It's been over a year now.
Wow, I kinda forgot about livejournal for a while there. Here's an update of the past year.
Big Shit: Anthropology, Costa Rica, Graduation, Grad School
---- So I dunno if I mentioned it before, but I was going to be graduating in May of 09, but instead, I added Anthropology to my major and will now be graduating in May '10. I woulda had to stay until Fall '10, but I did a semester's worth of units in Costa Rica, doing a field school in primatology through HSU and the Anthro Dept. So I only added a year instead of 3 semesters. It was hot as hell (June in CR) the whole time, and kinda fun sometimes, but miserable other times. I'm glad I brought my laptop even though they said not to. It made work easier to research and I could talk to Todd and my parents while I was away. I didn't call them because honestly, I couldn't figure it out... Hmm...
---- I just registered for my last semester at HSU (in theory) and I'm taking 5 upper division classes... I think all of them are pretty intense courses.. I'm worried. I don't know if I can do it all. I haven't been the best at time management lately, on top of working full time. It's 17 units. I did that when I was a freshman, and have since been taking 6-12 units per semester (they never have the classes I want, or I drop some because I hate them). If I fail or drop any of these classes, I won't graduate. I just have to keep reminding myself of that.
---- This semester (Fall) I was pretty fucked by budget cuts. Two of my 5 classes were cancelled, so I ended up in some classes that I hated, and I dropped 2 of them. I ended up with two online classes and one night class at CR, and ONE class at HSU (which I paid a couple grand out of my pocket to take). I'm really nervous about them cutting classes in my last semester... I will be super pissed if I have to stay another semester for one class, and pay another 2500.
---- What I'm in now:
ANTH 310: History of Anthropology (HSU)-- My teacher is quite a pushover and we've talked him out of tests and papers. :\
PSYCH 11: Life Span Development (CR Online)-- This teacher really likes my work and encourages me with good feedback.
MATH 15: Elementary Statistics (CR Online)-- Dude, Stats is harder than math classes I've taken. I'm good at math, but stats is reading.
ANTH 3: Cultural Anthro (CR)-- I wish the students in this class were more interested, because I always have the answer but never want to participate because me and Todd (who is also in this class) are the only ones who ever talk!
---- My Schedule for SPRING 2010.
ANTH 410: Anthropological Theory (with a teacher who has been described to me as being the devil; however, I've never had a class with her. She seems like she has a dry sense of humor.)
ANTH 359: Public Archaeology
ANTH 306: Archaeology of the Far West
ANTH 318: something: Ethnography
ART 301: History of Photography (sounds super boring, but was the only UD Art history that worked for my schedule)
---- These classes cost me $2582. I don't know if I'm eligible for a loan yet. I might have to just save up. Ummm.... lame. Two of these classes doesn't have a teacher yet. So if they cancel classes again, it'll be those ones probably. Again.
---- So anyway, now I'm looking for something to do after graduation, whether it be field work, more study abroad, working in some kind of anthro thing, or going to grad school. The problem with just GOING to grad school is not knowing what I want to do. I have no idea what I want to be, or what I want to study (specifically), and my advisers tell me those are things I have to know before I apply. Apps are due in January for the most part... If I wait, I might know what I want, or I might decide not to go at all. Or I might not get in, because the people writing recommendation letters will have had a year to forget who I am. If I go in the fall, I risk losing lots of money on deciding once I'm there... I also have to move. Right away. To Sac, or Davis, or Berkeley. And while that doesn't sound too bad, I also probably won't have a way of supporting myself for a while... or the whole time I'm in grad school. I'm kinda freaking out about the idea of grad school. I want a job in the field but don't know what to do.
