Lucky Me

There’s a blog I’ve been reading for about 5 years now called Woulda, Coulda, Shoulda.  The writer has an amazing way with words and an incredible sense of humor.  She is a full time writer and she has a second blog site called Want Not where she posts all kinds of deals.  On that site she often holds contests for items that she gives away.  To enter, all you have to do is follow her instructions which is usually just leaving some kind of comment.  Winners are selected by a random number generator.  This week, I was the winner and I won these earrings.  Since I’m on a kick of trying to be a little more feminine these days, the earrings should help. 

You see, I’m fairly girly, but I’m not high maintenance at all.  I never have my nails done and most of the time they are short because I just can’t grow them out.  I wear comfortable clothes and more importantly comfortable (i.e. no heels) shoes.  In the summer I usually don’t wear make-up unless I’m going out for something important (like a date).  I don’t have a regular hairstylist, usually opting for a quick haircut at the mall when it’s gotten to the point of driving me crazy.  I have some jewelry, but rarely wear it, usually opting for just my crucifix necklace. 

Lately, however, I’ve been growing my nails out.  They’re at a pretty good length right now and I’ve been polishing them with a clear polish that is supposed to help harden my nails as they’re pretty soft and prone to breaking.  I’ve been wearing some of the jewelry I have when I think about it, though I do need better earrings since my ears are still fairly sensitive to the cheap stuff.  I still have the nice pair of gold and emerald earrings that Marty got me five years ago.  Maybe if I put a little more effort into myself, I might get another date… of course, this may all be temporary since I may once again be completely consumed with work and grad school. 

But I’m excited to have won the contest though I figured I’d win at some point.  Not because I always enter, but I tend to have a little bit of luck from time to time.  (hmm… maybe I should go buy a lottery ticket)  In college I won the big prizes at our Christmas parties twice (one was a Swatch and the other was a small Boombox).  I won the big honeymoon package at a Bridal Fair the day after I got engaged which was an all inclusive trip to any Sandals resort in the Caribbean.  Last year, I won the big 42 inch flat screen t.v. in a school drawing.  I just hope my luck never runs out! 

Date Report

I guess I can call it date.  We met for drinks at a local restaurant.  We planned to meet and have dessert but they only had a “late night” menu at 8:30 – go figure.  So we each had a drink and talked.  Then we went to Braum’s for ice cream.  He paid at both places though I made the attempt to get my wallet at the restaurant.  We visited for about 3 hours in total and it was nice.  He seems very down to earth.  Though I tried to avoid talking about the big three no-no’s on the first date (religion, politics, and exes) he did mention some things about his exes.  Nothing bad or too detailed.  I ended up making a few statements about my own – again, nothing too detailed.  Mostly we talked about work.  Since he works for the district where I teach we have that common ground.  He is pretty high up in the ranks there and wanted to know some of my thoughts on how the district could be improved.  He did give me the caveat that he would never repeat anything I said without direct permission.  We ended the evening around 10:30 since he still had to work today.  I gave him a hug before leaving and we decided to set up a plan to play Scrabble next week.  

It’s kind of nice to be back in the dating world.  Don’t know if this will go anywhere but I think at the least we’ll become friends.  My subscription to eharmony will be up tomorrow and I’m going to cancel it.  I just don’t see a lot of benefits from it.  I’ll keep the match.com membership until it runs out and then I give it up for a while. 

In other news, I’m almost finished with my draft 4 of my grad school project.  Just need to write a couple of paragraphs today.  I’m ready to be done.  I need to pay bills today and do some house cleaning.  Not sure if the house cleaning will get done.  But I should start now.  I definitely want to start the school year with a clean house… it makes for a better start in general.  Guess I’ll go see if I can scrounge something up for lunch.

Dare I say that I have a date?

I don’t know if I’d call it a date.  I’m meeting a guy tonight for dessert and maybe a drink at a restaurant in town.  It’s a late meeting around 8:15 and we’re just going to get to know each other.  At first we were going to play scrabble but given the late-ish hour we decided this would work better.  After all I probably need to size him up to see what the competition will be and if I need to go study my scrabble dictionary.  Yes, I am that much of a nerd.  But it’s kind of exciting to think I’m really going out tonight which means I’ll need to shave my legs, put on make-up, and do my hair. I thought I was making some progress with some other eharmony guys, but they may have fizzled.  I don’t know if something is wrong with my must haves and can’t stands list or if my short answer questions have sent them running.  Oh well.  I guess if they cannot appreciate the awesomeness that I am, too bad for them. 

