Regarding Your Suggestions

Dear family:

I will not be dancing in my spare time. That was a joke. Seriously, can you picture what that would be like? Any dancing would be questionable; belly dancing would be cruel and unusual for everyone involved.

Please try harder...

Love,

Liz

P.S. LL, learning to sew isn't sitting around doing nothing--that's totally productive! Look at all the cute pajamas you make now!

The Final Countdown

*cue background music*

Yes, folks, we did it! We're entering the final countdown to graduation. In about a month, I will officially be done with my undergraduate degree. What a relief!

It's such a strange thing to think about. Today, I've been mulling over ideas of some things I'd like to do, and each time, when I think, "I don't have time for that," I have to remind myself that yes, in fact, I'll have every evening free to do with what I will. I could not be more excited about it.

So, dear blog friends, what do you think I should do with all of my new-found free time? Some sort of arts and crafts? *Gulp* Scrapbooking?? Dance lessons? XBox? Ice skating? Yoga? Decorating my apartment? Professional napping?

So many options...any great ideas out there?

*end music...except in my head. "The Final Countdown" has been stuck in there for about a year*

Relief

Today, I went in for the practical exam game.

Six hours later, I came out.

It went well. It went really well. I'm not the best, but I'm pretty darn close.

It was such a relief. I've been skipping around all evening, hugging my parents, and nearly high-fiving a stranger at Lowe's. (Almost did it. I don't think that's why he actually had his hand up, but there it was, and...but I resisted. Thing I did not resist? Climbing on the front of the cart while my dad pushed it out of the store. I'm not sure I've done that in a million years, but sure enough: still fun.)

So tomorrow, I'll go in for attempt two to see if I can improve on today at all. I might be able to...might not. Either way, I'll be okay.

The real issue was that I was legitimately concerned that I would be unable to achieve enough points on the project to pass the class, due to my team's low score.

Now that I know I will definitely pass, I am greatly relieved.

I'm going to sleep soooooo well tonight!

As LL would say, I am money.

Thanks for all the prayers and support. Hang in there with me for another week, and I promise--I'll be a much more fun friend, kind neighbor, pleasant coworker, etc.

Quiet

All's quiet in the apartment tonight. I had a wonderful, relaxing dinner with an old friend. It's funny how, although we often go a year or more between our visits, it's like no time has passed at all and we just pick right up where we left off. It was so fun to see her and reminisce about when we were tiny girls. So much has changed, and yet some things remain the same.

After I returned to the apartment this evening, I checked on the top scorer so far in the game for my group. I don't want to go into all the details here. All you need to know is that the current leader is so far above my best-ever practice score that the ramifications are pretty sobering.

I've sat in the dark in the quiet for a few minutes now, desperately grasping for some bit of inspiration. I'll be spending the day in the testing center tomorrow, attempting to pull off a miracle. As I lay here on the floor of my dark living room, staring at the ceiling fan spinning, spinning, spinning, I'm feeling fairly overwhelmed. And I feel that I need to get some furniture. But that's a whole different blog posting.

Less than 12 hours until go time. I wish that things seemed more doable. No matter how I try it or think about it or figure it, I'm just not the best at this thing. And truthfully, I'm okay with not being the best at it.

I just wish I were adequate.

Moral Dilemma

The majority of the points in my capstone course (70%) come from a practical exam. It's basically like being judged on how well I've learned to play Monopoly. (Sadly, not well. It's much harder than Monopoly, and I am not as good at it as I would like to be...)

The person who scores the most points in the game (each of us plays individually against the computer, and then receives points based on our respective amazingness) gets 100% of the points, and everyone else is judged against them.

I'm headed in to take the exam on Friday. I had to take the day off of work to do it because it must be done in the testing center, which has pretty lousy hours in the summer. The teacher will take the best of my two attempts. Each attempt takes, on average, about 240 minutes. It'll probably take me all day Friday and all day Saturday to get through both attempts.

I'll be doing a lot of hoping and praying during the next few days. Feel free to join in.

