One Year Later
Tomorrow is UNT's graduation and the thought of it is making me all nostalgic. Its really crazy when you think about it: things change so much in such short periods of time. Five years ago I was graduating from high school. Two years ago I was at Kansai Gaidai. Last year I was walking across that stupid makeshift stage absolutely giddy with the thought of all the possibilities that lay ahead of me now that I had a degree.
Yes, I have accomplished some things since graduation. There are those that tell me all the time how "awesome" it is that I lived in Japan and had a job there and wore suits to work everyday. I've gotten e-mails from several of my former students from Rio World telling me how much my efforts were appreciated and how much I am missed. (I got an e-mail from Ayano, one of my Juniors, yesterday. So cute!!!) And I've already come to the realization that moving to Japan and working for NOVA, while a great professional experience, was more of a growing-up/slap-in-the-emotional-face event for me.
And in the fall I should be starting in a graduate program. I still want to work for the government in international relations. I am so excited at the prospect of doing research and writing papers and getting published and traveling to conferences and all the other possibilities that open up to you as a graduate student. It'll be a great two-years.
But what am I doing now? Well, like I said, tomorrow is graduation, and the prom at Guyer High School, and Sunday is Mother's Day, which makes this weekend the most hellish weekend of my year because, lucky me, I work in the service industry. I should be sleeping because I will most likely be working from 11am to 11pm tomorrow with maybe 15minutes thrown in somewhere in the middle to grab a loaf of bread and a glass of water for my "break." Ah, but my boss called me and now I'm in limbo as I wait to find out whether I am actually working tomorrow morning, or getting to take some time off because there are just too many hosts. I already told her that I didn't mind not working, though it would have been nice to know this, oh, three hours ago so I could have gone to Riprock's with Katie, but she has to check with one of the other hosts to make sure she doesn't want to work. Because even though I am the "favorite," I am still the "new girl" and I come in last. Rar. Oh well.
In other news, should I survive this weekend with my sanity intact, I will be heading up to Kansas to spend five days with Max. (Oh, who am I kidding? Even if I go crazy this weekend I'll still be there. It'll make things that much more entertaining. :)) I'm so super excited to see him it isn't even funny. After those five days in Manhattan, we'll be heading back to Denton for three days so I can put in face at work and we can hang out before heading back to Manhattan for Sarah and Justin's wedding. (I'm going to wear a dress! Gah!) So that's the month of May planned. I'm taking a lot of time off work, and I'm getting a lot of shit for it, but by the first week in June I should have my final paycheck from NOVA so I really don't care what Carino's thinks of my numerous requests for time off.
I'm really hoping that this babysitting job with Allison pans out because that would just be ideal. If I could just work the six hours in the morning on weekdays that she needs, and earn minimun wage for that time, that would be close to $600/month which would more than enough to cover my bills and rent. And Allison is flexible enough to let me take trips if I wanted to go visit Max or try to get time off for Crystal's wedding. (When is that again, by the way?)
But who knows. Let's survive this weekend first, then we'll talk about the future.
Oh, and I bought really cute shoes today. They are black "patent leather" slippers and totally adorable. I wish I had had them in Japan to wear with my live stuff.
Yes, I have accomplished some things since graduation. There are those that tell me all the time how "awesome" it is that I lived in Japan and had a job there and wore suits to work everyday. I've gotten e-mails from several of my former students from Rio World telling me how much my efforts were appreciated and how much I am missed. (I got an e-mail from Ayano, one of my Juniors, yesterday. So cute!!!) And I've already come to the realization that moving to Japan and working for NOVA, while a great professional experience, was more of a growing-up/slap-in-the-emotional-face event for me.
And in the fall I should be starting in a graduate program. I still want to work for the government in international relations. I am so excited at the prospect of doing research and writing papers and getting published and traveling to conferences and all the other possibilities that open up to you as a graduate student. It'll be a great two-years.
But what am I doing now? Well, like I said, tomorrow is graduation, and the prom at Guyer High School, and Sunday is Mother's Day, which makes this weekend the most hellish weekend of my year because, lucky me, I work in the service industry. I should be sleeping because I will most likely be working from 11am to 11pm tomorrow with maybe 15minutes thrown in somewhere in the middle to grab a loaf of bread and a glass of water for my "break." Ah, but my boss called me and now I'm in limbo as I wait to find out whether I am actually working tomorrow morning, or getting to take some time off because there are just too many hosts. I already told her that I didn't mind not working, though it would have been nice to know this, oh, three hours ago so I could have gone to Riprock's with Katie, but she has to check with one of the other hosts to make sure she doesn't want to work. Because even though I am the "favorite," I am still the "new girl" and I come in last. Rar. Oh well.
In other news, should I survive this weekend with my sanity intact, I will be heading up to Kansas to spend five days with Max. (Oh, who am I kidding? Even if I go crazy this weekend I'll still be there. It'll make things that much more entertaining. :)) I'm so super excited to see him it isn't even funny. After those five days in Manhattan, we'll be heading back to Denton for three days so I can put in face at work and we can hang out before heading back to Manhattan for Sarah and Justin's wedding. (I'm going to wear a dress! Gah!) So that's the month of May planned. I'm taking a lot of time off work, and I'm getting a lot of shit for it, but by the first week in June I should have my final paycheck from NOVA so I really don't care what Carino's thinks of my numerous requests for time off.
I'm really hoping that this babysitting job with Allison pans out because that would just be ideal. If I could just work the six hours in the morning on weekdays that she needs, and earn minimun wage for that time, that would be close to $600/month which would more than enough to cover my bills and rent. And Allison is flexible enough to let me take trips if I wanted to go visit Max or try to get time off for Crystal's wedding. (When is that again, by the way?)
But who knows. Let's survive this weekend first, then we'll talk about the future.
Oh, and I bought really cute shoes today. They are black "patent leather" slippers and totally adorable. I wish I had had them in Japan to wear with my live stuff.