus. I was having some acid reflux and...some other problems that I won't share the details of (You're welcome). I now add just a teaspoon to my water bottle and the results are much better. My digestive track is happier and I discovered that it is surprisingly sweet when it is a hint of lime rather than the amount I was adding before.

Okay, well my break is almost over. I will keep you posted.

Meals

So the interwebs are not cut off yet, so I will post before it does and I head to school to work.

In addition to cutting artificial sweeteners and caffeine from my diet, I am also back to writing down everything I put in my mouth, a la Weight Watchers, and counting calories. To save calories, I am eating a lot of veggies, and I do mean A LOT. I have also switched to supposedly healthy for you oatmeal for breakfast instead of my usual soy logs on toast (I'll post about that some other day).Well, if you know me at all, you know my distaste for oatmeal. I used to keep the instant packages of oatmeal in my desk at both jobs as it was a quick meal if I was short on time and stores well. Convenient size too. But old fashion oatmeal or eating it by choice - hells to the nos!

Maybe it has to do with the experiment in elementary school of keeping meal worms but when I go to scoop up the dry oats, I always look for meal worms. And if that isn't unappetizing enough for you, I always think that cooked oatmeal looks like vomit in a bowl. And has about the same texture. Not going to go into a detailed description but lets just say that I sometimes have the uncomfortable feeling of food rising in my gorge in the middle of eating oatmeal because of the damn texture. So yeah, I'll choke it down but you can't make me enjoy it.

So I did. Made it in the microwave with rice milk instead of water. Not sure if I will keep this up. I may resort to making cream of wheat, which doesn't bother me as much.

Damn food texture issue of mine...

later, have to go back to writing. I hate my life.

The Interwebs

is going down tomorrow. I have to go to school to be online. We are switching service, hopefully we will not be without internet for very long.

Grr...

Goodnight

Crap...

Update:
Thurs: Made progress on Ch. 3 but not done
Friday: Worked on Ch. 3, got frustrated and finished Ch. 2 instead
Saturday: Took the day off (May be a mistake in the long run but I needed it
Bonus: Got my chapter 4 back from my chair. Better but still needs work
Sunday: Aiming to finish Ch.1 and make more progress on 3.

New schedule
Monday: rewrites on Ch. 4
Tuesday: Prep all four chapters, go see chair for help with Ch. 3 (possibly) Send chapters to my proofreaders (LAbookgal and T3)
Wednesday: Write Ch. 5, all chapters to chair

Later and later...

30 Day Challenge

So I don't think anyone is actually reading my blog anymore but I will continue to post for myself. (neener, neener neener)

I have started reading a new blog called The Great Fitness Experience(TGFE). I really like it. Today's post was about what people drink in their water bottles at the gym which could also easily be titled, "The Evils of Drinking Artificial Coloring and Sweeteners" post.

Add this post to the experience I had this weekend: I was sitting on the couch between Ms. B and T3 and a commercial for Crystal Light came on the TV. Simultaneously, both of them started in about how Crystal Light is nothing but a bunch of chemicals and artificial sweeteners and just crap.

I had to speak up in my own defense. I just don't like the taste of water. Even filtered, it tastes like dirt to me and I do not have pica. In fact, I am so bad at drinking water that I use to dehydrate myself at least once a summer when I was in my mid-twenties. Not fun.

Enter the plastic water bottle and crystal light packets. I know that there is also some controversy if the reusable plastic water bottles are releasing toxins into your water but I will take my chances. I digress - not unusual.

Adding the crystal light packets are the only why I can manage to drink enough water to stay hydrated. I water down the mix since the recommended mixture is like drinking syrup - I add one small packet to a 32 oz. bottle when Crystal Light recommends an 8 oz. bottle - shyeah right! By adding these packets, I usually drink two bottles a day - at least 64 oz., not including my morning cup of tea and anything else that catches my fancy. That's an improvement.

But with all the crap I have received and read recently, I am entering a 30 day challenge (modeled after TGFE). I have decided to try to cut back on the artificial sweeteners I ingest each day for a month.

I have the occasional diet soda, so that is not an issue for me. I am also cutting back on my caffeine, so I can def. cut back on the Splenda I use in my morning tea. When I do decide to have tea, I now actually use a teaspoon to measure the Splenda instead of dumping several spoonfuls into the cup - hey, my one sweet tooth splurge is sweet drinks - whatev', don't judge me.