Boiifrenn
---- Todd. Still Todd. October 5 was 2 years. Got his driver's license and bought an Echo a few days before I left for Costa Rica (early June 09). He's still getting used to it. He'll get better.... ;) He got me a Wii for my birthday (OCT 23 09), and Wii Fit Plus (which I asked for, he wasn't callin me fat... lol) and I cried when he gave it to me.... we'd just been talking about how he doesn't save enough money... and I assume much of that is because he pays for food most of the time we go out to lunch and dinner. He makes more than me, but it's still not fair to him, so I felt bad for getting such a rad present. I don't know what to get him for Christmas, because I want to get him something cool, and he wants a PS3, but we have so many consoles, and he's always on his computer anyway, I don't know if he'd actually play on it. I had a kinda little meltdown about how he's always on his computer the other day... I don't feel like I was bitchy or anything, just concerned... Anyway, I want to get him something practical, but that's just boring and he'd get mad... lol We shall see.
---- He's back at CR, after much prodding and actually registering for him.. lol. He wants to learn, he wants to get his bachelor's, he wants to transfer somewhere, he likes polisci or some other liberal arts major, and I've been trying to encourage him to take up teaching. He'd be really good at it. I'm really proud of him for getting back into school. Judging from the forums in his online classes, he is probably the top of his class... no one else can articulate ideas without using crazy false premises or invalid arguments or fragments... Plus, he can write a mean paper. :)
Car
---- After reverting to driving my very first car after my new civic was stolen, I decided to buy a Sonata (Oct 08). I like it a lot, it's a nice car with good gas mileage, but my bad luck with cars continues. October 2008: Almost hit 3 different groups of deer on the trip to Sac. Then got back and got it stuck in a horrible spot in a parking lot at school with weird curb railings... had to grind the shit out of the bottom to get out. January: Thought we had to replace an axle, but then we just had to replace part of it... Feb-March: I was teaching Todd how to drive in it, and it's a manual so he stalled it a few times. After a particularly bad stall, it was making a bad knocking feeling under the clutch, and was really bad for a few days, but eventually went away... had to do with dampening springs... April: During a trip to SF a few months ago, the fuel pump went out and stranded us on the side of the road past Laytonville, had to stay in Ukiah instead of SF, get a rental for 4 days, missed half of his meeting... wrote to Hyundai and they wouldn't give me anything for it because it was 5000 miles out of warranty. July: Got a speeding ticket on the way back from SF airport after coming back from Costa Rica. September: I backed up into a car because I tried to cross an intersection and then couldn't make it, so I pulled back out of the road... Dented my bumper and his was fine so we went on our way... October: Collided with a biker while parking at school about a month or two ago. I was flipping a Uey and he was blazing down the hill and couldn't stop. He knocked my side mirror off, which I was taping on, daily for a couple weeks (while waiting for the Hyundai dealership to call me and say my part had come in), until I ordered a new part from amazon. November: Had the new mirror installed so we could go to Emeryville for another sgh meeting for Todd, then to Sac for a few days. Nothing bad happened there, but two days after we got back, my car was sideswiped outside my house... hit and run... but my neighbor saw it and reported it with the license plate, so we got the guy but it's still a pain in the ass because it takes 3 days to fix... Now: I just got mail a few days ago saying that there's a recall on a couple different parts on my car, one is with cruise control not stopping when the driver brakes, the other is the brake lights not working... whoopee. I don't think my car is really affected by it, but I have to get those parts replaces anyway.
Work
---- Still working at FF... Andy had a baby, so a couple months there I was making the schedule and kinda runnin the show... I've been doing some interviews lately... hired one girl recently. So far so good. He won't be too excited to see my school schedule for next semester. He said if it sucks I can't be Associate Manager... I won't be able to open on any M-F.... hmm... I know it'd be pretty neat for them to demote me, but I've been there long enough to deserve that amount of pay, whether I'm an assistant or associate manager. People are making more than what I made when I was hired... by far. I'm trying to get a part-time volunteer thing going with the Archaeology Dept at HSU, but they always do digs on Weekends, and I work retail, so that doesn't work too well. Other than that, everything's been pretty peachy. One co-worker transferred, and we hired a couple really fun chicks, so it's been pretty drama-free except bitchy customers and thieves.
