Finally!

Aaarg, I'm sorry I haven't updated! I want to, really I do.
Turns out, the cleaning of the new apt took way longer than one weekend. It actually took a week and a half. :O That was way longer than what we expected. Add it to school-work, jobs, and extra-curricular activities like me being on the school paper's staff, and you have a very busy me. Not that I mind it. I'm happier than I have been in a while, and would take this over "too much free time" any day.
In any case, I had to put a lot on hold to get those priorities done. This included play time on WoW with my guild's raiding, blog updates, and other similar things. But things have begun to slowly settle. The apt is now looking and smelling livable, I have a desk again, and I can finally focus some time on my free-time activities.
The paper has been doing really well and I've picked up a few very good articles. The most recent one I'm working on will be very exciting for me because my city's local paper attacked my college, claiming that we're headed for a financial crisis. So I'm taking their info, and tons of more info on top of it, to write up a more accurate article about what's really going on. It's going to be awesome. :) I've had lots of interviews on it, including ones with the president of the college and the president of the teacher's union (because the paper also attacked teacher's salaries as well). I'll need to figure out how to post up text docs so those interested can read my stuff.

As promised I have some doodles. Since I have located the box with the scanner, I have been able to start uploading them again. :) Below is a picture of the toilet I mentioned, in the apt, that would have bitten my ass off if I used it before cleaning it. Now that sucker has been bleached and scrubbed squeaky clean! So he's a very happy toilet. :D

Besides all that, I have been having more trouble with my psych teacher every day. She is consistently 10min late for every single class. Now some days she's only 5min late, and other days like today she is 15min late. But no matter what she is always late. To top it off we usually get out early....30min early on some days. So a class that's supposed to be 1.5hrs is actually only 40min on most days. I'm complaining about that, cause I'm not going to pay almost $500 for a class I feel cheated out on. Besides the lateness she speeds through the material. I don't mean simply fast....no I mean super fucking fast....as in I can't write down all the information she throws at us. She also skips lots of slides, so we completely miss that info too.  I even asked her after class one day if she would email me the slides so I could copy the information down. Her response was "Oh I don't give out my slides." Ok, well I'm not sure what's so important about them but I was informed that I could go online and get other slides, with pretty much the same material but it's all presented in a different way. Well...that doesn't help me. I want her slides, the ones she actually shows me in class, so I know for sure I'm reviewing the material she wants me to review.
When I finally got my doctor's documentation to request for extra time on exams (yes!!) the student accommodations office asked if I would like a "notetaker" to come to class with me. This actual person would take notes for me, if I could not. This is usually reserved for someone who physically can't write, but in any case....I declined because I told them the notetaker would have the same problem I'm having, not enough time to get the info.
Here's the funny thing. You'd think speeding through the chapter reviews (which should be detailed reviews on the chapters the students read prior to the class) would make you ahead in material. Nope. She's actually behind in the material. Gee...I wonder if showing up late and letting us out early has anything to do with that...
I mean, if all she wants is for us to do is read the damn book, then what's the point of her lectures? If she speeds through material, refuses to go back to previous slides, doesn't offer the slides for later use, is late to class every day, and seems just plain disinterested in the class learning from her over the book...then why not just tell us to read the book during class instead? In fact, I wouldn't even go to class if she didn't count it as an attendance point! I would just go to the library and read the book during that time, because I get way more out of that than I do from her "lectures".
Don't worry, I plan on complaining either this week or first thing next week...depending on when I can sit down and type out all the shit she does that I think is cheating me out of my education. Until then I've resorted to other methods to help, like recording and stuff. Before that happened, though, I had pretty much given up taking notes in class. So I just showed up to class and then just doodled. Luckily the result is that you get a few fun drawings :)

 

 

 

As another plus, I've finally finished the new header image! :D  I think it's pretty spiffy.

Lots of news! Doodles will come later

So of course, since I didn't post for a week, I have lots of information to give. I will try to keep it reasonable....for your sanity and the fact that I still have lots to get done.

Last week began the insane rush to pack and get ready to move. I went though so much shit to give away, and I really should go through my stuff one more time but I don't want to and have decided I will as I'm unpacking it. Last weekend we had a garage sale to try and make some money off of our crap, and made about $50...which is pretty good since most everything was priced at about $1 or less.

This week we spent all our free time packing. It was stressful, and we still had to attend classes, do homework, and go to work at our jobs. Yesterday was the big move. Hubby's dad came with a truck and another good friend came over to help. We had everything packed and unpacked by noon.

