Back into the (short) grind

Thanksgiving break was wonderful; I had plenty of time to relax, got some papers done, ate great food, saw two great movies (New Moon and The Blind Side), and more! Now I am sitting in my apartment again, in denial that I still need to finish two more papers by tomorrow at 4:30. However, I have a pretty positive attitude (at least for now) about this coming week and finals week. Considering this week is the last week of regular classes, and I do not have tennis anymore, and my 2 1/2 hour, once-a-week class on Mondays is not meeting tomorrow, I will have a fairly easy week. I think my finals week will hardly be anything to worry about as well. I have to write a final essay for my Spanish linguistics class, which is due at the very end of the semester, a final essay for my conflict class which I just need to touch up and add some commentary here and there, an online test next Tuesday for my other comm. class which should be a piece of cake, and my Spanish grammar test. That last one is the thing I'm most worried about. I've gotten high A's on the first two tests for that class, but the material for the last section has been much more complicated and lengthy than the first two. But considering how I'll not need to worry about a whole lot for my other classes, plus my being completely finished with my mythology class, I'll have lots of extra time to study for that. I'll probably need it too; I did not even touch my Spanish grammar book over Thanksgiving break, so I'll have work extra hard to dig out the information that sunk into the lesser-known parts of my brain.

Then after all that, I'll be home for Christmas!! My last "final" is on Thursday, and all I need to do is go in and listen to other people's presentations in the morning, so I'm considering just not going and driving back home Wednesday. My sister and brother-in-law are moving into their house the first weekend I'm home, so I'll be busy helping them.

Anyway, I'm rambling again, so I'll sign out for now :-) For those of you finishing up the semester, good luck!

Home Sweet Home!

I arrived home Friday night about 9:30 after a 5 1/2 hour drive with Jake and his brother. Yesterday was so much fun. My sister and I went to see a matinee showing of New Moon---SOOOOOOO good! I don't know what the critics mean by "boring, drags on, characters are loveless/unlovable..." I guess it's because they are critics, and never does a critic give a movie a perfect review. Because they're critical. That's what they do. Both my sis and I agreed the movie was incredible. First, it was so much better than the first in several aspects. Better acting, better displays of emotion, incredible graphics...plus the music used in it fit perfectly and added to the emotional appeal. Second, I thought the actors did a great job in showing their feelings. Unlike the movie Twilight, New Moon had Bella narrating parts of it so that people who haven't read the book are able to get a better glimpse of her feelings and emotions. The critics also described it as just a mopey teenager the majority of the movie, but I felt it was so much more than that. It really wasn't just watching Bella mope around like any teenager, and I can only think of one part where it was just Bella "moping", and it really didn't last long. "Moping" isn't even the right word in my opinion. It was depression, and being completely lost, and it wasn't like any regular breakup; Bella lost a part of herself.
There are many more things I could say about the movie, but it would take a while :-) Bottom line, I loved it.

Last night was good too. My family and I, minus my brother and plus my grandma and cousin, went to Buffalo Thunder Resort to see the Beach Boys. Don't laugh, it was fun. We did some gambling (well my parents and grandma did...I don't have extra money to gamble), and my sister and I got drinks at the bar. We had something called a Washington Apple, which was really good. Then this middle-aged man started talking to us, asking if we were going to the concert, ad other stuff. Then he asked what we just had to drink, and then he told the bartender, "Two more Washington Apples". My sister and I were kinda weirded out. He said, "don't worry I"m not hitting on you or anything...I"m married." It was a little weird still, but hey! Free drinks :-) Oh the good things of being female :-P So yeah my sister and I had our little fiesta while everyone else lost money, then we went to the concert (we were like the only young people there lol), then did some more gambling afterwards and my sister and I danced a bit in the lounge/club. THEN we got home late, Jake came over and we hot tubbed for a while. It was a good day.

Sorry for the loooong post.

Please God, make this week go by fast...

Yesterday I got about half of my paper finished. Now I only need to write 8 more pages by Tuesday...I don't care that it's an honors class, 15 pages about the visual representations of one mythological figure is excess. There's only so much one can say about that...
So because of this, I will mostly like not be able to watch the Cowboys take on Green Bay, which is highly unfortunate as this is often one of the most anticipated match-ups during the season (even though Cowboys as of now have a better record than GB...6-2 compared to 4-4). Maybe I'll just turn on the game and have it in the background while I work...but of course, it's me, and there's a very high chance I will be far more intrigued by what's going down in Green Bay than comparing three or four different paintings of Odysseus stabbing the intoxicated Polyphemus in the eye.


On another note, my mom was here this weekend, a bit on short notice...it's a long story. When I wasn't neglecting her by working on my stupid essay (I'm not bitter...) we hung out and had a good time. We went to Dillard's where I finally used my gift card from last Christmas on a peacoat. I'd been meaning to get one for like three years, and finally found one that I'm happy with. We also stopped by for a brief time at the traveling Cowboys Pro-shop, which has come to Texas Roadhouse in Las Cruces for the weekend. Last night we went and saw the Time Traveler's Wife at the $3 theatre, which was really good, but sad. Before that we had dinner at Red Brick Pizza, where we split a Fhazanni sandwich (sooo good) and Greek salad.

