Hair!

I should apparently make this blog about hair-- at least, that's what I understand based on my traffic reports. My blog posts about hair get by FAR the most traffic from all over the world.  Hey, I get it... my little life is pretty mundane... I write mostly for myself.

But, in the spirit of giving my limited readership what they want, here's a little post about hair.  I got about 8" chopped off today, and it sure felt good.  Very freeing, psychologically speaking.  I have a tendency to hide behind my hair... and now, whoosh! It's gone. (I also have a tendency to put it up into a French Twist, which is only a fancy-pants looking version of the lazy-girl's go-to Ponytail... essentially, unless it was for a special occasion, I just would wash... and twist.)

Well, no more washing & twisting... here is the short bob I got today!

Ok, no, I'm not secretly Candace Cameron!  But, I saw this super cute short bob on the TV show "Make it or Break it" (Yes, I'm addicted to bad TV, especially bad TV that airs on ABC family.  Don't even get me started on "The Secret Life of the American Teenager"  ...  And yes, I'm ashamed of myself.)

In the spirit of helping out other people who are no doubt typing the words "cute short bob" into google as we speak, here are some more shots of the same cut... (Don't you love having more shots you can bring to your stylist! To make sure s/he does NOT.SCREW.IT.UP! Don't mess with the HAIR!)

When I saw this cut on TV I knew I wanted it, so I grabbed the screenshots-- You are welcome internets! Now go! Get yourselves some good hair!

:roll eyes:

You know how sometimes you're facebook friends with people who are totally random acquaintances, and you're like- Wait, how do I know you again?  But, hey, they're harmless enough, so you keep them on.

It's also an interesting little glimpse and window into how other people live, and how other people live? It does not compute for me, dude.

Approximation of facebook conversation:

Aquaintance:  Other new moms, how do you deal with having to go back to work?

Her Friend: It's tough, especially when you're breast feeding, trying to take care of the other kids, take care of the chores, and all of that.  I'm lucky though! My husband agreed to cook dinner once a week. I love Wednesdays!

I have to admit, my head kind of cocked sideways, like my dog does when she's looking at something she just does.not.understand.  Like, what do you mean, your husband "agreed" to cook dinner once a week? It sounds like you're doing pretty much everything. Why doesn't your lazy-ass husband cook dinner every night of the week? What else is he doing? You're making food with your God-damned body. What are his magical powers?  And you consider yourself "lucky"?    

Your life makes me sad.

Did I mention I was feeling groovy?

Jedi and I got some super good news today! We were invited to move into the apartment in the basement of our church! Why does that make it today our lucky day, you may ask!?  Well, for one, our church is located in the center of town, walking distance to my job and Jedi's job -- like, hop, skip, jump!  Now that we've sold one of our cars (did I mention we did that? Cost-cutting!) that is a super bonus.  Jedi's been taking the bus to work, but it means he gets to work an hour early, and if a colleague can't give him a ride home it usually means he has to wait an hour for the bus home. (Even though we only live a 10 minute drive away.)

But the super-dee-duperty big deal?  This is a practically FREE apartment!  We only pay a small contribution toward the heating costs, but other than that we get the apartment in exchange for opening and closing the building every day, and doing small jobs around the church, like setting up tables and chairs for meetings and shoveling the walks when it snows.  (And let's be real-- Jedi will be doing most of that. Ahem.) Pretty sweet!

This ALSO means that we get to rent out my condo, which has been driving me crazy with worry... we've been wanting to get out of my condo for awhile, but we could never make the math add up. One of my big worries was that if we rented out the condo, and then we got locked into our own rental someplace else, if we had a tenant flake out-- or if the condo sat vacant for 3-4 months-- we would basically wipe out our savings. We wouldn't be able to pay the rent on another place AND cover the costs of the mortgage on my condo.  Which basically left us paralyzed and stuck where we were...

But now we can move out, not have to worry about covering both costs (because we could if we needed to), and hopefully build up enough of a nest egg so that if/when we move out of the church apartment we'll have enough of a cushion to cover the carrying costs on the condo to rent it out without having to worry.

PHEW!!!

Additionally, with the internship coming up in the spring I may... just may... have to quite my part-time job.  I really don't want to, because I quite enjoy it.  But I'm having trouble seeing how I can make the scheduling work.... 2 days a week for classes (driving 1.5 hours each way), 10 hours at the clinic at school, 20 hours a week at the internship site (driving 1.5 hours each way in a different direction), and then 20 hours a week at my part time job.   The part time job is pretty zen and gives me lots of reading time... but it's the sleeping time and driving time I'm worried about... as in, I'm not a good driver, and I fall asleep behind the wheel.  *sigh*  I've looked into public transportation, but the options aren't good. I'm keeping my fingers crossed that some sort of carpool might materialize... but, I won't worry about that for now.

For now, I'll just be happy that we're moving...!  Eventually!... Not for a couple of months still-- which is actually good, since that gives me time to get rid of my junk pack some of my precious belongings.  Hey, with the holidays coming up, the opportunities for regifting are endless!

Feeling Groovy

So we fought the law and... we won?

My cohort and I staged a little mini-revolution this past week.  The requirements for some of our classes (the online ones in particular) were INSANE. So, we rebelled, and called a meeting, and presented a list of demands, and it seems like the school has backed down. Yea!

Lest you think we are a chronically lazy bunch, please believe that the requirements were whackadoodle.  For example-- We had 3 group projects due PER WEEK (group projects in an online course? Whose brilliant idea was this?), 2-4 major writing assignments per week, 3 forum posts due per week, and 200+ pages of reading due per week (plus often a video or two to respond to.)  We are taking FIVE classes, and these are the recs for just ONE, and we have about 10 hours of clinic work on top of that, and then whatever else life throws at us.... (I can't even imagine my colleagues with kids... One woman in my classes has 3 kids under the age of 5 and is doing all of this. Insanity!)  The major thing though was that the assignments weren't particularly useful-- they felt like "check box" assignments to make sure that we had done our reading.  I think this is because it's the first time the school is doing online courses, and they're really not sure how to deal with it.

So, our cohort had our meeting, and we got them to significantly modify the workload and streamline it. Yea!

The reason I'm feeling groovy though is because I've been talking to a woman who was a recent graduate of the MA portion of the program I'm in.  Jedi and I have been talking, and I think I've come to the conclusion that if I can't get someone else to pay for the PhD, I'm going to be done with school-- it just doesn't make financial sense to continue, I think, in other circumstances.  The school I'm currently at, I can continue with the PhD there, but financially I just don't think I'll want to.

Well, the recent alumna is in a great program that not only covers the cost of the PhD, but also offers an amazing stipend-- $25k.  (As I was talking to her my ears perked up wildly when I heard that!) They do only accept 2-3 people a year, which is not surprising given the incentives. The work done is also pretty interesting-- it's the only program in the country that has this particular focus, so it's pretty unique, which gives it's graduates a nice niche. She gave me some great advice too, and one of them was to do my upcoming Spring internship at a regional hospital that is affiliated with this PhD program to up my future chances.  So, you know how I like plans... It's nice to have something to plan towards!

Jedi is also rooting for this particular program over others I'm looking at because it's in his childhood hometown. (Not that most of his friends live there anymore, mind you!)  When I mentioned the program he was ready to start packing boxes then and there-- (which speaks more to how ready he is to move out of where we are now, I think, than to anything else actually!)

So, feeling good, finding a routine, making plans for the future...