I'm going to back up a bit and explain our situation before moving on. Hubby and I were originally living with Hubby's best friend, in his house. He was kind enough to let us stay with him because we'd just moved back to the States from New Zealand, and thus had no jobs. We all lived together for about 2yrs, until recently (a few months back) when he asked if we would look elsewhere for a place to live because he wanted to take the relationship with his girlfriend to the "next level" and have her move in with him.

So fast-forward to about a month ago. We realized that even though we managed to find jobs recently they are only part-time and thus do not provide even close to enough income for us to find a place on our own. Luckily, Hubby's parents are very smart and kind. They proposed a wonderful idea for us to move in with Hubby's brother (who I shall call BIL, Brother-in-Law, for the sake of being lazy again). Unfortunately, BIL's apt does not allow cats, so I have to temporarily part with my "babies" and have them live with my in-laws, while we live on the other side of the city with BIL.

To be honest, it is a much better situation than when we lived in New Zealand, because our cats couldn't come with us at all then, and thus I was separated by half a planet then. Now I suppose if I start to terribly miss them I can come hang out and spend some time with them. But it's still going to be very hard on me, personally, because I won't have them around me and sleeping with me every night...and they really are very helpful for my stress levels, in that having their company tends to keep me calmer. :(

So now we are in the present again. Kitties are getting used to their new environment. It will take about 2 months of slowly introducing them to Hoshi, our 3rd cat. It's a long story so I will summarize. We do actually have 3 cats. When we went to NZ no one was willing to watch all 3 together for us. But my mother was willing to watch the 2 that were kind of mine and Hubby's parents were willing to watch the one that was kind of Hubby's. This worked great because Hubby's cat, Hoshi, seemed to do much better on her own. Well now, I think because she's been spoiled rotten by herself, she's become a giant bitch to everyone except my in-laws. It's been 3yrs since Sachi and Sonic have seen Hoshi, and now we much re-introduce them since they all have to live under the same roof again. Hopefully Sonic and Sashi, who are very outgoing, will help Hoshi come back out of her shell. :)

Re-introducing cats is no easy task...ever. Especially when one is reclusive and territorial, another is very dominant, and the 3rd is stand-offish. So that's been added to my stress levels, on top of just being separated from them. School is added to that pile because I desperately want to get A's so I can get into a really good doctrine program....and be super awesome #1 student :)  But because of my ADHD and learning disability tied to it, it's hard. Luckily, I was given a fresh breath yesterday when my old neurologist faxed me the paperwork I would need to request extra time on tests. Hopefully that will save me.

Work also does not have enough hours for me yet, so that's more stress. However, all that I mentioned does not compare to the amount of stress I received yesterday. It wasn't the move. Like I said, we were done by lunch time. It was after I saw BIL's apartment.


..........


Words...pictures...thoughts....anything......does not even come close to comparing to this level of messiness. It's not messy....there is a big difference between messy and unclean. I know there probably is a good reason for it...but it still doesn't mean I don't have little freak-outs when presented with it.

I was already stressed from the previously mentioned things, it took everything I had to not mentally break down every time I had to walk into this apartment to unload a box, or whatever. After it was all done though I did finally crack, in the car with Hubby on our way to the in-law's house. It was simply way more stress than I think any body should ever handle. Hubby was very kind and told me that it's ok and that these are the kinds of things I have him for. We are a team and we will work through this together. He reminded me that this is probably the worse it can get and that it can only get cleaner and better from here. :) He also promised to bleach walls if he had to, and that stopped my crying, lol! It truly is that bad. I will say one thing below, if you do not want to know about the level I am talking about here then do not highlight anything. J & K, this is where I told you to listen to me and not read it because you really do not want to know, and I know BIL doesn't want you to know as well. For everyone else just highlight the text in my post from here to the next paragraph, and the words that are currently in white will come up for you.

One sentence will say it all: Handfuls of dead fruit flies....inside the freezer. This is as far as I have seen, but that is the level of uncleanliness we are dealing with here. Do not ask me how they got in there, because I don't know and don't want to know...I just want them, and everything else that could devour my soul in that apt, out and far, far away...