Here's where the moral dilemma comes in: is it wrong to hope that everyone else does poorly? I don't want anyone to fail, but I really don't want anyone to achieve so many points that it becomes impossible for me to get a good score. Why can't we all just be mediocre together and all get A's?

I'd talk to each of the students in the course about it, but sadly, there are about 60 people in the course, and for scoring purposes, we're broken into two halves, and I don't remember who is in my half.

Interesting side note: my half met last night to begin the competition. Of the 27 people who were there, I was the only girl. There are always very few girls in any of my classes, and it appears that in this competition, I'm the only one.

The Future

Today, at work, my email inbox is puzzling. We use Microsoft Outlook here in the office, and my emails are organized according to date received. There are emails from three weeks ago, two weeks ago, yesterday, today, etc., each under the appropriate header.

And today, I can mystically see into the future. Every email I have received today is listed under the header "tomorrow."

I'll try to post a picture from home...suffice it to say, I now know what is going to happen tomorrow. We'll be addressing an important issue with Parameter 12 to enable online account opening to facilitate our work at a local university.

Interesting...

If I could always get tomorrow's emails today, I'd be able to decide what days to take off.

I feel so powerful.

Hey Out There!

Hello, universe! I don't ask too much of you all, besides my prior request to get excited about graduation, but I now have another request. Strangely enough, it's graduation related as well.

My fabulous mother is putting together a "save-the-date" email about the graduation party and my splendid parents are throwing for me.

Thus, somebody's mother has asked for some email addresses of my friends.

Strangely enough, I don't really have them. (The email addresses. Not the friends. I have the friends. I think.)

So, if you follow this blog and actually know me in real life and would like to get on the invite list, post your email address as a comment. I won't actually publish the comment, so no worries there. Even if it's been a while, take the opportunity to come and party and catch up! I'd love to see you all.

If you are in my extended family, I think somebody's mother already has you on the list.

Thank you!

Adulthood

Although I've considered myself to be an adult for many years, living in an apartment on my own has really caused me to reflect about my upbringing.

I'm so grateful to parents who made me have chores. I'm glad that I know how to do my own laundry, how to clean, how to change a lightbulb, etc.

I'm also grateful that those same parents who let me be my own person while being there to support me in the tough stuff. After my friend helped me get my TV to my new place, I spent Saturday night putting together a TV stand that I'm borrowing from my generous older brother who can't use it for the foreseeable future because of his kids. It was a sort of comedy of errors as I tried to get the pieces together, and I finally did it. I felt pretty good about it. I even managed to get the TV up onto the stand. Feeling like a completely empowered, capable woman, I headed to bed. However, there was a tiny voice inside my head that was worried that the TV was going to come crashing down. Empowered, strong Liz proved to be right - the TV stayed in place. I was still very nervous about it. My parents were at my apartment yesterday, and I told my dad about the TV stand and showed him my work. He quickly tested its stability, and then proclaimed it a job well done. Victory!

Last night, while changing a strange tiny lightbulb in my ceiling fan, I somehow managed to remove only the glass around the bulb without any of the parts on the inside or the part that screws in (I may be an adult, but I do not know the names of lightbulb parts). I actually laughed out loud when it happened. No one was here, so I just enjoyed the good laugh by myself and put the lightbulb somewhere where it wouldn't injure me later.

This morning, I was talking with my parents after somebody's mother and I went to the gym. We were eating breakfast, and I was explaining the lightbulb incident. I started to explain that I was pretty sure that I had read or seen that you remove those leftover bulb parts with a potato, and my dad piped in, "Do you want me to come over and take care of it for you?"

Yes. Yes I do. I do not want to electrocute myself. I'm independent, but only to a certain point. And after my dad shows me how to do it, I'll be able to do it on my own the next time it happens. He's a great teacher.

Today, I needed to get some lightbulbs, and I had mentioned that to somebody's mother earlier. She told me that she had to go to a store nearby the hardware store and offered to pick up the bulbs for me.

This evening, when I picked up the bulbs, she mentioned that some of them had been hard to find, and she had actually ended up going to an additional store (not at all near the first) to obtain them. Pretty sweet, huh?

