Category: Uncategorized

I have good and bad news. The bad is worse than the good short-term, but won’t last forever (or even much longer than a month, I think).

The bad news is that Matt has to work from 3:30 – midnight for the next month or so. Since I work the morning shift and usually get home around 2:45 or 3:00, this means that we’ll be able to see each other at midnight when he gets home and at 5:30 in the morning when I go to work. Not excited about this.

The good news, which is saving us $3000+ is that Lipscomb changed their Bible requirements this year, and I don’t have to take this class in order to graduate in December! They took care of canceling the loan and everything, so all I’ll have to do is pay the $195 graduation fee and then show up for graduation!

So. There you have it. I don’t know what I’m going to do with my free afternoons now. I could blog more or work on keeping the house clean. Or just read a ton. Or rent all the Neflix movies I know Matt doesn’t care about seeing. Hmm.

good things that have happened today!
-I haven’t been very headache-y

-the health inspector came and we got a 97!!!!! that’s a NINETY SEVEN! no criticals! he only found 3 things wrong!

-I called around to see what the protocol is for getting married at the county clerk office and at the courthouse. basically, if you do it at the county clerk’s, it’s only an option on Fridays from 8:30 to 11, and they charge a $40 fee on top of the (approximately) $100 to get the marriage license. if you do it at the courthouse, you have to make an appointment but the judge only asks that everyone make a donation to charity — no extra fee. it does, however, require driving downtown.

-I just ate a leftover piece of pizza which was amazing and makes me want pizza for dinner.

bad things that have happened today.
-I have to work out. even though I like being alive and healthy, I don’t like working out one little bit. or eating right, for that matter. hmph.

-the kitchen is a mess. this is not actually a bad thing that has happened to me, so maybe I should phrase it more like… I have to clean up the kitchen. (unless we have pizza for dinner! so maybe I should put this under the first category).

-I have a lot of reading to do for my class. this means that I’ll work out, then take a shower, then either clean the kitchen or try to talk Matt into having pizza, then read.

and, that’s all.

I’m not used to this homework thing yet. I have a whole week to read the material, but I still have to be disciplined (curses!). I’ve been working 6 days/week lately because of management complications, and today’s my only day off this week. I woke up when Matt got up this morning, stayed awake long enough to make some breakfast, load the dishwasher, and watch the Daily Show. Then I went back to sleep for a while. Had to go in to work once I woke up to send in some paperwork that had to be sent in early this week, for some reason. Afterwards, I drove to Cafe Coco and then to Bongo Java after circling Louise Avenue a couple times and being unwilling to pay for parking. At Bongo, I happened to run into Amanda and sat with her for an hour or so. Which meant that I didn’t get all that much reading done. Almost finished the first essay.

And now I’m home, after drinking too much iced coffee and being unable to concentrate on reading. I want to take another nap. It’s so quiet and cool and comfortable…. This is why I’ve always been unsuccessful when it comes to doing homework at home. I always end up succumbing to my sleepiness and taking naps. For heavens sake. I guess I could make some tea and go outside. It IS kinda nice outside.

Not much new has happened. We went to Target last night to do the wedding registry thing. It was kind of fun, but it took a long time and we were hungry and tired. Had to get it done before anyone actually received their invitations though, which I mailed on Tuesday.

BTW, party in Nashville on October 9th. We will be married by then, though still don’t know when we’re actually going over there. We don’t actually know where the party will be yet, either; our house is really small though if the weather’s nice we could spend most of the time outside. The weather is a variable that shouldn’t be gambled on though, probably. Katie said we could do it at their house, Dawn said we could do it at her house, and Matt suggested doing it at Chris’s lake house. None of those are in Nashville, though. Katie’s in Joelton, Dawn’s in Murfreesboro, and the lake house is in McEwen (near Dickson). Probably the closest to our house is Joelton, but I’d still l like to come up with something closer if possible. So… stay tuned.

Okay… I should clean up the bedroom. If it’s clean, I won’t be nearly as inclined to curl up in bed and go to sleep. Matt’s going to make me work out when he gets home, anyway ( ). And the room needs cleaning. Oh, the laziness………

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.