Today, after class and work, Hubby and I will go over and begin the process of cleaning. It will likely take at least all weekend to clean it. Meanwhile, we are sleeping in my in-law's attic with the kitties. So I'm not as stressed about just suddenly being separated from the cats because I am able to see and sleep with them every night, while I handle this monster. I think I've gotten over the initial shock and am now numb to most of it. While that's probably not the healthy reaction to have, it's what will get me through this, so I will gladly accept it. We plan on tackling the bathroom first, because I mentioned how we might want to have somewhere to use the restroom while we're cleaning....and even though Hubby can stand I can't. I know was some of you are thinking. "Just squat" right? Oh no. Squatting will not save me here, as I'm positive that toilet will bite my ass off.

Despite the shear amount of cleaning I have ahead of me, I did get some cool news today. As of 2min ago I am now an official member of my college's newspaper staff, as the Managing Editor!  :) While Hubby's position (Chief Desginer) is paid, mine is unfortunately unpaid...but it's a really nice thing to have on my resume, so I'll take it.

Of course though, the boss said "Congratulations and welcome to the newspaper staff....I'll need your first story by Monday!" Lol. I knew it was coming, but still...it will make things interesting.

Like I said, I still have lots to do so this is all I'll be able to post for today and this weekend. Hopefully I'll be able to go back to my normal schedule on Monday. I'm sorry there are no doodles this time. I want to have them, but I'm busy as shit. So I will update with them later :)

Too busy

So I know I'm really over due for a post but I've been in the middle of trying to pack everything to move out this week, so things are a bit busy and stressful. I'll do what I can to post after the tornado of events has died down at the end of this week.

I'm convinced school is hazardous to my health

So my sickness is progressively getting worse. I'm doing everything I can to lessen it's severity, but it seems like I just have to ride it out. I feel so blah, lol.

I've decided to blame school for my illness, instead of Hubby. It doesn't make sense at first, but I have a very convincing argument. See, back in my undergrad college years I got sick and had a lot of accidents. Don't ask me why cause I don't know. I went to the ER and Urgent Care Center probably more times in those 4yrs than a French man went to the whore house...(no offense to any French people, it's just a figure of speech)

To give you an idea, my sophomore year, I rang in the new year (on MLK Day actually) by sledding at top speed and flying off of the sled. I was actually trying to prevent myself from ramming into the tree that was in front of me but instead of turning, when I put my foot out, the ground yanked me off and I went rolling down the hill like a rag doll. I had my first ever ambulance ride that afternoon and many X-Rays for concussions and possible head/brain damage.

Throughout that year I got sick and had to go to the Urgent Care Center, for various illnesses that just wouldn't go away on their own or with any of my attempts. Now, when a normal person get's sick it's usually no big deal if it's a cold or flu. Oh no, not me. Anything that was normal for someone else just seemed to be amplified in me. I got an upper respiratory infection that spring and had required bed-rest for about 2-3 days before actually being allowed to move around. About halfway through the year I got a bacterial stomach infection. I hope none of you ever experience one of those. I think I would have preferred something like ramming into a tree on a sled at top speed. It was incredibly painful and I spent a night in the hospital on an IV, with lots of pain killers that were awesome.

I got the flu about 2 more times after that, that ended up progressing farther rather than getting better, and strep.  Then finally I rang out the new year by slicing off part of my thumb with an exacto knife. No, I wasn't doing anything stupid. I was simply finishing my wood veneer project when my blade hit a nick in the ruler and jumped over and across it. No amount of words can describe what went through my head for the first 3 seconds, except the one word that exited my mouth. I'm amazed my brain kicked in then to make me rush to the shop techs. Several students slowly stopped what they were doing and just stared in shock as my blood pooled up in my hand and on the floor. Eventually we put my hand in a plastic bag and went to the ER. Let me tell you that you've never seen a hospital admit you so fast than when you walk in with a bloodied plastic bag over your hand....well, aside from going in and telling them you're having chest pains....which happened the next year actually, lol.

That type of year was nothing special for me, and my friends got used to getting a call to come pick me up from the hospital. My poor mother also learned to be terrified every time she answered a call from my phone and it was Hubby on the other line (who was Friend, soon to be Boyfriend, at that time). I think she still gets a little twitch in the back of her mind if Hubby ever answers my phone when she calls. :P

As you can see, college was interesting. But when I graduated I lost my health insurance, cause I was no longer a dependent. I originally freaked out because it was the insurance that probably kept my family from going into insane debt. But surprisingly I didn't get sick that following year.....or the year after that, or the one after that. I was sickness and accident free for 3 whole years. This year marked year three, and I've started going back to school again....only to find that the FIRST WEEK that I start classes I get sick. Go figure.

So, while my mother tells me it's really stress, I'm thoroughly convinced that it's really school and that I should just stay the hell away from it.