With a mom and a dad like that, full of support for this new stage in my life and completely willing to help when I get a bit stuck, there's no way I'm going to fail.

Logic

The sprinklers just came on at my apartment.

It has rained buckets and buckets all week, including a crazy dumping of rain today. Love, love, loved the rain...just not sure why we're watering the lawn now.

The grass really is greener here at the new apartment, and now I know why.

Finally Home

Two important things have happened that have really solidified my place in my new home.

First, they fixed my doorbell. Feel free to ring it weekdays between 9 and 6 to your heart's content. Otherwise, just ring it once and then give me a minute to get from the back of my giant apartment to the door. No one has come over yet, but I have a feeling it'll take a minute to answer the door.

Second, my very helpful, very strong friend singlehandedly moved my TV tonight, so my living room is finally complete. I have no furniture, and the TV is just sitting on the floor, but really, a TV makes a room complete.

Home is where your TV is.

Welcome home, Liz.

Things I Love

Trying to have a better attitude, I'm focusing on some little things I love right now:

• The RAIN! It's gorgeous, and smells good, and it keeps things nice and cool.
• My 6.5 nephews. I wouldn't trade them for anything!
• String cheese is on sale at Macey's for 5 for $1! What a deal! (Don't judge--I'm excited)
• Homemade ice cream and tres leches cake at work
• My TV (I really miss my TV these days...looking forward to my friend helping me move it)
• Cool weather--love being able to be snuggled in a hoodie and blanket
• Super chill ducks at my apartment. They see me, I see them, and we just keep our distance. They give me the 'sup head nod, and then I'm on my way. We enjoy each other very much from afar.
• Quiet, quiet neighbors. Either they are very quiet or no one lives in any apartment touching mine. Pretty fabulous!
• Not living next to a diamond factory. So peaceful at night!
• Less than 50 days until I am a graduate of the university--cannot wait!
• Less than 50 days until LL and family come out for a visit--CANNOT WAIT!

It's easy to forget that there are lots of good things when life is rough, but clearly, my life is pretty sweet.

Handy

Really could've used this last night.

Dear Roommates

I know that our remaining time together is short, but I have one small request.

Please, please, please tell the men whom you are dating and those men who are hopelessly pursuing you to stop coming over to chat. They need to call first. You are never here when they come over, so I have to walk down to the door, open it, walk around and look for you, and then tell them you're not home.

I am lazy. I don't like to repeatedly open the door, especially when it is never for me.

Also, my knee is hurting again, so I'm pretty much done answering the door.

My sincere apologies to the men who will now not be able to find my roommates. My suggestion? Try calling them.

Thanks bunches,

Liz

Wall

At work, we often discuss how at about 3 o'clock each afternoon, we all seem to hit a wall that we have to push through to continue working so as to not lose our jobs or our minds.

Because my wise, wise professor gave us the week off from classes (but not from homework, sadly), I was planning to get most of the move to my new apartment done this week. This strategy seemed particularly wise because the next two weeks of school are going to be particularly difficult.

The move had been going great. I dropped off a load of boxes this evening, swung by Cafe Rio to pick something up for my sister, and headed back to my apartment to pack and move another load.

Sadly, I hit a wall...one not of my own making.

Hello, patellar tendonitis. We meet again. Clearly, you have been sent to mock my independence.

But the silver lining here? At least I did not hit an actual wall. That would have been worse. And infinitely more embarrassing. 

You Are Totally Ruining Moving Day!!

Dear Friends, Coworkers, Roommates, Relatives, and Acquaintances:

As many of you know, I've begun the process of moving to my new apartment. If you didn't already know, now you do--that's why I have a blog. Read it, people.

Over the next few weeks, you may be tempted to ask me about the new place or how moving is going. For the sake of humanity, here are some appropriate questions that you may ask:

• So, you're moving? 
• Are you excited?
• Is your apartment fabulous?
• Do you just love the location?
• Is packing and moving boxes getting old?

The answer to all of the above questions will be yes. You may ask similar follow up questions. You may make remarks about how fabulous and wonderful everything is.

