meh.

I am trying to break myself of a serious case of school apathy right now.  Not very successfully, as I’m writing this when I should be in a class.  I just can’t seem to get my butt motivated to have anything to do with school, or at least the parts of school that involve sitting in a class having a textbook summarized for me, as a two of my professors tend to do.

It was easier to attend my mid-day, very easy environmental economics class when it gave me an excuse to cut out of work.  Less so, when I have to spend all afternoon on a campus without a student center (due to construction) to catch an hour lecture on things I’ve already had a half dozen times.  When faced with going to campus at 1, sitting through the class and then spending FOUR hours sitting in hallways, random corners of buildings and the occasional overcrowded lounge because the school closed the building that contained most of the study rooms and all of the food,  staying home doesn’t sound so bad.

And I feel productive staying home.  I went running, cleaned, read for a useful class, played with the cat and caught up on sleep.  I think I’m starting to drift back toward one of my phases where I start judging things moreso on where they fit in my priorities versus where I’m told they are supposed to fit in my priorities.   This can have benefits – it tends to make me less stressed and more satisfied with my life.  Drawbacks include just not getting some things done and feeling guilty for that fact.

Office? What office?

As of last Thursday, I am done working for the next several months.  I’m looking forward to the opportunity to concentrate on finishing up my econ degree, and dreading the coming internal struggle between the sudden distractions of free time and the need to put time into research papers.  Because when you get down to it, econometric analysis is much less fun than learning how to get really good at Jenga.

As I was cutting out on my last day, I said goodbye to my former boss and walked across the hall to meet with my new (future) one to try to work out a start date.  He dangerously offered to let me start as late as June 15, which is a full month after I finish finals.   Although I’m still burnt out, I dare say that a month of nothing whatsoever to do would be both wonderful and terrible.  I’m torn at this point.  On one hand, there are so few opportunities in adult life to voluntarily take such an extended vacation (I’m hoping to avoid involuntary long vacations, unless they come with a big severance check).  On the other foot, doing so also means not getting paid for that month.  My new salary will be MUCH more than I was making in the past, so its kind of hard to throw away that much money so I can sit around in my underwear and attempt to watch the Lord of the Rings trilogy (Extended Edition) and eat an entire box of cereal in one sitting.

It amuses me how much your concept of money changes as you get older.  M and I were driving past a Mongolian BBQ in one of my old college stomping grounds and talking about how we need some special occasion to go there.  I’ve never gone in there without it being for a celebration or a work function.   I felt kind of silly realizing that, as an adult, I no longer need a special occasion to spend $14 on dinner, and can actually go to that restaurant whenever I want.

Ah, adult money.  I’m reaching the point where I no longer feel I have to justify spending $8 on going to see a movie or buying the cheaper beer.  At the same time, I feel insecure about money to a degree that I never did in college.  In part its because the economy is, for lack of a better term, tanking, and will probably continue to do so for some time.  (did you know that the average US family makes less now, after inflation, than they did 5 years ago?  Even scarier,  some measures have that total being lower than 30 years ago)  But moreso its the cumulative effects of 6 years, going on 8, of higher education.  I may be renting an apartment, but I’ve already got a pretty good sized mortgage out on my head.

*****

I’m quite excited to have a new nephew, as of this week.  Especially because when it comes to teaching kids things their parents don’t want them to know, there are so many more options with boys.

“Look Mommy!  Worms!!!!

Spring Break!

Its Tuesday of spring break week, and I thought I’d post a little update.  Its 10:45 at night, and I’m (obviously) at my computer taking a little break from the work I started at 8:30 this morning.  Bleah.  Typing for 14 hours, minus a break to wash, but not dry my laundry, seems to be missing something from what MTV says spring break should look like.  I keep looking, but I don’t see any fruity drinks with umbrellas or bikini girls.

I got offered another contract to do some econ work today.  I’m still debating taking it.  I’d hoped for a needed break to focus just on school for two months, but given financial circumstances, its hard to turn down a big chunk of money.  I feel like Sisyphus, only my rock is student loans and my mountain is…still a mountain I guess.  Its not a perfect metaphor.

I think I’m going to go make myself a drink…if I’m going to be working past midnight again, I might as well do it spring break style.  I think there is some orange-peach-mango* juice in the fridge that would work well with vodka.

*Ever read the ingredients on all of the 100% juice blends at the grocery store?  No matter what the box says, they are all mostly apple and white grape juice.  I guess apple-grape-orange-peach mango, or apple-grape-strawberry-kiwi just doesn’t have the same ring to it.