I’m nearing the home stretch in terms of my project for grad school.  Last night Josh had to be my guinea pig and test my database for me.  I had to record what fields and terms he used in searching and what the results were.  I asked questions and got his comments and now have to write up the testing results.  I have enjoyed the project but it has been time consuming.  Of course my procrastination has not helped matters. 

I went out and got a new printer yesterday.  Last November I bought a new Canon ink jet printer and it stopped working in May.  I contacted tech support and they sent me a new print head and it didn’t resolve the problem.  I didn’t have time to contact them again so as a temporary solution I bought a cheap $30 HP deskjet printer at Walmart.  Problem with it is that it is not cost-efficient at all.  I’ve gone through 3 or 4 black ink cartridges in just a few months.  It also is hit or miss as to whether it will work.  Sometimes it “thinks” about printing for a long time and then I can’t cancel the print without rebooting my computer.  Very frustrating as I have needed to print my grad school stuff.  So yesterday I decided that I needed to get a laser printer given my current printing capacity needs.  I did some research on CNet to see what was recommended.  Then I headed to Amarillo to check out Walmart, Office Depot, Best Buy, and Office Max.  Walmart had no laser printers at all.  Office Depot had a few but the cheapest was $149 and it wasn’t listed as one of the ones I got as recommended from CNet – at least as far as one of the affordable ones.  Best Buy had the same HP Laser printer that Office Depot had for $50 less at $99.  I considered it but decided to check out Office Max first.  They had a good deal on the Samsung printers recommended on CNet.  One was a black and white wireless laser and the other was a full color laser.  Though the full color was tempting, I decided that it would be more expensive in the long run since it required four laser cartridges.  I decided to go with the black and white, but they didn’t have any on the shelf.  I finally found someone to check in the back.  The printer was originally $149 but was on sale for $89.  I also had a $15 coupon.  I used it to pay for a two year warranty which cost $14.99.   So I think I got a pretty good deal.  I got it set up yesterday and it works great.

Today I’m going to lunch with my friend Kirsten and then I’m going to work on my draft 4.  My “date” is at 8:15 tonight.  I’ll write tomorrow and let you know about it.  I need to go take a shower and get ready to go to lunch.

Not ready for school

I think I’m burned out on school.  I’m tired of grad school.  I’m tired of doing homework.  I have no motivation at the moment.  I debated whether I would take my last two classes this fall or separate them out with a class in the fall and one in the spring.  I think I’m just going to take them both in the fall so that I can get it over with.  I’ll have to do capstone in the spring but that will be it. 

I can’t believe I have to go back to work in less than three weeks.  Where has the summer gone? Today I was bad and I did absolutely nothing.  I slept in and stayed in my bedroom all day since Josh commandeered the living room with friends.  I’m almost going a little stir crazy.  I thought about going to the movies, but there’s nothing that I want to see that much.  I thought about shopping, but I can’t think of anything I really need or want.  I have plenty of books to read, but I don’t even want to do that.  So I just stayed on the computer and did a lot of nothing.  I was thinking about seeing if roller coaster tycoon would work on my new computer.  That might be a bit dangerous since I have a deadline on Friday.  I am going to force myself to go to the library tomorrow to work. 

I heard back from the guy that works in my school district.  I guess he was still interested but has had some family issues to deal with this summer.  I guess we’re going to try to find a time to get together to play scrabble.  Problem is that I’m busy this week and he has plans for the weekend.  The eharmony thing is going slowly – not to email stage with anyone yet.  And nothing from match.com.  Oh well.  Guess we’ll see what happens with the one contact I do have at the moment.

