Last post for March.

Aw, last day of March. I can't believe tomorrow will be April. Well, at least I only have 10 of each class left now. I should put a countdown ticker on here, lol. I've made it 2/3rds of the way through this semester, I can make it. I'm excited that it's getting close to the end.

Tomorrow or Thursday I'll have to go get fitted for my graduation gown. And check on what my school allows for Phi Theta Kappa. My parents are going to buy my honors regalia.

I'm nervous and scared about this transition to a four year university. One of my professors who teaches at both schools says that my current school is about "nurturing and encouraging" students to learn. The four year school is all about "show up, show us what you know and that's it." Ick. Not to mention slightly higher class sizes now. Oh well. It'll be an experience.
Next week is my major orientation and registration for that school too.

My brain is all fuzzy right now. Sometimes when you're a student you feel stupider everyday. That's me right now. I studied for my geography test tomorrow (which I am starting to get a little anxious about) and I'm "taking a break" with some French homework. I'm actually online because I had to translate something I couldn't understand.

One final silly thing. I'm excited because Mitchum deodorant came out with a Rose scent! I can't tell you how tired I am of "shower fresh", "spring fresh", "meadow fresh", etc. Or even baby powder. I just don't understand why manufacturers think women want to smell like babies. WTH?
Anyways, I'm kinda lazy, here is the link for Amazon's Mitchum products. I don't even know if the Rosepetal scent is in there... but when I briefly looked just now I noticed a Waterlily scent. Hmmm, have I ever tried that? I'll have to try that.

mellow yellow

Truly? I have nothing exciting to really talk about. Except this, which is pretty much only exciting to me. My graduation attire is coming together.

My MIL gave me a bunch of clothes years ago to donate to Goodwill. I held onto a few really good pieces, thinking I might actually be able to get something for them on consignment. Never did check into that. Well, I dug through the closet and found this pink dress from that pile of clothes that would be perfect for a spring graduation. It's knee-length and pink. Dressy but not too dressy. My newly bought costume jewelry looks smashing with it.

Today Ryan and I trekked around trying to find some cute white shoes. I don't like super high heels (ha! I originally typed hells and that's about right) and my feet are very particular. I didn't like any of the styles they have out right now.

So I decided to just forget it and wear a pair of my mom's shoes. She has her old high heeled black tap shoes from long ago. She had the taps removed so she could wear them as dress shoes. I originally wanted to wear white shoes, but ultimately I think this will be better. I can actually walk in these shoes, from the days I took tap as well. So no tripping on the podium for me!

(The shoes are a size too big for me, but I'm going to put some comfort insoles in there anyways. I'd say Podium Tripping is about a 5% chance or less.) ;-)

I'm going to admit... I did NO homework over this break. Bad, bad me. But I will get cracking now. I'll start reading my Quaker books tonight, for my history paper, tomorrow I'll study my French and Monday I'll study my geography.

I only have 10 classes left of each class! Woo hoo!! (not including finals week.) Crunch time though. Oh boy.

Free lunch!

Ryan and I just went to our city's new Costco. And we had lunch basically. Wow, I couldn't believe how many samples that were being offered.

2 different things on crackers, cheese on crackers, cheese by itself, pancakes, veggie scrambles (Morningstar veggie food, I love it), pita chips, ham, tacos, burritos, mushroom soup, carrot juice... and a FULL container of yogurt!! I had Harvest Peach. Kinda wish I had chosen strawberry instead.

That was interesting and fun. Ryan was delighted in all the free food. Some of it was indeed very good. One thing we didn't touch was salmon. I'm a vegetarian so I would get a meat sample and give it to Ryan, but he doesn't like salmon.

I got a hair cut last night! I couldn't stand it anymore. The funny thing is... all I needed was for it to be shaped up better, and so really there wasn't a massive amount of hair cut off. But I'm happier with it. I'm growing it out again. I don't know why, just 'cause.

Then after my hair cut we browsed in a costume jewelry store. I found a necklace that I really liked and some earrings that go well with it. So I decided to wear those at my graduation instead of making my own. We brought back those supplies today.