Well, I'm off to work on the essay of doom. Good luck my boys. Romo, Witten, Austin, Barber, Ware, and all you others.....don't disappoint.

Football and candles

Cowboys beat the Eagles! Cowboys beat the Eagles! We're first in the division!!! I'm stoked!

While I was watching the game, I made a couple gel candles. I picked up the hobby last school year and haven't made one in a while.
The two I made tonight were simple; no embedded objects this time. For the first one I dyed the gel green, which came out prettier than the green I've made before, and added some basil-mint fragrance. I used an old candle jar for it, and now that the gel is almost all the way set, it's really bubbly and pretty. I tied a black ribbon around the top edge. For the second one, I used a small recycled diced pimiento jar. My family saves a lot of glass jars for various reasons, so I find lots of shapes and sizes at home. This one's cute, about two inches high and two inches across. I made a light red color for it, and decided not to add anything to it because I still have the lid for it and that itself makes the candle unique...diced pimientos, who'd thunk it would turn into a candle someday? :) For this one I added autumn spiced tea fragrance.

Here are a couple pics of them...I decided not to light them for the pics this time, because they're brand new and I don't want to deform the gel just yet :)

Giraffes!

Yeah, I know what most of you will say..."You would post an article about giraffes!" :)

http://www.msnbc.msn.com/id/33753490?Gt1=43001

Trabajo (otra vez)

So I wasn't very successful in getting a job this semester, but I applied on the student job posting site to be a tutor for Spanish and Communication next semester, plus I went to talk to the woman in charge, and since I actually went in and talked to her, she took my name so she would remember to consider me first or one of the first. I can't remember exactly when she said they'd be hiring, but I think it is soon.
Then Mike (Jake's roommate) told me about a job opening in the office he and Jake work in. I'd be a student academic coach, and would be doing something like helping first and second year student figure out classes to take and help them with student resources...like a step below being an actual adviser. Plus I'd be like an assistant to someone in helping plan activities and implementing programs. Mike told me this was better pay than tutoring, and he would be able to recommend me to his boss so that I'd have another advantage in consideration. This sounds like an interesting job, even though at this point it's not exactly clear what I'd be doing, and not to mention better pay than tutoring, but I still would like to tutor Spanish as well, as it's something I'm really good at and love. But, I guess I will see who (if either) offers me a job first, and then I'll decide which one would be best when the time comes.

Ok I know I come up with new ideas for myself about every other day, but another thought I had as to what kind of career I could see myself doing is teaching Spanish, possibly to middle school or high schoolers. Or maybe even elementary kids. I'd like to get a couple more years of practice in the language first, though. So who knows. Lots of options are always good :)
Have a great weekend!

Senioritis I guess

I don't know what's wrong with me, but this is the most slacker-ish I have ever been. I've been having the most difficult time buckling down and doing all my homework/papers, until I absolutely need to. It's making me so mad! I guess it's senioritis, but when I think of this disease, I figure people who get it have certain goals and at least kind of know what they're doing after graduation, so they get this syndrome because they have something in particular to look forward to. But that's not really the case with me...I don't know what I will do with my degree yet. I have ideas about what I want to do with my life (and of course those ideas will be forever changing), but I have no plans for soon after graduation, so I shouldn't be looking forward to nothing!
So if money, time, and other obstacles were not an issue, here is what my plan would be:

1) Graduate w/ a degree in communication studies and a minor in Spanish
2) Work for a while (and I really don't mind working an hourly-wage job for a while until I decide where I want to go career-wise)
3) Once I've worked for a while, travel. For at least a month or two. Maybe around the US, maybe around Europe, maybe around Central or South America (it would be nice to put my Spanish to use). While traveling, do some volunteering in the places I visit.
4) Write about my experiences while traveling.

OR pretending that money is not an issue, I would do the traveling right after graduation. Like the old cliche saying, I would love to travel and "find myself" :)

But the fact is, money and time and other obstacles are an issue, so unless I win the lottery or slip on a puddle in Wal-Mart and receive thousands from them, it looks like these traveling plans (and I'm not trying to be a pessimist or a downer or self-pitying) will have to wait.

Thinking about this inspires me to read some Henry David Thoreau and John Muir. I've studied them in classes and read about them, but I've never actually read their own writings. Any suggestions will be gladly accepted! I have one of Thoreau's quotes on my Facebook profile, which I found in another book..."The mass of men are living in quiet desperation." I think this quote speaks the truth, because rarely do you find someone who is completely content with where they are, how they are living, and who they are. I think we are all somehow desperate to find ourselves and figure out exactly where we fit.

But here I go blogging and procrastinating once again, so I'll leave you here and force myself to do some school-related writing for once.

Have a great week!