Paper done

The short paper is done at least.  I did not want to get it done.  I kept putting it off.  Once again I turned what I think is not my best work, but maybe it will be ok.  I took a tylenol p.m. last night and it knocked me out and I did not want to get up this morning.  I originally planned to get up around 8:00 and head up to the school at 8:30 and get back to town by 10:00 and work on the paper.  I was so tired that I didn’t wake up until 9:00 or so and then I didn’t even get up until around 9:45.  So I went to the library instead and worked until 12:45, came home and had a quick lunch then went up to the school so I could turn in a travel request.  I had to make a stop at the bus barn and admin building and then I headed home to work on the paper.  I had the bulk of it finished, but still needed to do the source citations and the abstract.  At 5:00, Josh and I went to dinner at my church choir director’s house.  They wanted me to show them how to convert word perfect files to word .doc files.  It was easy enough and then we had spaghetti for dinner.  We had a nice visit and then I came back to make final corrections on the paper.  I participated in a brief class chat and then uploaded the paper.  I was tired of dealing with it.  I hate it when my total words are limited.  I had to keep it under 1000 words. 

So now I’ve got to focus on draft four of my final project for the class.  I have to turn in the draft by Friday and final copy the following Friday.  Then I’ll have a week off before I go back to school.  But I’ll probably be going up to school anyway. 

Let’s see… haven’t heard back from the school district guy – so maybe I was right in that he’s not interested.  I am, however, in communication stages with four guys on eharmony which is a first I think.  I’d honestly be surprised if any of them pan out, but I think because it’s a “free communication” week is why it’s going on.  I’m going to end my subscription at the end of the week any way.  I think it would be nice to just go on one date.  That would probably solve my dating desires.  The last “blind” date I went on was disastrous.  Dating sucks.  I think I’d rather have an arranged marriage at this point.  Maybe not even that.  I really don’t know what I want. 

The mundane

This should bring joy to Andrew since this is what he says he loves about my blogging.  Life is just that – very mundane at the moment.  Of course there is a reason for my blogging.  I have a paper due Monday and I am expertly putting it off.  Once again I lack focus but as always, I tend to thrive under stress.  Nothing like waiting until the last minute to get stuff done, huh?

I survived the three days in the dorm but I didn’t like it much.  I hated having to guess at when the bathroom might be available since I had to share it with my roommate as well as the two students next to us – which is very awkward altogether.  My students did well at camp.  We came up with our theme idea and many plans for reorganizing our book next year.  I have the hope that we’ll be doing it as we go and will submit pages early this year.  I might be dreaming of course, but it’s a possibility.  My staff placed 3rd in theme development and we received a $25 gift certificate to Target.  Not sure how we’ll spend it but I’m sure we’ll find a use for it.

I got a surprise email from one of the guys that I had been in contact with via eharmony.  I hadn’t heard from him in a month in a half so I assumed he lost interest.  But maybe it was the wrong assumption – or I was right and the other person he took interest in fizzled… who knows, but he emailed me and asked when we could play scrabble.  I told him to let me know when he’s free after Monday and we could get together.  He’s a bit beyond the age range I originally planned as he’s 12 years older than me.  And it could be awkward as he works for the same district that I do, but it’s just a game of scrabble, right? 

I’ve been in contact with another guy in New Mexico through match.com but it still isn’t really going anywhere.  He emails me if I email him and his responses are relatively short and there’s not much to indicate that he has an interest in me.  Another guy emailed me and I have a dilemma on whether to email him back.  He is very much not my type.  I hate to sound judgmental because I hate it when others judge me but the biggest issue I have is that he put that he smokes occasionally.  For me that is a deal breaker altogether.  He’s a truck driver/race car driver as well.  That doesn’t bother me so much but his writing style was a concern.  I don’t know if I should politely say “no thanks” because of the smoking issue, ignore the email (as most guys do with me), or what. 

Now I’ve got to decide whether I’m going to try to get to the library to work for a couple of hours today or just do my best at home.  I find that I focus a little better away from home, but at the library, I can’t get internet service on my computer and sometimes I need to do a little more research.  Maybe I’ll make a Sonic run and sit in my car and at least finish the reading on my research articles.  I do enjoy having a cream slush while I peruse the research.

I do need to get busy though as I have plans tomorrow evening.  I’ve been invited to dinner to my friend Mary’s house who is the choir director for my church.  She and her husband want me to help them convert some word perfect files so that they can be opened in Microsoft word.  Then my dad wants Josh and I to go to Wonderland Park.  That will be fun as I’ll get to ride a sort of new coaster.  It is new to the park, but I’ve ridden it before when it was in a different location. 

So that’s my life at the moment.  I’m still staying up late – usually past midnight and sleeping in mornings.  I should figure out lunch and get going on my paper.  Ugh.