(Oh - sidenote... I detest when people bring their dogs with them to stores on hot days... and at first I thought there were no windows rolled down for this puppy. When I inspected the car closer I did see that the sun roof was open, that's better than nothing, otherwise I would've left a note. ((or called the humane society if it were a super hot day and the dog was in trouble.)) Anyways, the doggie was a dachshund with one blue eye and one brown eye. So cute!!)

I really need to get off my lazy butt-tocks (say it like Forest Gump) and post some pictures. I got some super cute shots of my gerbils. Storm is doing very well, he's the one who had a skin tummy tumor removed.

Ok. That's it. I think I'd better get off the computer for now and get some stuff done. I have some midi's I'd like to add to my cell phone as well. But only after I vacuum and do a few other things. Maybe even try to take some photos of myself. Maybe. ;-)

Seed Beads

That title has nothing to do with this post really. I just saw the words on a crafts site and now it's stuck in my head. I did go shopping yesterday for some bead making stuff though. I plan on making my own necklace, earrings, bracelet and anklet to wear for my graduation in May. We'll see how this goes.

Our car was done yesterday. Yay. And slightly undercost too. First the AC work came to be about $50 less than they estimated ($850. I know, still pricey and all) and then we had the transmission oil changed... which would've cost $99 but since my car is a manual transmission it only cost $60. Woo hoo! I love manuals and this is one reason why.

I had a crappy experience at another mechanic. They filled up my AC almost 3 years ago and then a few months later when I complained about a noise they said "Oh yeah, your compressor is going and it needs to be replaced. That'll be $1200."
Then they had a shock special so we took went there again, and once again a noise started coming from the rear shocks/struts. They said "Oh yeah, your struts are totally going. They need to be replaced. That'll be $600."
(and actually I had a mechanically inclined friend look at the shocks and the noise I was hearing was a loose casing for the shock. Something like that.)

Anyways. All that isn't very interesting, I just wanted to babble about it for a moment.

So here is my Spring Break so far. Doing nothing. Hating the homework that is hanging over my head. I can't really start on my history paper because I requested a bunch of library books to be transfered to one specific library and I'm waiting for that to happen.

I don't know what to do with my hair. I cut it myself and did a pretty bad job for once back in January. Now all I can do is wait for it to grow out. But the shape of it is pretty bad. I'm a little afraid to go to a salon though, because sometimes you say "Please, only 1/2 an inch taken off" and the next thing you know there's 4 inches on the ground.

But I am kinda miserable with the way it looks. Not to mention... another dilemma. My stupid graduation. I HATE those caps! HATE. It is nearly impossible to have a good hairstyle for that day. So I don't know what to do. For my high school graduation, after fussing with it for about 2 hours, I finally gave up and just put my hair in a French braid. But now my hair's not long enough for that.

My husband will be having some work done soon. Tomorrow he is going in for a second CT scan of his nose and sinuses. He cannot breathe for anything. It is horrible. And his snoring keeps me up. So finally we are doing something about it. He does have polyps, cysts and a deviated septum. On April 1st he'll be going in for a sleep apnea study. He was in one before, but it wasn't done properly. Anyways, I'm sure we'll be looking at surgery soon to fix all this stuff in his head.

Uh oh. Looks like I'm about to kill a couple hundred hours playing around with MIDI's online. Tee hee.

Bore, Boring, Bored.

Well, shoot. I really don't have anything spectacular to write about. I'm on "spring break" finally. Though how can we call it that when I have to do homework all week?

There is an outbreak of salmonella in Alamosa CO right now. I was there 2 years ago, I'm glad it didn't happen then. I took an overnight school bus trip down there. What a story that is.

I loved my job of driving the jocks and field trips around the state. I've been to a lot of places. But the caveat was... I was always sick. The kids (and stress from this job and other things in my life) made me constantly sick. I had my ear drum rupture twice thanks to a massive inner ear infection. And many other maladies that I had to suffer through.

Well, this trip was no exception. I drove a baseball team down to Alamosa, and I was already starting to get sick. We got lost in town (and it's a small town) thanks to some terrible directions. I pulled off the side of the road while one of the coaches called some people to figure out where to go. Then. We tried to drive. Uh oh. Can't. The bus is stuck in the mud!!!

