Well, it’s spring break now. I finally got all of my final papers/projects/exams turned in, and I don’t have to be back in the classroom until March 27!!! However, I very much feel like this is a pause, and not a break. Why?

Well, for starters, I will be working most of the break. The few days I won’t be working are Thursday-Sunday, and that’s because the boy and I are going to Florida to visit my parents. I’m excited about that because I get to see my parents and I will get to be at MY church for Easter (I miss my church). However, it won’t be much of a break because I have THREE doctors appointments while I’m there.

When we get back, I still have a few days off from school left, but I’ll still have work, and I think that my rotation supervisor is going to make me come in to school even though we’re on break. Sigh.

So, I’m not really going to get a whole lot of breakin’ in. Just a pause in school. I can’t wait to be done with this. I’m not even sure if I’m going to get to do any spring cleaning or get my hair cut (like I DESPERATELY need).

Anyone got spring plans or projects?

To appease the masses, I bring to you . . . an update.

Yes, I have been a very sucky blogger the past few months. Grad school + job = NO FREE TIME. Pity me, please?

OK, so last I spoke was when Nana passed away. I was in Georgia for about a week helping with funeral arrangements and the like, then I came back to North Carolina.

My kittens did great while I was gone (AJ watched them for me), and they also gained names! I named the one with more white on his face Oscar (for Oscar Peterson) and the other one is Miles (for Miles Davis). There will be more pictures to come, though they haven’t grown AT ALL since I got them (which, I shouldn’t say that too loud - they are precious and adorable, I like their size now, LOL). They love to cuddle with me and they are SO GOOD together - I can’t imagine ever seperating them. I feel bad because I am gone so much of the day, so I don’t get to spend nearly as much time with them as I want to, but since they have each other, I know that they’re doing just fine. They just really like to cuddle when I come home!

The next week was utter chaos because it was holiday at Starbucks, so crazy busy, and I also had one week to get ready for Christmas. AJ and I had a lovely Christmas on the 21st, and on the 22nd I had Christmas with his family. On the 23rd I drove to GA, had Christmas with MY family, and then drove back on the 26th.

On the . . . 29th? . . . I woke up at about 3:30AM with really intense pain in my lower right abdomen. I could barely stand up, and it made me throw up it hurt so bad. I was able to get to the computer, saw that the right side is the appendix side, and decided I didn’t want to risk it. I called AJ and woke him up and he got me to the ER. It turns out that I had a ruptured ovarian cyst, so the next week I was off my feet a bit and then taking it pretty easy. I feel much better now, but man that hurt!!!

Classes started back on January 4th, and it has been NONSTOP since then. At the moment my rotation is in the development office, and it’s very time intensive. My schedule most days is something like this:

Rotation: 8AM-9:30AM
Class: 10AM-2PM
Rotation: 2PM-4:30PM
Work: 5:45PM-11:45PM

Note that I get about 8 hours off . . . and those are the sleeping hours . . . try fitting homework and sanity time in there. I’m exhausted. Luckily, there are only about 4 more weeks of this rotation and then I switch to something a little more laid back, so if I can just hang in there.

I’m getting really tired of school. As I go through all my classes, I realize that I’m not really learning a ton. I don’t say this to be cocky, I just got a really great undergrad education, and my instincts are usually pretty good. If it weren’t for the darned three letters that I need to get a job (MFA), I probably would be just fine to have skipped all this. I just have to keep reminding myself that I’ve only got about a year and a half before my internship, and while that’s technically still school, it’s really a job too, and it will be in an office somewhere (or something . . .)

I have missed being able to be online. I feel like I’m losing a little bit of myself because of all the craziness. Summer will be a welcome time. How is everyone else doing (is anyone even reading my blog anymore)?

I sure hope that my entry gets counted - for some reason I thought we were supposed to post our results on December 1, and today I realized it was supposed to get posted today, but I was at work and didn’t get home until after 1AM EST . . . so I’m hoping that this goes through by the deadline of 11:59PM PST!

This post is very picture heavy, so read on at your own peril !

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So far so good on orientation. Yesterday was mostly a “hi, this is the faculty, these are your classmates, let’s eat sketchy burgers and questionable hot dogs now!”

Today was a little more productive. This morning I got my welcome packet (I feel welcomed), my textbooks (book bag heavier, wallet lighter), my ID card (with my senior year high school picture on it - yes, it is 6 years old), and my mailbox number and combination (which I will likely never use). I feel quite official now, and I’m excited that once again I can get the student discount at the grocery store - woot!

Then, this afternoon, we had a for real meeting with our program faculty members - 8 students, 2 teachers. Close and personal, eh? It was great to get to go over all the material that we had received in bits and pieces the past few weeks. We didn’t really learn a lot of new stuff, but I feel significantly less scattered now, and that’s nice. Also excited to hear that my laptop (which runs on Windows Vista, not XP) is not going to be a problem in my computer class. We’re gonna stick Office 2003 on it (I have 2007) and life will be dandy.

Still don’t COMPLETELY know my schedule as they are still working out the rotations for us (we each spend some time in marketing, development, box office, etc.), so I STILL can’t tell Starbucks what my hours are going to be. That has been more than frustrating, but I did find out enough to get by for the next week or so, so hopefully this will get resolved and my life will be complete.

On a side note, the orientation schedule has a lot of things that are not required for grad students . . . but it doesn’t really say that on the schedule. As a result, I’ve gotten a lot of free time this week (I took off from work since orientation seemed to be so involved). What am I doing with this free time? Why, goofing off with AJ and spending WAY too much time with the cats. They’re so awesome - I really want kittens of my own . . .

OK, off to bake cookies - if you’ve had my cookies, you know what you are missing. If not - trust me, you wish you did !