Where is Spiderman when you need him?

I wasn’t going to get into this anytime soon, but what the heck.  Last December, M and I had our apartment robbed.  Majorly.  We lost two laptops full of years of work, M’s camera and jewelry (some very sentimental pieces), my luggage, watch and change jar, our checkbooks, and probably a few other things I am repressing the memories of.  All told, something like $7,000 of stuff was taken, for which we got  $3,500.  And none of this compensates for lost laptop info, identity theft issues and being very skittish in our own home.

The whole thing was made worse by the fact that our door was UNLOCKED by whoever broke in.  Upon investigation, we found out that our realty company, Montlack Realty (who sucks, by the way), doesn’t change locks in any of its several thousand apartments when they change hands.  And the previous tenants of our apartment still live in our building!  It costs $1.00 to copy the keys needed to get into our place.  Also, Montlack Realty told us it is their POLICY to NOT tell new tenants that the locks aren’t changed, so that they don’t have to change them out.  Montlack Realty’s response to this mess?  “Sorry, not our problem.”  We didn’t sue for negligence only because we didn’t think it would be worth the legal fees.  (I keep repeating Montlack Realty so that maybe someone doing a google search checking them out will catch this.  Montlack Realty Montlack Realty Montlack Realty Apartments Cleveland Ohio Rentals Shaker Heights Montlack Realty.)

This morning, while going to the basement to do laundry in our crappy machines, I cound that the dryers had been pried open and the controls smashed all over the floor, so someone could get at the quarters inside.  Once again, a theft in our supposedly secure building.  I’m thinking some of my free time in the next few months will be spent hassling the leasing company.  I should be looking for a new place, but for all its faults our place is big and cheap in a walkable and historic, if crime-heavy, location.

Still, unnerving to be presented with more evidence that its likely that one of the 16 apartments in our building is home to the likely robber of our apartment, and that in addition to losing my laptop and all of my graduate work that was on it, I now have to go to the gym wearing dirty shorts.

p.s.  Montlack Realty Ohio Montlack Realty Cleveland Montlack Realty Apartments Bedrooms Cleveland Ohio Rentals Shaker Heights Montlack Realty

Digging out

We had a blizzard the last few days, which, despite all its inconveniences, such as M going stir crazy, did afford the opportunity to spend 36 hours hunkered down ignoring a work deadline.  Although I probably would have ignored the deadline if it was nice out too.

Waking up this morning, the bedroom was like being on a beach, it was so bright.  Even with the shades down, clear skies and snow everywhere have turned every glance out the window into an accidental glance into the sun.  I’ll be needing sunglasses when it comes time to dig out the cars.  Sidenote: you know a storm was impressive when you still have to dig out the vehicles despite having indoor parking, because the garage itself resembles a snowbank.

(not our car, but I don’t reckon its going anywhere soon)

Today will be laundry, working, shoveling and a trip to the gym.  And the grocery store…we usually run pretty low on food supplies by the end of the week anyway, and with the Saturday farmers market closed, we have very little food left.  We’ve been drinking water and eating what’s left in our freezer for two days.

Tech-savvy am I

Cause I figured out how to do pictures. And despite my fatigue with the long hours, things are going well right now. In pictures:

Here is M eating chili. We make chili a few times a month on Sundays so that we have something to eat during our hectic weeks. Plus its crazy cheap. We usually get at least a half dozen meals from an $8 crockpot of beans and vegetables.

She also likes to eat all of our girl scout cookies when she thinks I’m not looking…

Bean the cat likes to sleep all day, so she can wake us up to play at 4am. This only occasionally results in thrown pillows.

M has lots of late-night work to do too. I help by taking pictures.

I’m realizing that posting random pictures and attempting to come up with funny lines about them is too much work. Future pictures will probably be related to actual things.

Lately…

I’m tired. Since August, I’ve been doing grad school full time and working nearly full time. I get up, I got to work at 8:30, I go to class, I sneak off to a computer lab on campus to do work, I got to class, I get home at 8:30 or 10:30. Weekends are for catching up on work and school, and occasionally doing those basic human things we all need to do, like laundry and sleeping. I’m tired. I’m tired of juggling mutually exclusive deadlines, not enjoying any downtime I take because I’m behind in everything, and putting off responsibilities of all kinds.

But enough bitching…Courtesy of a the new digital camera M and I bought after our apartment got robbed of $7 grand of stuff a few days before Christmas, here is life in our apartment.

Bah. Ok, pictures will have to wait until I can figure out how to make them smaller in wordpress. But they will come…