Thanks to a heavy snowfall, the earth was soggy. And the more I tried to drive, with my automatic bus chains, the more I slid towards the fence. I didn't know what to do. Luckily, these two (gorgeous) guys in a Chevy with a tow chain pulled over and offered their help. The Chevy wasn't small, but it wasn't big either. But it pulled out a ~15 ton bus. Impressive.

(That is the second time I got rescued like that. First time I was stuck in a ditch with my parents Chevy S-10. There just happened to be two guys who drove by with a tow chain.)

Anyways, I was all set. I brought my portable DVD player and lots of books. Sadly, I couldn't plug my DVD player into the CB radio to charge it, and I had a low battery. That sucked. But I digress. I drove the bus over to a City Market to fill up and get some sick-o meds for me. (the team was playing in a tournament and all I had to do was hang around. And I watched them play too, I love baseball.)

Well anyways, to try and sum this up a little better... they played, they won... I drove them to dinner... Then we all retired to the hotel about 8:00 pm. The team pays for my room. I had just got a bath going with some menthol in it when I heard a knock on my door. Well, can't do anything about it. They knocked some more and then about 3 minutes later I heard the phone ring. Still can't do anything about it. I never did find out what this person wanted.

Next day, I found out there was a scandal at midnight. Some of the kids brought beer on this trip and got caught, drunk in their room. Oh nice. But these kids still won the whole tournament even though those boys were sent home immediately.

Incidentally... on this trip there were some parents and one of them recognized me. She was one of the ladies who got a big hoot out of my Denver Shmoo Trip and she still had the pictures on her cell phone!

Ok. We're coming down the homestretch of this story now. As I drove these people home I just felt worse and worse. Really bad. Pain in my chest, labored breathing, sweaty... By the time I got to the "bus barn" after dropping them off at their school I thought I was going to die.

I had pneumonia. *sigh* That pretty much sums up my school bus driving career. Always very sick. I enjoyed the trips but I couldn't enjoy them. I got to take another overnighter to Glenwood Springs and I couldn't even enjoy that then, I was coming down with bronchitis, strep and another ear infection. That's another story.

But here's a big reason for me telling this story. This trip happened on a Friday into a Saturday. The very following week was spring break. I was so pissed off that I had to be so sick, with pneumonia, on my break. :-(

Bear encounter

My history prof taught us a valuable lesson on how to survive a bear encounter while hiking. Actually two lessons, but the first one has to be a skill.

#1 - Lecture about history and the bear will fall asleep.

If that don't work go to plan B

#2 - Bring a 22 caliber pistol. Wait, what? That won't stop an 800 pound grizzly. No. But if you shoot your spouse in the foot then you will be able make a quick get-away.

LOL.
He does love his wife of course. He always jokes about how she's the computer brains in the family and every time he needs help it costs him a nice dinner out.

OH! And another story... He said when he cross-country skis and he falls he says a certain 4 letter word. Well, then his Siberian husky comes over to check on him and help him up. But the other day he was in his basement when the computer did something that caused him to shout that same 4 letter word. The husky was out in the backyard, pried open the patio door and ran down to check on him. Awwwwww. Now that's too adorable. (He said he gave her a treat after that.)

I think I'll miss this guy when the semester is over. And actually, I'll really miss my French teacher too. She's awesome. I love one of my geography professors, but he does teach at the new school I'll be going to, so I hope to be in one of his classes over there.

DSL has landed at Chez Moi

Yay! We finally have DSL. My husband and I were up all night last night watching crazy animal videos.

School is... well, school is. *sigh* Next week is my spring break, but that doesn't really matter as I have lots of homework to do. But at least I don't have to go sit in classes all day. We'll be paying a bunch of money to get my car's AC fixed though, oh joy. Also, I am highly looking forward to my graduation with my Associate's in May, but I'm groaning every day about the fact that I still have two more years of this BS ahead of me. *double sigh*

You know... I'm not sure what thoughts I have about something. My French teacher is so nice, but she definitely commands respect and won't allow herself to be walked over. She taught in Brooklyn for cheese's sake!