Instead of using the crystal light packets, I will be using limes to flavor my water. Armed with my trusty polycarbonate water bottle, a couple pounds of limes from Costco and a Mexican Lemon squeezer, I will attempt to severely decrease my artificial sweetener intake. The occasional drink will happen but I will be interested to see if cutting back on artificial sweeteners will assist in my quest to lose the weight I gained back during grad school (my love handles are out of control right now - I just know how to dress to hide that fact) as artificial sweeteners are suppose to trigger appetite.

I'll post results periodically. Now, back to the thesis! It is down to one chapter a day now to have a 'complete' thesis by Monday. Yikes! Finished Ch. 4 last night, my schedule is as follows:

Today (Thurs.): Finish rewrites Ch. 3
Friday: Rewrites Ch. 1
Sat: Rewrites Ch. 2, print 1-4, proofread and submit hardcopy to chair
Sun: Write Ch. 5 my conclusion, submit all to chair
Mon: rework any notes and send 1-4 to complete committee with Chair approval

Woot!

Mental

It takes me a while to get into the mindset I need to write. There is a part of me that knows I am procrastinating but then there is another part of me that says,

"Get everything that is distracting you out of the way and then buckle down and write! If you are not distracted by thinking about other stuff then you can get done what you need to."

Sometimes that is playing an online game that I was really into for a while. Now it is checking the blogs I read. And making sure that I am comfortable. What ever it is, I need to buckle down, I don't have that much time left.

P.S. I need this pet.

Las Vegas!

My favorite quote from this weekend:

"You know we've gotten old when instead of aspirin and Tylenol, we carry Zanex and lactaid in our bags." - Chrispy

Wednesday

I woke up with a headache today. When my dad asked how I felt this morning and I told him, his response was, "Well, you're on schedule." Wednesday...that's about right."

Ummm, so there is a pattern to my headaches? I wasn't aware of that...

Tonight

You know you should really go to bed when you have to call yourself to figure out where your cell phone isonly to discover you left it in the bathroom.

Yeah, this is my life.

3 Nightmares

I just woke up from having three short nightmares in a row. I feel like crap.

The first nightmare was that I sent the analysis chapter of my thesis to one of my committee members to look over before I sent it to my chair to evaluate (that would never happen BTW) and his response was, "So basically you didn't say anything for an entire chapter."

That segued immediately into a nightmare two, where I went out to breakfast with a colleague the first day of school and then all of a sudden realized it was 8 a.m. and I was late to go teach and didn't have any of my paperwork/lecture notes with me to go straight to school.

After a few sidetracks, nightmare three began. I finally started walking to school to try to get to my classroom before any of the students went to the department chair. I set out along Erringer to go to school (wtf? - that's not the way to school) but was having trouble walking. It was like I was sludging through wet sand and cement. But I had to get there so even though my muscles burned with exhaustion and my thighs were weak and shaking from the pain, I kept trying to get there even though I was already a half hour late.This is when I woke up. With my legs aching BTW. Freaky. Do you think someone is feeling inadequate at all?

Today's Thought

Is it wrong that I kind of love the fact that I get to write fuck in my thesis at least three times since I am quoting the film?

New Low

I rented a movie from Blockbuster the other night. What I rented is not important - not relevant to the story. The total for the rental came to $3.24. I handed the young man behind the counter a five dollar bill to cover the cost. He hit the button to put the money in the register. But before he was able to do so, his coworker asked him a question. Apparently, this distracted him so much that when he turned back to the register, he had to use a calculator to figure out how much change to give me back. From a five dollar bill, for a cost of $3.24.

Now, I can give him the benefit of the doubt. It was about a quarter after nine at a movie rental store on a Saturday night. Maybe he was tired... I prefer this explanation to thinking that this young man - maybe still in high school but I doubt it - can't mentally figure out the change due without the register telling him. Let's look at how easy this mental process would be, shall we?

Okay, bill is $3.24. Customer hands you $5.00. Round the bill to 3 and a quarter. Add 75 cents to make the total $4. That means you need $1.75 in change. Then add back in the 1 cent you rounded the bill up by. Change is $1.76.

It probably took me longer to type that up then it would take to mentally work through this. If we as a society cannot process simple math for a transaction like this, how in the heck are we suppose to fix the economy?

I don't mean to sound like an old geezer but if this is the future of our nation, I weep.

I Hate My Life

Have been meaning to post but...

swamped with thesis which I have no desire to work on

and

will be taking a GRE prep course on Saturdays for the next month in order to prepare for applications for PhD programs in the fall. Paying $345+ for the privilege, even though I will miss a class for the trip to Vegas (note" trip totally worth it).

More to come later.