I’m not good at sharing or noise

When I was in junior high and high school, going to band camp and staying in the dorms was awesome.  Though the dorms were always hot, it is my “vacation” away from home for two weeks.  I roomed with someone I enjoyed being “on my own” for two weeks. 

I’m now 40 and have been single most of my life.  Aside from having my son with me for the past 19 years, I’ve grown accustomed to having my own space.  He has his bathroom and I have mine.  We have our own bedrooms and share the living room and kitchen – when he’s home.  Very rarely have I had to tell him to keep the noise in his room down.  (Only when he’s playing his piano well after bedtime for me.)  Josh spends the majority of the year away at college and though I have a roommate now, I hardly notice she’s there.  She stays in her room most of the time and only on a few occasions have I talked with her when she happens to come home while I’m there.  So given all this, I enjoy my mostly private life and doing things my way.

There’s a point to this.. I’m getting there.  So this week, you will find me in a dorm room on the UNT campus.  Right now I don’t have a roommate (thankfully) but will probably get one tomorrow.  My dorm room has a semi-private bath meaning I share it with my (potential) roommate as well as the two people next door.  This is very awkward.  It’s one thing to shower and dress when you’re around friends (even then, I try to change out of sight) but to deal with the issues of relatively no privacy, is difficult.  On top of all this, the dorm I’m in houses both the advisers and students on the same floor.  This means that I get to enjoy the antics and screams of high school girls at all hours.  My students haven’t been a problem.  They actually came to me complaining about the others. 

I don’t know if I’ll do this next year.  I guess I’ll wait and see how the camp goes.  If we get a lot out of it and want to come back, I may have to splurge and go with hotel rooms for next year.  I don’t know if it’s my age or something else, but I really wish I was at the Holiday Inn right now. 

Nothing much

I know I’ve been a bad blogger.  I really don’t have an excuse since I haven’t done much with my days.  Last weekend was spent finishing up the draft three of my project.  I was completely unmotivated to get it down.  Thankfully on Monday I realized that I had more done than I thought did.  I was able to finish it up and send it off though I know it needs a lot of corrections.  After reading my peer’s paper in the review process I felt better about my own paper. 

Today I’m doing a little cleaning as my aunt and uncle are coming today.  The house is mostly clean so it shouldn’t take too much effort.  Though I still haven’t cleaned my bathroom.  I should probably get that done. 

I tried eharmony for the past three months and it seems totally pointless.  I don’t know if the guys on there are just snobs, but I have gotten a total of three actual contacts that have emailed me.  Not one of them are local and none of them came to anything – they all fizzled within a week.  So now I’m trying match.com.  This has had slightly more promise, but not much.  Most of the men seem to be just as judgmental.  I winked at one and emailed him – a forty-something year old man that had never been married and Catholic.  He responded right away but immediately asked where my pictures were.  I told him they were being “approved” but would be up within a day.  And that’s the last I heard from him.  Maybe I’m not as cute as I thought I was.  I don’t think I’m drop dead gorgeous – far from it – but I don’t think I’m butt-ugly either.  I could understand if I were 300+ pounds and made no effort with myself.  I guess since I’m not model thin, blonde, athletic, and stupid that I don’t attract most men.  Oh well.  I don’t want someone that shallow anyway.  I have emailed a guy in Albuquerque for the past week and a half, but that’s it.  Nothing more than email and nothing really flirtatious either.  He did say that if/when I come to ABQ that he’d like to go for coffee or something.  So we’ll see.  I have a three month deal on match.com and if nothing works out from it then I’ll probably give up on online dating again.  I’m still not even sure what I want at this point.  I mostly just want a date – maybe a good friendship. 

Well, I need to go take a shower and make myself presentable for company.  I’ll try to make an effort to post a little more often.  Sorry Mago!

Just call me a procrastinator

I haven’t done anything on my assignment for grad school for the past week.  I decided on Monday to take a couple of “lazy” days and not worry about my assignment.  I figured I could start on it Wednesday or Thursday.  Well, by the time those days rolled around, I was still in that lazy mode.  Part of the problem has been the fact that I’ve been staying up too late and sleeping in.  By the time I get up and around, it seems half the day is gone.  And for a few days I didn’t even change out of my pajamas.  Or I took a shower and put a different set of pajamas on.  I haven’t done anything substantial either.  I’ve been playing on the computer mostly.  I have been randomly surfing websites using the site called stumbleupon.  I’ve found a few interesting sites.  Some I think will be helpful for teaching next year.  I’ve played scrabble on my iPhone, read a little bit, watched t.v. and really done very little.  Yesterday I did go up to the school so I could send out letters to the students I’m taking to a camp week after next. 