I am all for being nice, believe me. I can be way too nice for my own good. But on Tuesday she gave us our grades, but there were only four of us in the whole class who have turned in all the homework on time. (I am one of those, yes, thank you.) (Oh and I have an 87% in the class which surprised and pleased me. Maybe I might be able to pull that up into an A! But even if I can't I have such a strong B, that's nice.) (Could I do any more parentheses? ((why yes, here's a double!))) Beautiful.

Ok, focus funnel. Back to my point. So anyways, my teacher told these people that the missing assignments are blanks right now but they will turn into zeros if they don't turn them in soon.
Hmmmm.... I hate to be a ball buster, but it does annoy me just a tiny bit that I worked hard, turned in my homework on time and now these other people are getting a second chance.

I'm really ambivalent about all this. Yes I'm taking the time to type it all out... but see I just feel so weird about it. I would want a second chance, it's nice this teacher isn't out to make us fail (and besides doing the homework lends to learning; that's her thinking about it) and I am a nice person who usually bends over backwards to please and help people.

Still, I can't help but feel a tiny amount of "Dammit, I did the work on time and the people who didn't do not really get penalized."

Ready for some real life?

I did something stupid today. I spent money we can't afford. I really honestly hate myself. Worse? I shopped at places that give NO refunds, returns or store credits. What is wrong with me?

My husband and I went to Old Colorado City, basically just shopping places. Usually high priced.
I found ONE bargain. There was this ferret statue that I found last year that cost $125. Today we just happened to pop in and there the ferret was, with its tail broken off. And now it was on sale for $40. (and the tail was a nice clean break, so a little glue and it'll be as good as new.)

That's okay. But it didn't stop there. Oh no. We next went to this little shop where I bought these "name ornaments". I got into this odd frenzy during the holidays of collecting ornaments that had our names on them. And then I spotted this sterling silver ring for $18 that was cute.

I said "okay... but now you've got to stop it, Shannon."

Of course the gods couldn't just leave it be, noooo, they had to test me. We popped into this antique/flea market type of store. Guess what I found amidst the piles and piles of stuff? An otter statue. It was so cute, it has 3 otters sculpted into playing around a shipwreck. I have never seen anything like it. It was from Scotland, hand painted in 1984 and a limited edition. And $95.

Yes. Yes, of course I bought it.

I feel SO guilty right now and angry with myself. We can't afford this! It was all bought on credit cards and we have to pay to fix my car's AC next week.
But as I said, I can't even take this stuff back. Not that I super want to do that.... it is hard to find ferrety/ottery things. I wish I could at least take this ring back and guess what? Turns out I already had the ornaments that I bought last year.

Well, so fine. There is nothing much I can do about all this now. What is done is done. I just have to stick to my promise to myself and my husband now that I will NOT buy anything but absolute necessities for the next 6 weeks. (and beyond frankly.) Our credit card debt is slowly rising once again. *sigh* :-(

The Force

The Force is not strong with this one right now.

Good grief. I bought two rings just before they A) went on further sale and 2) I got a coupon for 15% off.

I did get to use a 10% off coupon when I made the initial purchase, but dammit!
"Luckily" I am sending one back already because I didn't like it. But now I've paid $16 more for this other ring.

My timing totally sucks on this right now!

I lernt sumthin 2day!

In history today I learned "TTFN". That's what the professor said to me just before I left. I said "What?" And he said "TTFN. Ta-Ta For Now. Winnie the Pooh."

LOL!! Love it. And I happen to have an Eeyore cell phone case. (Bought mostly because it is a beautiful dark purple, but I do like Eeyore too.)

I am sleepy.

Comment allez-vous, jolly good.

Why do I manage to do a British accent when I practice my French? Now I sound even weirder... not even like an American trying to learn French, but an American doing a British accent doing French. Ooooo, an international threeway!

Blank blank, blankity blank

I really do not have much to say. I can't think of anything funny from any of my classes right now... and life is just SOSDD basically.

I know, what a useless post, right? I just feel so bad for not saying much lately. Mostly it's just because of SOSDD. Homework. Tests. Going to school.

I'll have to pay more attention to blogging (blooging) fodder in my classes.

Happy March

So, March, huh? Okay, welcome to you!