Couch Monkey

I hate being sick.  I know, who doesn’t?  But it’s not the actually feeling sick that I hate, although that’s a bummer too.  I hate not being able to do anything.  I came down with a cold 3 weeks ago and ‘lo and behold, it’s officially turned into bronchial pneumonia… and a sinus infection…  Therefore, both Jeremy and my doctor have pretty much forbidden me from leaving the couch or bed for the next 5 days…  No school, no Stitch and Bitch, no working out, no errands, no cleaning (oh darn 😉 )…  I. am. a. Couch Monkey.

I hate sitting still.  I’ve been a knitting maniac already and I’m sure before my 5 days are up I’ll have lots of pictures for you.  My Flying Saucer socks are almost done and they’re AWESOME!

Other than my current 5 days of vacation, school is going well so far.  I’m really enjoying my classes and professors.  I’ve recently decided to apply to Roosevelt’s Sociology graduate program.  Yikes, eh? 🙂 I never thought I’d be going to grad school so soon.  Crossing my fingers that 2 years from now I’ll have 2 degrees and a job. 😉

Meanwhile, I’m exhausted and am going to take a nap.  More later.

The Beginning of the End…

Je suis très bien!

Most people complain that 3 weeks of winter break are too short after usually having 5.  I argue that it was just about right.  I had a nice vacation full of sleep, knitting, getting old, and young adult adventure novels (my vice, you know 😉 ).

I just started my last semester as a degree-less student! 😉  It was a good day.  I loved my forensic anthropology class, but then again, I never really doubted I wouldn’t. (Suck on THAT double negative.  Or something).  I’m not going to lie, that was by far the most interesting class of the day.
My Native American Lit class and my American Lit courses went well, but they’re just the same old English class.  I don’t think I can sit through being taught how to write a literary question one more time..  Thankfully, I won’t have to.

I’ve officially decided that I won’t be going to graduate school for English or an MFA.  I don’t think either would do anything for me.  Don’t get me wrong, I in no way regret getting an English degree.  In fact, I think it was one of the most perfect subjects to usher me into adulthood.  It helped me learn how to think critically, to analyze things in front of me, and, most importantly, how to write.  That being said, I think I’ve gone as far as I’m able.  I can’t do much more reading a story, analyzing, and trying to come up with a unique paper topic.  That does nothing for me and does nothing to better the world.
I have a few ideas as to what comes next, but I’ll let you know next week when I have things a bit more figured out.

Tomorrow: African American Literature.  Wednesday: Criminology!

15 1/2 weeks until graduation, you know.

🙂

In other news, Jeremy and I are moving in with his parents at the end of February.  Our lease on our apartment is up and it makes more sense for us to move back to the suburbs, save a ton of money on rent, pay off some student loans, and, eventually, buy a house.
They bought a neat, old two-unit house a year or so again and have been doing a TON of work on it.  The rooms that are finished look WONDERFUL!!! 🙂  We plan on spending our weekends for the next several weeks helping them get it ready for four people and three cats to live in comfortably.  I knocked out a wall over the weekend.  It’s true, I’m a badass… 😉

I really am looking forward to being back in suburbia again.  I’ll miss the city, but I think it’s time, for now.  My friends are all graduating and moving (or have moved– CHRISTINE!) away.  I miss our family.  Being with them more often is worth the little bit of extra time it will take me to commute to the city.  It will also be nice to be living with my in-laws.  I don’t think we’ve spent nearly enough time with them since we’ve been married, and even before that.  Now they’ll get nice and sick of seeing us every day… 😉

tootles until tomorrows update. 🙂

ps. did you know that Whole Foods sells bath salts?  Yum.

Final Exams and Final Thoughts

It’s  cold in Chicago today.  Like Epically cold.  It’s even ice cold in Starbucks.  All the more incentive to make myself some fingerless mits… 😉

In other news… Finals have begun..

Or, rather, they’ve been begun.  I’m so close to being finished for the semester it hurts a little.  My motivation is lacking more than ever.  I have to give a debate today about the dire negative effects of global warming.  Who might really disagree with me I have no idea.  After that, I need to write a 6 page paper on Flannery O’Connor’s “A Good Man is Hard to Find.”  It will probably only end up being 5 pages because I just don’t care anymore.  To finish the week, Lukasik’s final portfolio is due on Wednesday afternoon.  Cake.
I have a final on Monday, but I don’t plan on even thinking about it until Saturday night.
I found out after my sociology class today that I received an A+ on my final paper and thus secured an A in the class.  I really liked that class.  For the first time, I think I’m a little sad about a class ending.  I know I often complained about the class not presenting multiple sides to an issue, but I feel like it’s one of the first times I’ve had a class that helped me learn how to think critically about the world I live in.  Everything we talked about this semester is applicable to current events.  I do love English and literature, but little of it has real world applications.

I don’t think I’ll be getting my masters in English.  I might work on an MFA at some point, but I think I’m finished studying English literature.  I’ll look into sociology or education or something that can be more productive in helping people.  I definitely wasn’t ready to choose my career at 18.  Or at 19. Or at 20… Or at 23… So, I’m very glad I opted to get a degree in something that allows me to be more flexible with the direction I go in next, something that grew as I grew and allowed me to become anyone I wanted to be.

In other news, an elderly gentleman next to me just asked me what “LOL” means…  It made me laugh out loud. 😉

Off to a week full of caffeine!

 

PS. CHRISTINE, DON’T LEAVE ME!! KOREA DOESN’T REALLY NEED YOU!! 😉

Karl and a Documentary

It’s a chilly morning in Chicago and Starbucks has their Christmas decoration up. 🙂  They’re very pretty and festive.  My favorite!  I opted to wear my old winter coat today because it matched my outfit better and to my pleasant surprise, it was much needed on my way to class this morning.

I’m taking a quick break from my newest short story.  Maybe I’ll see this one through to the end?  I don’t even care if I send it out for publication, I just feel like I never get around to finishing my stories.  This one is different though.  I usually write from the point of view of a younger woman (who knew?) and this story centers around Karl Swanson who is an older man in his 50’s or so.  It’s kind of fun being someone completely different.
Lukasik has us writing short fiction scenes right now and last week’s completely blew.  It’s also up for critique today.  The last thing I had critiqued was my creative nonfiction and it was very well received.  But this one… I’m dreading class…
This week, however, I’m using her strict guidelines to expand Karl Swanson’s story.  It should be interesting.

We’ve been watching a documentary in sociology about the United States, wars, defense spending, capitalism, and the like called Why We Fight.  Google Video features the entire thing if you have 99 minutes.  It really is interesting.  The whole thing was a little heart-breaking as it really showed me that I can, quite obviously, no longer live in my positive and trusting world.  How does someone handle this?  It’s not a change necessarily as I have always opposed war and the privatization of war and government spending, but the fact that soon I’m slowly becoming more against the government I’ve grown up watching.  Even more difficult is the fact that my sister and dad both served in the military and I in no way want to do them any disservice by my desire to protest all that is militant and government.
We debated in political science last week the U.S.’s refusal to join to International Criminal Court and whether that was a wise idea.  I very much believe the U.S. puts enough into global affairs and global domination that they need to be held accountable for the acts they carry out.
As often as I feel like my school goes against the government to a fault, sometimes I appreciate their presentation of information that I probably wouldn’t get elsewhere.
But who am I, right?  Just another liberal college student. 😉

Meanwhile, Alice and Bella are celebrating their 2nd birthday today. =)  My babies are growing up.

Karl Swanson beckons.  ❤