*******
Never mind, can't take the course due to my status as a graduate student and of course I notice this after both offices that might be able to help me are closed for the weekend. FML

I wonder

Why is it always the dark load of laundry when you miss a kleenex in your pocket?

So Pretty

Have you seen the images from the Hubble telescope? So beautiful.Just google it already!

1:32 AM

Done! Well, as done as I can be at this point. I am not sure how much sense my last point of analysis makes and the conclusion needs some serious work but I do have a little time tomorrow to change it up.

About four hours of sleep and then I get to go to school. I will fine tune the darn thing later - nothing like 15 pages about the Virgin of Guadalupe. At the very least, I finally learned how to correctly spell "Guadalupe."

Good night Cleveland!

11:30 PM

All I need is three more pages for my Feminist Perspectives of Communication Studies final paper and it is killing me! Especially since I know what I want to write, I just can't articulate it.

As a friend reminded me, this is the last paper I will ever have to write in my master's program, all I have to do is finish it. Due tomorrow by 8 pm. But I will be at school all day as usual with meetings I have to attend and (2)finals to give.

Can't...think...must...write...augh!

I Have A Confession

I really like to eat Del Taco's Red Burritos while driving. It has to do with my memories of driving to work in Costa Mesa from Long Beach when I would go through the drive through to get dinner on the way there. I knew where every Del Taco was in-between home and work.

Maybe it was because I was so miserable in that job and the warm burritos were one of the small pleasures I had during that time in my life.

Well...that's depressing.

How about I end by saying, I (not so) secretly (anymore) like to eat Del Taco Red Burritos alone in my car.

Occupational Hazards

It is that time of year again. I have been spending so much time typing on my computer and hand grading papers that my wrists are starting to hurt. It's not carpel tunnel, just inflamed tendons in both wrists. I find if I just wrap each wrist in an ace bandage for a day and pop a couple tylenol, the pain goes away for a couple days.

My New Favorite

I just downloaded this wallpaper from interfacelift.com and I love it. It is so beautiful on my laptop.

Some Days

Life is too frustrating for words. Sadly enough, it was only with the last couple hours that I became very pissed off.

Hey Out There in Blogland

Haven't felt like writing anything, which is clearly obvious. Looking forward to going to Vegas in early June and I will NOT be taking my laptop with me for a trip for once. Screw it, it is a celebration and for once, I want it to be a fun time and no work.

Even though I will still not be officially graduated. Long story but suffice it to say, I will be walking in graduation in May but will not be done with the thesis.

Life sucks.

Bombs Away!

Took a bath today and tried a new bath ballistic from Lush.
The bath bomb I used today is Lemon Days and Ginger Beer Bath Bomb. I really wanted to enjoy my bath but I just couldn't.

Maybe this is TMI but I take a multivitamin that contains B and it leaves my urine Chartreuse. That was the color of the bath water.

I really tried. I tried to think,"Hey, today's Easter, it's like a big dye bath for Easter eggs." Yeah that really didn't work. I couldn't get past it and I ended up scrubbing up and getting out.

Nice scent, last for a while and it did condition my skin. If only the bath had been a light yellow instead of Chartreuse.

Good Morning!

Been up since 5:40. Feeling pretty good although that was in question for awhile there around 6. Today is going to be a good day!

Creative Way to Die 2

Counting down the days until the end of the school year.

Head under...

How am I going to do this all?

Changes

I have been reflecting on the nature of money lately. Mainly because my income was basically cut in half in January when I quit my second job.

It is amazing how quickly your money goes when you have to do things like pay taxes or auto repair. The month has barely started and I already feel like I have spent more money that I should.But at the same time, I have a job which will pay me through the summer for work that stops mid-May. And it is enough to make ends meet. Plus, I have a strong support network who can and will assist me should funds get low.

I am counting my blessings. In this economy, even a little is enough.

Here, Here!

Weeeeeee!!!

Spring Break has begun! Bring on the alcohol. Already had one glass tonight and I feel guuuud!

Hasta luego peeps.

Wah!

I miss The Dirt Squirrel!Where are you squirrelio?

We need to hang out soon. We don't even IM anymore. Do I have to put an APB out on you?

New Month

Well, April is finally here. I don't think that I will be posting as much as I did last month, just not feeling it right now. Who knows? Maybe I will post a lot in April, we shall see.

Waiting for feedback from my Thesis Chair on what I wrote. Trying hard to get into the mood to be a teacher for one day. See, I taught last Thursday and then we had Cesar Chavez day off (Random trivia: did you know Cesar Chavez was a vegan?) so I have not had to go to campus in 6 days. So I had a 6 day weekend and next week is spring break. I am feeling a little out of sorts but I will get myself back in action soon. Lots to work on during break.

