Author: erinreeve

I’m currently working on a red crocheted cardigan. We’ll see how it turns out.

As far as school goes, I’m pretty much 100% going to graduate this semester, unless something unforeseen happens which keeps me from completing the class. But I just have to throw that in, just in case. You never know. I think I’m even registered for graduation… need to double-check that, but I mailed my intent to graduate form the other day, so I should be all set.

AND the class is going to be INTERESTING!!!

In other news, we’re buckling down to get this marriage reception stuff planned. We have a date and are about to get invitations printed. I bought a box of 50 invitations at Michael’s but am going to have to go back today to get some more because the names keep piling up! (Which is to say, I forgot about all Matt’s family in East Tennessee.) Katie came over yesterday and took some pictures, and I’m waiting on her to email them to me so that I can get the invitations printed and pictures copied at the same time.

AND today we’re going to go register at Williams-Sonoma and probably tomorrow at Target. Not to be too materialistic, but the wedding showers and registering for gifts was what I always looked forward to the most about getting married. Eh heh. 🙂 Mom suggested that we register at Williams-Sonoma, too… though I don’t really expect to get too much from there. Ah well, won’t hurt!

Mark (my GM) is about to go on his honeymoon… for 11 days. Which means that I’m really hoping I won’t have to work any doubles, because working 6am to 10pm really sucks.

Oh well. Matt’s about to get home though, so I’ll wrap up.

I still hate Lipscomb, but less. I also still LOVE the English department, especially Dr. Hearn and Dr. Reed.

I applied for a private student loan through Sallie Mae and was approved, so pending Lipscomb’s approval of the loan, I am officially taking my LAST CLASS at Lipscomb!!! How exciting! I did attend the first class, which was last Monday, even though I didn’t expect to be able to continue attending at that point. Everything came together yesterday (Friday), though, and I registered my car, got my parking decal, got a new student ID (the picture looks pretty bad, but at least I’ll be able to get student discounts again…heh), and stopped by Swang to say hello to Hearn and Reed and Mrs Tomberlin.

So it’s looking like I WILL have a degree by December, which is awesome. Dr. Reed gave me a “B” in the English Novel, which is also awesome.

That said, I really need to be reading for the class instead of blogging, so this will be brief. We’re starting the class by reading Original Revolution by John Howard Yoder. Can’t remember if I mentioned it or not, but the class will be studying Yoder’s theology. He was a “liberal” Mennonite (“liberal” in quotations because the word tends to be taboo these days) theologian and wrote a lot about Christian pacifism. The book seems quite interesting so far, and I’m sure the class will be too.

BTW, it seems that Matt had malaria. He has two days left of the antibiotic he’s been taking (doxycyline, I think) and is pretty much all better now. Which is excellent.

But enough, I need to go read. Just wanted to update. I’ll write more later, I’m sure….

It’s looking less and less like I’ll actually be able to graduate this semester, which makes me less hopeful about EVER graduating.

Here’s the deal. I finally was able to register for the class, and some student loan options finally came through. Sounding hopeful, right? Well, I realized today that in order to use any of the Stafford loans, it’s a federal law that you have to take at least 6 hours of classes. This would mean that I would have to accept about $6000 in extra loans AND take an additional completely unnecessary class. This also would bring my total student loans up to around $20,000 which is significantly more than I owe now. NOT COOL.

Option two is to make monthly payments. The lowest payment plan would be about $550/month with a deposit of over $1000. Sorry, but even if I was able to put my EdFinancial payments aside while taking this class, I still can’t afford $550/month unless we eat nothing but Ramen noodles and don’t buy anything.  At all.  Maybe gas.

Option three is to take out a personal loan, which of course would have a high interest rate. I could probably do that with Bank of America since I have a pretty good credit history with them… but I don’t really like that idea since it would mean taking out one more loan that’s not connected to any of my other loans, working it all out myself within one week, and having no money for the whole semester plus however long it takes to pay off the rest of it.

So. I hate all of my options. I don’t know what to do.

In other news, Matt is sick. He’s had a fever off and on for two weeks, plus he’ll get dizzy spells every now and then, and he’s tired a lot. The being tired thing isn’t too much different, except that lately he doesn’t ever want to do anything (whereas before, he just usually didn’t want to do anything). The fever got up to 103.2 on Saturday night, but seems to be getting better. He doesn’t have health insurance, or he would have gone to the doctor before now. Obviously we’re not married so he can’t use mine, and he can’t use his parents’. I’ve had a couple of people ask me if it’s mono…but he says that he’s already had mono. I seem to remember in the back of my mind hearing that there are a couple different strains that you can get, but I might just be making that up.

So the first issue has me frustrated, and the second just sad. I could go on about the Lipscomb stuff, by the way. It just doesn’t make ANY sense to me that I would have to pay $3000 to take a BIBLE class to get out of Bible PROBATION even though I already HAVE all the required hours in Bible!!!! It’s fucking probation!!! Isn’t there another way that I can get it cleared?!?! Why is the ONLY thing anyone cares about MONEY?!?!?

Okay, that felt good. I hate Lipscomb.

Now I’m going to go put on Car Talk and clean up. That will make me feel better.

wow, it’s been a while. sorry. I’ve been trying to write on a regular basis, even if it’s only for the sake or writing. I haven’t had a whole lot to say lately, I guess….

so anyway, I’m writing now mostly because I just got home from work, showered, and am now waiting for Matt to wake up from his nap. we might go out later. depends on how he feels. he’s been sickly for the last week; he had a fever for several days but it seems to have gone away by now. he’s also been feeling dizzy and tired, though not enough to prevent his going to work every day. I’m hoping that he’ll get plenty of rest over the weekend and start feeling normal again soon….