Random Shit
---- I read all the Twilight books, and love them. Say whateva. It's not hard to fall in love with. And Robert Pattinson was a good choice for Edward. He's a loveboat. A dreamy motherfucker. Anyway, a group of us went to the Twilight midnight showing, then the New Moon one was a few days ago. Way better than the first. Recordbreaking too. HAHAHAHA, to the guy who said "It'll never break the Dark Knight's record" UMMMM, it did. LICK MY BUTT DUDE.
---- My abs hurt from blowing my nose constantly for the past few months. Probably got swine flu a few times, haven't felt healthy in months. My art major advisor, Wayne Knight, died of Swine Flu complications. This shit is scary. It's really scary when little kids come into my store and cough on me and their parents don't even care. I feel like slapping them both.
---- I've had testing done because I have all the symptoms of hypothyroidism, and found out that my shit is super whack... one test said HYPERthyroid, one said HYPOthyroid. They're planning on treating me for hyperthyroidism but I don't know how I feel about it. Some of those symptoms totally don't apply to me...
---- Dyed my hair a few times... cut it a couple times...
---- We don't have a heater in our house right now, and I've been really fuckin cold lately. The past few days, I've seen my breath inside. There was a gas leak a couple months ago, when it was still warm, and PGE told my landlord that they'd have to replace the heater because it was herra old. They shut off our heater line, then removed our old one but the new one was the wrong one, so we're still waiting to hear back from them about putting in the new one.
---- I've been wearing dresses lately.
---- I did an ethnography for Cultural Anthropology on a Jewelry Store with a Friend of Mine. I called the store JD's, and my consultant Nicki. I'm glad I'm done with it. It was a long process.
---- Cats are still cats. They've been a welcome source of heat and also a source of annoyance when I work on Stat homework on the couch. Momo always wants to sit in my lap, even if my lap is full of textbook/graph paper.
---- Egg nog, milk, nutmeg, cinnamon. Nummms.
Big Shit: Anthropology, Costa Rica, Graduation, Grad School
---- So I dunno if I mentioned it before, but I was going to be graduating in May of 09, but instead, I added Anthropology to my major and will now be graduating in May '10. I woulda had to stay until Fall '10, but I did a semester's worth of units in Costa Rica, doing a field school in primatology through HSU and the Anthro Dept. So I only added a year instead of 3 semesters. It was hot as hell (June in CR) the whole time, and kinda fun sometimes, but miserable other times. I'm glad I brought my laptop even though they said not to. It made work easier to research and I could talk to Todd and my parents while I was away. I didn't call them because honestly, I couldn't figure it out... Hmm...
---- I just registered for my last semester at HSU (in theory) and I'm taking 5 upper division classes... I think all of them are pretty intense courses.. I'm worried. I don't know if I can do it all. I haven't been the best at time management lately, on top of working full time. It's 17 units. I did that when I was a freshman, and have since been taking 6-12 units per semester (they never have the classes I want, or I drop some because I hate them). If I fail or drop any of these classes, I won't graduate. I just have to keep reminding myself of that.
---- This semester (Fall) I was pretty fucked by budget cuts. Two of my 5 classes were cancelled, so I ended up in some classes that I hated, and I dropped 2 of them. I ended up with two online classes and one night class at CR, and ONE class at HSU (which I paid a couple grand out of my pocket to take). I'm really nervous about them cutting classes in my last semester... I will be super pissed if I have to stay another semester for one class, and pay another 2500.
---- What I'm in now:
ANTH 310: History of Anthropology (HSU)-- My teacher is quite a pushover and we've talked him out of tests and papers. :\
PSYCH 11: Life Span Development (CR Online)-- This teacher really likes my work and encourages me with good feedback.
MATH 15: Elementary Statistics (CR Online)-- Dude, Stats is harder than math classes I've taken. I'm good at math, but stats is reading.