Questions you are NOT allowed to ask:

• Why on earth would you want to live there?
• Are you sure this is really what you want to do?
• Is it really expensive?
• Aren't you afraid?

Similar thoughts phrased as comments are also unwelcome.

The papers are signed. The decision is made.

Seriously people. You are RUINING moving day for me. I still have several more weeks of moving day to go. Don't let me down here.

Regards,

Liz

The Final Countdown

Beyond my countdown of days until the end of the semester, I've crafted an additional countdown. (I had a few spare minutes the other day in class while people asked the same question that the poor professor had already repeatedly answered...)

There is a substantial amount of team work that takes place in these courses, as well as some testing, including a senior exam which covers all of the material we were apparently supposed to remember from all of our courses. Oops...

But aside from that, we have still have some regular class meetings. Because our fabulous professor is giving us two breaks during the semester and a couple of class sessions to meet with our teams, the number of class lecture sessions left is fairly small. One of my courses is actually shorter than the other, and we only meet once more for lecture. My other course meets only four more times.

Here's your new countdown.

Formal Class Sessions Remaining: 5

Hours of Lecture Until Graduation: 14

Storage

After three years, my relationship with my storage unit came to an end today. I got my storage unit because I needed to get all of my belongings out of my parents' house, and they (the belongings) didn't fit comfortably into my apartment.

I felt sort of like I had to explain it to the nice older gentleman who was closing out my account. I explained that I was moving to a bigger place, and I'd finally be able to have all of my things live with me.

As we walked from where my fabulous parents were getting the tarp situated on the truck borrowed from my incredibly generous uncle and aunt, we were making small talk about how long I had been in town. He asked if I was moving out of the area, and I told him that I was just getting a bigger place here with some space.

His question: So, are you...all alone then?

Me: (probably disproportionately perkily) Yep!

Him: (pause) Well, that's...neat...

Goodbye storage unit. It's not you--it's me. Except it turns out that it's you at least a little bit.

Terrific Tidbit

After a long day at work, I was driving to school and heard a delightful story on NPR.

Here's the link. Part of the joy is listening to the reporter interview the gentleman in question, beyond the delightful silliness of the whole idea. Be sure to click on the audio to get the full experience--it's worth the 3 minutes.

But I've gotta say, he's probably on to something.

I've been giggling about it ever since. Hope it brings a bright spot to your day, too!

The Rain

Today when I was out with my friends, I told them how beautiful I thought the weather was. They thought that the day would be more beautiful with sunshine, but I love overcast skies. As we were walking outside, I felt a raindrop and told them how excited I was that it was going to rain.

(Note to self: most people here seem to not love the rain. In future socializing attempts, try to be more mainstream.)

The windows in my apartment are open right now as part of a cat exorcism. (Don't ask.)

I'm sitting by my giant bedroom window listening to the rain fall.

Rain is so peaceful, so soothing.

I really shouldn't live in a desert.

Out

Now that the two semesters of working full time and attending school full time are finished, I'm struggling to adapt to my new life.

Since I'm now just working full time and going to school part time, I have a bit of free time. The one thing that I really gave up during the past two semester was my social life. I basically didn't have one. If I went out to dinner or to go shopping, I went alone, as it was easier to just go when I had a few minutes instead of trying to coordinate with others.

For the past couple of weeks, I've been trying to find time to get to know my roommates. It's not that we just moved in together; rather, I've been essentially absent for the past nine months.

Today we got together with another friend and went to see Terminator Salvation (teeny movie review: good, not great. Definitely not Star Trek.). Then we went and had lunch and did lots of laughing. It was a great afternoon, although I have a hard time after spending time out because I feel like I haven't been very productive. I had some reading I wanted to do for school, laundry to be washed, and I needed to run to the store, but I suppose that those things will just have to wait since I'm working on being social right now instead of working on having clean clothing.

Although I was able to get my groceries later in the evening, I do feel a sense of loss about this particular afternoon. Apparently, Darth Vader was at Costco today. I am not sure why, but he was, and I wasn't. And that's sad.

And the fact that that's sad to me is sadder.