So today I had grand plans to go up to the local library to work.  My plan was at first to get there by noon, but then I decided to eat lunch and realized I need to print some things out so the new goal was 1:00.  Then I started to watch a movie and got engrossed in that and now it’s past the point of no return.  I don’t know what my problem is.  Once again, I’m just not focused.  I hope I can the work done in three days now.  I’m doing better though… sometimes I wait until the day before.  So this weekend I really have to get on the ball.  So what am I doing instead?  Josh and I are going out to dinner tonight.  I found myself with extra money in my account.  I got a refund of $25 from my university.  I’m not sure why, but it’s been deposited in my bank account.  I also got a refund from my mortgage company for the excess in my escrow account after my taxes and insurance have been paid.  And then I got a check for $4 from University of Texas in Austin for UIL “Consulting Fees” – not sure what that is, but hey, it’s $4 I didn’t have before. 

So we’re going to go eat at Olive Garden shortly.  It’s that time of month where I’m perpetually hungry.  I’m sure I’ll gain about 5 pounds in the next week or so and then lose it.  Ah the joys of womanhood!  I’ve been wanting to go see Eclipse but almost a little embarrassed to go by myself.  At least the teen crowds should be waning.  Maybe I’ll reward myself if I get a lot done on my paper tomorrow.  I’ve got to start getting to bed earlier though.  Easier said than done. 

Cleaning House

It’s been long overdue, but I have made the effort to clean house this weekend.  This was of course because I had company coming over for the 3rd of July celebration which has since been cancelled.  It has rained here all day and it is just too wet so the celebrations this evening will have to be rescheduled.  At least that gives me more time to clean.  I’ve pretty much gotten the kitchen & living room done other than sweeping and mopping.  Today I’ve been working on my bedroom which should have been declared a federal disaster area. I have too many clothes.  That in itself wouldn’t be bad if I had a lot of nice clothes.  But I’m overrun with t-shirts, sweats, and pajamas at the moment.  I got most of it done today but still need to vacuum and clean the bathroom which will take a while.  Tomorrow I’ll have to sweep and mop the house.  I don’t know if and when the fireworks show will be rescheduled.  We’re tentatively planning to have our get together tomorrow.  I planned to make fajitas, queso, and spanish rice. 

Now it’s late and I’m going to go to bed.  I think I have to play at church tomorrow so I better get some rest. 

Meeting a deadline early?

I have my final version of draft 2 that is due for my class tonight finished.  I’m not sure if it’s perfect or if I have enough to earn an “A” on it but I’m going to submit it anyway.  The professor tells us that if we do exactly what is asked for in each narrative and nothing more that it probably isn’t A-worthy.  Problem is that I don’t understand what “more” he wants.  Josh read through my paper and caught a lot of my grammar mistakes.  I tend to not use enough commas and I think he wants to overuse them.  I took most of his suggestions, but not all of them. 

Last night I took a tylenol p.m. around 8:00 and got really sleepy by 9:00.  I went to bed and woke around 6:15 but didn’t get up.  I went back to sleep and slept until around 8:00.  I stayed in bed for a while and eventually got myself going.  I fooled around on the computer until 10 and then I took a shower and got ready for the day.  I went to the public library to work so I could focus on editing my paper.  I spent about four hours there.  I didn’t think I had that much to do, but I had to add a whole new section, rewrite several pieces and make sure everything matched in the appendices.  I made the changes then came home to post a question about the paper so I could make sure I was doing it correct. 

I thought about going to the movies this afternoon but decided to go get the new Janet Evanovich book instead.  I went to Best Buy first and got a new set of headphones for my walkman.  I wanted the kind that fit over your ears.  Then I went to Walmart to get my book but while I was there I stocked up on some beer and wine for the 3rd of July celebrations.  Yes, our town is celebrating Independence Day on July 3rd instead of the 4th. 

Now I’m having a Smirnoff Lemonade in hopes that it will make me drowsy so I can get some sleep tonight.  I’m going to go upload my paper and then start my book.  Not too bad of a day.