I never did write anything about being on vacation. that’s probably because I didn’t really do anything and was very lazy all week. it was excellent! I think I went to Cafe Coco a couple of times… finished Catch 22… cleaned up like one day… and not a whole lot besides that. oh, I did watch a lot of Bones. we played Settlers of Catan with Mike and Mar, which was fun. also had brunch with Cathy and then came home and watched the Muppets Christmas Carol while I made strawberry cake. so, it was a very relaxing week and I could definitely get used to not going to work at 6am (or ever) morning after morning. not to complain. it IS my preferred shift.

not much else has happened. I can’t think of anything much to write. my basil plants are getting bigger, and I can actually use fresh basil now. they stopped growing for a while, so I repotted them and they’re doing fine now. I’ve gotten lazy when it comes to crocheting, but I need to pick it up again. it would be very nice to have a cardigan finished by the time it’s cool enough to wear them again.

here’s a Lipscomb update. my financial aid came through and I can now take out lots of money in loans which will take me years to pay back; wouldn’t it be gratifying to be able to pay back the student loans using money from a job I got thanks to my degree? anyway. I tried to register for the class but apparently it has a prerequisite that I haven’t met. or something. I looked at the catalog and it didn’t say anything about it, so I emailed the professor (Lee Camp) to see what the deal was. haven’t heard from him, but it is a weekend. stupid weekends.

I think my contacts are giving me a headache. maybe I’ll take a nap.

What on earth is the deal with people making fun of people with red hair and freckles?  And for that matter, canadians? I like both of them. Just saying. I don’t get it.

Me, after rubbing Matt’s shoulders and back for a few minutes: Does this feel good?

Matt: Eh, I don’t mind it.

What??

Two more days until my vacation starts. Matt has the weekends off of course, and is also taking next Thursday and Friday (week from tomorrow) off. I’ll have all the rest of that time free though! Did I already blog about this? Ah, well, no matter. I don’t know how many people actually read this other than Katie and Mom, but if you do and want to hang out, lemme know. Might be doing something with Brittany and Austin next Thursday, and maybe something with Katie on Wednesday.

I’m just getting excited about not going to work!

In other news, we went to McKays last night and got episodes 4, 5, and 6 of Star Wars for about 20 bucks! I haven’t seen those movies in sooo long! Also made some less interesting purchases.

every time I post a rant-blog I feel kind of bad. I think I have a guilt complex. but it just seems mean-spirited, even though I’m sure the person who brought all that on is never going to read the blog (so nobody worry, of course). (unless you should.) (but worrying is generally not helpful anyway.)

…

um, anyway. I don’t have a lot to say. life has been pretty normal lately. I’m about to take my vacation (or at least 5 days of it plus some of my regular days off) which was meant to be spent in Texas with Matt’s family, but will be spent mostly in Nashville instead since Matt wasn’t able to get all the time off. which means I probably won’t get a Christmas present from Matt’s aunt and uncle in Texas again this year since they still won’t know I exist. not that it matters, though two years ago they gave everyone these nice fleeces. oh well.

so I’ll be chilling around town. need to make a list of things that I want to do. I’ll definitely finish my book (Catch 22). not sure what else I want to accomplish. probably I’ll just try to keep the house clean.

we might take a weekend trip somewheres else. not sure yet where or when or if.

I ought to go wash the dishes from dinner last night. Matt’s working out now, and I did earlier. what for dinner tonight? hmmm.

why do people have to be close-minded? listen: it’s not THAT hard to exercise critical thinking or to be reasonable. you just have to come up with logical premises and follow them through to their respective logical conclusions. sometimes there is more than one conclusion for a set of premises. that’s okay! it just means that you need to make sure they’re both logical and then accept them as dual conclusions!

as a simple example to illustrate —
premise one: Knoxville is in Tennessee
premise two: Nashville is in Tennessee
premise three: Knoxville is in Knox County
premise four: Nashville is in Davidson County
conclusion:  Knox County and Davidson are in Tennessee. However, from these premises, you cannot conclude that they are ONLY in Tennessee.

Just saying. Logic can be confusing, but it doesn’t have to be. it just makes sense. and like I said, thinking ISN’T THAT HARD!!!

and furthermore —
premise one: sitting in front of the TV does not generally require any critical thinking
premise two: if you merely parrot what you hear other people say, it does not mean that you have a valid opinion
(sub-premises are basically that you have to legitimately think about what you’re hearing people say, weigh your options, and gather information from other sources in order to have a valid opinion)
conclusion: people who sit in front of the TV and do not apply critical thinking generally do not have valid opinions.

sorry, please point out any fallacious reasoning on my part, but it just sure seems to follow.

I apologize if this is too rant-y.  it’s just something I feel the need to do every now and then.

if I do say so myself.

I’m making baked potatoes and sandwiches for dinner. The potatoes are in the oven and taking forever to bake (thus the blogging). I’m making turkey-cheese-pesto mayo-bacon-roasted red pepper-tomato-onion-maybe lettuce paninis. On sourdough. Sounds good, eh? I know, and I’m hungry. I also have pickles for the sandwiches but can’t decide whether they would be good on all of that or not. We’ll see about that.

Stupid potatoes need to hurry up and get done.