ANTH 3: Cultural Anthro (CR)-- I wish the students in this class were more interested, because I always have the answer but never want to participate because me and Todd (who is also in this class) are the only ones who ever talk!
---- My Schedule for SPRING 2010.
ANTH 410: Anthropological Theory (with a teacher who has been described to me as being the devil; however, I've never had a class with her. She seems like she has a dry sense of humor.)
ANTH 359: Public Archaeology
ANTH 306: Archaeology of the Far West
ANTH 318: something: Ethnography
ART 301: History of Photography (sounds super boring, but was the only UD Art history that worked for my schedule)
---- These classes cost me $2582. I don't know if I'm eligible for a loan yet. I might have to just save up. Ummm.... lame. Two of these classes doesn't have a teacher yet. So if they cancel classes again, it'll be those ones probably. Again.
---- So anyway, now I'm looking for something to do after graduation, whether it be field work, more study abroad, working in some kind of anthro thing, or going to grad school. The problem with just GOING to grad school is not knowing what I want to do. I have no idea what I want to be, or what I want to study (specifically), and my advisers tell me those are things I have to know before I apply. Apps are due in January for the most part... If I wait, I might know what I want, or I might decide not to go at all. Or I might not get in, because the people writing recommendation letters will have had a year to forget who I am. If I go in the fall, I risk losing lots of money on deciding once I'm there... I also have to move. Right away. To Sac, or Davis, or Berkeley. And while that doesn't sound too bad, I also probably won't have a way of supporting myself for a while... or the whole time I'm in grad school. I'm kinda freaking out about the idea of grad school. I want a job in the field but don't know what to do.
Boiifrenn
---- Todd. Still Todd. October 5 was 2 years. Got his driver's license and bought an Echo a few days before I left for Costa Rica (early June 09). He's still getting used to it. He'll get better.... ;) He got me a Wii for my birthday (OCT 23 09), and Wii Fit Plus (which I asked for, he wasn't callin me fat... lol) and I cried when he gave it to me.... we'd just been talking about how he doesn't save enough money... and I assume much of that is because he pays for food most of the time we go out to lunch and dinner. He makes more than me, but it's still not fair to him, so I felt bad for getting such a rad present. I don't know what to get him for Christmas, because I want to get him something cool, and he wants a PS3, but we have so many consoles, and he's always on his computer anyway, I don't know if he'd actually play on it. I had a kinda little meltdown about how he's always on his computer the other day... I don't feel like I was bitchy or anything, just concerned... Anyway, I want to get him something practical, but that's just boring and he'd get mad... lol We shall see.
---- He's back at CR, after much prodding and actually registering for him.. lol. He wants to learn, he wants to get his bachelor's, he wants to transfer somewhere, he likes polisci or some other liberal arts major, and I've been trying to encourage him to take up teaching. He'd be really good at it. I'm really proud of him for getting back into school. Judging from the forums in his online classes, he is probably the top of his class... no one else can articulate ideas without using crazy false premises or invalid arguments or fragments... Plus, he can write a mean paper. :)
Car
---- After reverting to driving my very first car after my new civic was stolen, I decided to buy a Sonata (Oct 08). I like it a lot, it's a nice car with good gas mileage, but my bad luck with cars continues. October 2008: Almost hit 3 different groups of deer on the trip to Sac. Then got back and got it stuck in a horrible spot in a parking lot at school with weird curb railings... had to grind the shit out of the bottom to get out. January: Thought we had to replace an axle, but then we just had to replace part of it... Feb-March: I was teaching Todd how to drive in it, and it's a manual so he stalled it a few times. After a particularly bad stall, it was making a bad knocking feeling under the clutch, and was really bad for a few days, but eventually went away... had to do with dampening springs... April: During a trip to SF a few months ago, the fuel pump went out and stranded us on the side of the road past Laytonville, had to stay in Ukiah instead of SF, get a rental for 4 