Ciao for now!

P.S With this post, I have already blogged the same number of posts in 2009 as I did for the entire year of 2008. Weird....

Update 3

Finally finished the chapter I was suppose to. Its not great but that's what rewrites are for. Finally count was 58 pages.

I also exceeded my goal of posting everyday. This is post 35 today.

Writing one small paper today for my Feminist seminar and taking it easy otherwise.

Family News

Rough weekend for both sides of the family.

On dad's side, one of my aunts went into the hospital yesterday for angioplasty. This is the side of the family that my grandmother died when I was 3 from a heart attack. Still waiting to hear an update.

On mom's side, more medical tests were ordered for a family member and we all have our fingers crossed. That's all I can say for now.

***********Update 9:22 pm******************
My aunt is home but only overnight. She is calling the doctors tomorrow morning and agreeing to open heart surgery. The blockage near her heart is such that they need to take a vein from her leg and bypass the block.

Update 2

Finished chapter 1 yesterday (56 pages completed now). Still trying to get up the brain power to tackle Chapter 3. Methodology - kind of makes me throw up a little.

It is so frustrating! Some ideas just write themselves. Other days I stare at the screen and don't know where to begin.

Styling

So I was thinking that I want to cut my hair short. I was looking for pictures of what I wanted and I like this style.My only concern is that with my hair, I would have to spend a lot of time styling my hair and I just don't want to devote that much time to some thing like my hair. I just don't have the patience.

Plus, I am not sure that I could carry this hairstyle off with my face shape.

Any opinions?

One of My Favorite Things

My family likes to go to a local Indian restaurant in town for its buffet every Saturday for lunch. Delicious, not terribly expensive and a nice little family outing. My favorite thing at the restaurant is the dessert:I believe it is called Rasgula. It is these soft doughy discs floating in a yummy light pistachio cream sauce with small pieces of pistachio. I found a recipe online and maybe one day...

That is all, carry on with your Saturday.

Ha Ha!

Okay, this video is so ridiculous, I had to post it.


'Nom' is the mythical sound animals make when eating something. You know my love for the time killing website, icanhascheezeburger so I smiled when I heard the music that accompanies this clip.

Yum

Almost every Monday and Friday, I join my dad, his friend Goyo, and sometimes my brother for lunch atSo yummy. Makes me happy. Sometimes I get root beer soda and add the vanilla soft serve for a root beer float. A great way to end a meal. Oh yeah, the conversation is great too.

Next month they are featuring lemon in their food.

Goal

So in case you have been wondering about the increase in posts, it is not just procrastination, I made a goal for myself to post either once a day for the month of March or the equivalent (31 posts).

Ciao!

Never Enough

Just so you know where I am right now.

I was suppose to get "completed" (as far as I could go at this point) thesis chapters 1-3 to my committee chair on March 18. Well, that didn't happen but I was aiming to get the chapters to her by Wednesday the 25 (umm, 2.5 hours ago technically?) so that she would have the weekend to read them, get me feedback so I could make adjustments in a couple days and get copies to my full committee before spring break (hard deadline April 2).

Well, I have completed chapter 2... have to rewrite about half of chapter 1 and basically write all of chapter 3. I kind of did this to myself, so I am not asking for pity.

Here's the thing. I am astonished to see that I am at 51 pages of text already with all that I still have to write. And that doesn't include my bibliography. That's up to 9 pages so far.

Say it with me, Holy Crap!

I think I have mentioned before how big a project this is but the scope of the project I am undertaking just hit me.

Peace out, I am off to catch 3 hours of sleep before I head back to school.

4 way relationships

Back to Divine Caroline, I found a really cool author on this site called The 4-way. It is a group of for who give relationship advice from four different perspectives, a gay man, a straight man, a gay woman and a straight woman. Pretty cool and sometimes they are pretty funny. I also like the advice they give.

Check out some of their posts here.

New Feature

It is a joke in the office that as the stress of trying to finish the thesis/comps increases, that death is preferable to trying to tackle the overwhelming amount of work before us. In the spirit of this stress reliever, I introduce,

Creative ways to die!
Way #1
Tasteless? You bet! Fun? Mostly. Serious? Not at all.

To be continued...

Reading

Reading the Biography of Frida Kahlo kind of makes me feel insane. It is a series of letters from Frida to other people in her life and she doesn't like to use punctuation. So it is a stream of consciousness style of book and at page 316, which is where I currently am, I feel like my head is about to explode.

LOL - I Found It!