days, missed half of his meeting... wrote to Hyundai and they wouldn't give me anything for it because it was 5000 miles out of warranty. July: Got a speeding ticket on the way back from SF airport after coming back from Costa Rica. September: I backed up into a car because I tried to cross an intersection and then couldn't make it, so I pulled back out of the road... Dented my bumper and his was fine so we went on our way... October: Collided with a biker while parking at school about a month or two ago. I was flipping a Uey and he was blazing down the hill and couldn't stop. He knocked my side mirror off, which I was taping on, daily for a couple weeks (while waiting for the Hyundai dealership to call me and say my part had come in), until I ordered a new part from amazon. November: Had the new mirror installed so we could go to Emeryville for another sgh meeting for Todd, then to Sac for a few days. Nothing bad happened there, but two days after we got back, my car was sideswiped outside my house... hit and run... but my neighbor saw it and reported it with the license plate, so we got the guy but it's still a pain in the ass because it takes 3 days to fix... Now: I just got mail a few days ago saying that there's a recall on a couple different parts on my car, one is with cruise control not stopping when the driver brakes, the other is the brake lights not working... whoopee. I don't think my car is really affected by it, but I have to get those parts replaces anyway.
Work
---- Still working at FF... Andy had a baby, so a couple months there I was making the schedule and kinda runnin the show... I've been doing some interviews lately... hired one girl recently. So far so good. He won't be too excited to see my school schedule for next semester. He said if it sucks I can't be Associate Manager... I won't be able to open on any M-F.... hmm... I know it'd be pretty neat for them to demote me, but I've been there long enough to deserve that amount of pay, whether I'm an assistant or associate manager. People are making more than what I made when I was hired... by far. I'm trying to get a part-time volunteer thing going with the Archaeology Dept at HSU, but they always do digs on Weekends, and I work retail, so that doesn't work too well. Other than that, everything's been pretty peachy. One co-worker transferred, and we hired a couple really fun chicks, so it's been pretty drama-free except bitchy customers and thieves.
Random Shit
---- I read all the Twilight books, and love them. Say whateva. It's not hard to fall in love with. And Robert Pattinson was a good choice for Edward. He's a loveboat. A dreamy motherfucker. Anyway, a group of us went to the Twilight midnight showing, then the New Moon one was a few days ago. Way better than the first. Recordbreaking too. HAHAHAHA, to the guy who said "It'll never break the Dark Knight's record" UMMMM, it did. LICK MY BUTT DUDE.
---- My abs hurt from blowing my nose constantly for the past few months. Probably got swine flu a few times, haven't felt healthy in months. My art major advisor, Wayne Knight, died of Swine Flu complications. This shit is scary. It's really scary when little kids come into my store and cough on me and their parents don't even care. I feel like slapping them both.
---- I've had testing done because I have all the symptoms of hypothyroidism, and found out that my shit is super whack... one test said HYPERthyroid, one said HYPOthyroid. They're planning on treating me for hyperthyroidism but I don't know how I feel about it. Some of those symptoms totally don't apply to me...
---- Dyed my hair a few times... cut it a couple times...
---- We don't have a heater in our house right now, and I've been really fuckin cold lately. The past few days, I've seen my breath inside. There was a gas leak a couple months ago, when it was still warm, and PGE told my landlord that they'd have to replace the heater because it was herra old. They shut off our heater line, then removed our old one but the new one was the wrong one, so we're still waiting to hear back from them about putting in the new one.
---- I've been wearing dresses lately.
---- I did an ethnography for Cultural Anthropology on a Jewelry Store with a Friend of Mine. I called the store JD's, and my consultant Nicki. I'm glad I'm done with it. It was a long process.
---- Cats are still cats. They've been a welcome source of heat and also a source of annoyance when I work on Stat homework on the couch. Momo always wants to sit in my lap, even if my lap is full of textbook/graph paper.
---- Egg nog, milk, nutmeg, cinnamon. Nummms.