This article explains it all, "Why Being Smart Won't Get You Laid". Check it out.

****Update***
Wait, does this make me sound egotistical? Umm, take it like I mean it....

Today

Overload

Trying to get work done on my thesis. As such, I have entered my thesis bunker. Bombs away.

Tee Hee

New Website

I stumbled across this site called Divine Caroline.It appears to be a website where anyone can submit their articles on numerous topics. I like it. From the name, it appears to be aimed at women but I don't have the same reaction as I do when I look at sites like Shine.

Check it out and let me know what you think.

Can You Believe it?

Actress Natasha Richardson passed away today after a skiing accident. She was only 45. This is so sad. For me, she was one of the shining moments in Maid in Manhatten. My heart goes out to her family.

Product Review

As many of you know, I am constantly looking for good hair products to combat the frizz I face as someone with naturally curly - but not super curly - hair. I also don't want to break the bank.

I recently tried John Frieda's complete line of anti-frizz products, from shampoo to styling products.After nearly finishing the shampoo and conditioner (this week I will run out) I now have a product review. The shampoo, conditioner and anti-frizz serum work great. The spray in conditioner and curl activator - not so much. In fact, they both feel like watered down waste of money products. As a whole line from clean to style, not great. Plus, all these are more expensive than I am willing to normally drop on hair care. Not that I don't think it is worth it to pay for a product but for so-so results, I can't afford to spend this much money on a regular basis.

Now, for my money's worth, I like Garnier Fructis products. I previously used the whole line of their Sleek and Shine products - anti-frizz oil, shampoo, conditioner, leave-in conditioner and spray gel to tame my curls. Did I mention I use a lot of products? You would think my hair would look better...but I digress. These products are more modestly priced and I can find a coupon for a dollar off in the Sunday newspaper with enough frequency that I never pay full price for the product.

I am not crazy about their anti-frizz oil but other than that, for what I am getting, I prefer the rest of this line to John Frieda. So from now on, I am going to use John Frieda frizz-ease oil and the rest of the line from Garnier.

My experience/opinion. Do with it what you will.

P.S.

Don't ask me to go out Friday, my butt will be parked in front of the TV watching the series finale of Battlestar Galactica. Don't email, IM, text or even call me.So say we all.

New Project

So, here is the ponder that I have been working on, or at least part of it.

I want to have time off. I really don't want to look for a job that hard. I know this is a horrible thing to say and will probably bite me in the butt when it comes to actually finding a job but... I have been going to school and working for the last three years straight. I do not remember having a real vacation in a long time. Even this last winter break, I was still working at the Union and working on school work. Before then, in the summer, once again I was working at the union and on school work - or at least attempting to study. Even when I took a trip to Vegas to visit a friend, I took school work.I have begun looking. I found a position at a local community college that I am contemplating applying for. A couple positions actually. One is a pool position and the other one is teaching costume and makeup design, believe it or not. That one may be a long shot but hey, I have teaching and design experience. Granted, it has been a few years but why not?

I just kind of want time off to rest and have down time. The problem is, I always have to look ahead to the next thing. If I don't want to have too much time off, I need to plan for the next big adventure in life. For example, I graduate in May and if I want to go to grad school in fall of 2010, I have to start working on applications right away since they are all due in the fall of 2009, some schools begin accepting applications as early as August. So even though my next academic program (and I will get in) won't start until August 2010, I have to start thinking about it at the latest in May of this year, 2009. I should actually start earlier than that with contacting the departments for information and getting to know the faculty so that when I do apply, I am more than just a piece if paper. It never stops. I know I shouldn't complain because I have been very fortunate with the opportunities I have had however, I have worked very hard to reach out for these opportunities and create these opportunities for myself. I'm not saying that I think everything I want should or will be handed to me. I have just been going nonstop for a long time. Even now, I just spent the last two hours on the internet reading about what ever I wanted instead of grading papers that I need to get done or even worse (gasp!) I should have been using this time to work on my homework for class on Tuesday or my thesis! I have been wasting time!

I need the time I took this morning off from all the things I have to do. It just feels like I have so much to do and there is just not enough time. Don't get me wrong, I am generally happy on a daily basis, it is just sometimes when I want this whirlwind I am on to stop. Everyone needs down time. I don't think we get enough of it in this day and age (BTW - the gym was the first thing to go as I try to get myself on track with everything else). I just want more than one day when I can do something mindless like this:I am beginning to believe, even though I am/was extremely disappointed not to get into grad school for the fall, I need the time off from being a student. I need to not be a student for a little while so that I am ready to go and will appreciate the opportunity more when it happens.