First Month of Fall Semester Recap

Oh gosh.  A month has passed since I've written..  This has been a bit of a whirlwind beginning to the semester..  Sorry for the length; I've added some words in color to help pressed-for-time readers skim what they want.  :P

Week 1.

First week of school was pretty chill for me.  I didn't have anything to be at other than Thursday my seminar course, internship orientation, and training for the call center.  So I played some WOW and did a bunch of errands I knew I wouldn't be able to get to later.

Jed started his 4 online classes and 1 on-campus class.  This will be his last semester of "foundations" (gen ed) classes other than the "capstone" course.  He's hating them, but I'm hoping that once he starts really getting into his major classes he'll start liking school again.  He's also been working full time so his schedule is work all day, come home and do school work all night, get an hour or so of play time, bed, do it again.  Poor thing is exhausted and stressed.

I went to the first night of the call center and wanted to hang myself through the 2-hour orientation.  Luckily, right before my second night of training, our friend, Matt, showed up and offered me a job freelance writing for websites that need articles written about various things.  I happily accepted and discontinued my call center job.  Phew.  I really enjoy writing those articles, though it was difficult training myself to write for the internet since you have to include as many buzz words as possible so your article will come up on search engines, write at a simpler level than I've been writing for research papers, and it's permissible to write in second person.  It pays well if you can research and write fast (~$14/article).

I held onto a shred of hope that we would still be able to camp a weekend after school started.  But I gave it up..  I have camped every summer since I was 16, except the summer I was on my mission.  The second summer of my mission I came back in September and my dad and I still went backpacking and camped a night in the Olympics in mid-October and froze our butts off.  So I guess Jed and I could do that too, heh, but it's prolly not gonna happen.

A few of Jed's mission companions/buddies got together that weekend and had a bbq and went bowling Friday night and went to IF and bummed around Saturday.  That was really fun hanging out with them and good for Jed to have boy play time, lol.

goof-balls when I told them to "look cute"

Week 2.

We had to pay out of pocket for tuition this semester ("only" $3k) because they may or may not give us our Pell Grant after the changes in policy.  Anyway, that kinda set us back after the SUV purchase and all, so we're slowly working our way back up and out of debt.  :S

However, we did get a few essentials that we've been putting off getting for a long time too: a desk and chair for me (haven't had a desk in years..), a printer (old one hasn't been working for a year) and contacts for Jed (he was out).

first desk since I left Bellingham in 2007

I have been bummed about swing dancing for a while here.  In short, there's hardly a swing dance community/"scene" and the few dancers around frequently think they're the coolest thing since sliced bread after a month of dancing and become unteachable.  Not to brag (ok, maybe a little), but I've been dancing the lindy hop since 2003, have taken many classes from the best swing dancers alive, traveled to many cities for workshops, competed in and won several lower level competitions, choreographed for several teams, performed for years in several teams, taught for years at several campuses, been paid to teach workshops, and taught instructors how to teach better.  I'm one of the best (if not the best) dancers in town currently (some people left, darn them) and I'm having a hard time not just bossing everyone around and put them in their place (slightly hypocritical and illogical, you bet).

I know how much I suck in the grand scheme of things because I've seen and danced with professional, amazing dancers.  But these guys don't know that many of them suck even at fundamentals.  I go in waves of wanting to be involved and give input and start a strong scene and wanting to just give up and not dance again until we move somewhere that's not a farm-surrounded college blip of a town.  So I didn't dance almost at all last semester and I'm making myself try again this semester.  So far I have had some luck with my input and "innovative" ideas being accepted and attempted and I started teaching at swing night again and attempting to teach "instructor workshops."  But it's still super slow-going and it's a total bummer..  We'll see how this semester goes.

I was gonna go to the Utah Lindy Exchange (ULX) in SLC and was super stoked for it that weekend.  Jed was gonna go down, too, and have a party with his buddies from the mission and we were gonna stay with them.  Unfortunately, most of the few people going down bailed and we had no one to carpool with (read: split gas money), Jed needed to do beaucoup homework, we don't have any money, and we don't have a lot of rest time, so we bailed too.  It was a total bummer and we could have squeezed in with another car and not spent too much, but realized that we're just old farts now and responsibility loves to bite us in the derrière.

It was funny, tho, because that spawned a conversation about where the heck the responsible adult mentality popped in from, since I know that wasn't there only a little while ago..  We realized that we're happier being homebodies now than we ever had been previously because all that running around rampant state-hopping, goofing off, spending money, etc, was kind of a time-killer for being single.  Now that we've found each other, we're happy to just be together and all that bouncing around is far less important.  Though I am admittedly still attempting to grasp the concept of walking the line between having fun and living life on the one hand and being responsible and frugal on the other..  All of one and none of the other makes Jack a stupid or dull boy respectively.

Week 3.

The job I applied for during the summer at the local juvenile detention center finally hired me and I started training.  The first week included 3 days/24 hours of Use of Force training - aikido-style deflecting attacks and restraining attackers using their hands and wrists.  I know, it sounds like it wouldn't be effective, but you know it's good when a girl my size can get out of a choke hold from the back and get a 250 lb guy on the floor and writhing.  It was way fun, but since we all practiced on each other, my wrists, elbows, and shoulders were very unhappy - especially my left wrist that I had to bust out my brace for and my right shoulder that got a little too cranked.

yea, I work in a high-security corrections center, no big deal

General Conference was that weekend and I was inspired to get my tochas in gear.  Thing is that I often feel overwhelmed by all the things that I could do to improve myself and don't end up working on any.  I just have to keep in mind that self-improvement and exaltation is a day-by-day, step-by-step process and that I can't be perfect over night.  Just keep plodding.  For anyone who wants to watch, listen, or read Conference talks, check it out here.  :D

Week 4.

I got to do my first shift on the floor at 5-C (the juvenile detention center) and shadowed the girl in the control booth.  It's a high security jail and all of the door locks in the building are controlled from the booth.  It was so much fun.  Super fast-paced with tons of multi-tasking and I thrive in that type of environment.  I also got to do some more training.  The whole training process is supposed to take 6-8 weeks, yipes..

The whole week I was at meetings/trainings/class/work at 7am or 8am at the latest and had internship/dance/parties til 9pm at the earliest and 2am at the latest 5 out of 7 nights this week.  Yuck.  I finally got some more internship hours in this week since I didn't get that many work hours.  My internship is bugging me a little because it's so self-directed.  The first week we 4 interns had to read the policy manual (pictured below) and then were given sheets of paper with all the things we need to read/look into/organize.  I understand that the supervisor over us is inundated with work, but he's really unsupportive and uninvolved.  Oh well, I'm trying to do my best there..

yay, policy manual!

This week I have been working on my application to take my licensure exam next month or so.  I'm pretty stoked, but also bummed that PSR workers (psychosocial rehabilitation specialists - the entry-level job of the social work world) get paid crap in this area.  Boo.  I have been working on my portfolio I need to have for completing the program and I also applied for graduation, ordered my cap and gown, and the whole bit.  I'll be graduating December 17, which is also Jed and my first wedding anniversary.  :D

It snowed for the first time this season on October 6.  Oh boy, I cannot wait to have to deal with snowy/icy roads til April again.  *dripping with sarcasm*  The snow didn't stick too long, but I know it'll be back very soon.  *sigh*

first snow .. Oct 6

And this weekend, we had our famous fish taco and rave party.  The past two semesters at our apartment, and in the past at Jed's old apartment, it's been a huge hit and we've packed the place (40 or so?).  This semester we didn't end up doing it at the beginning of the semester as we usually do and changed the date several times, so it was much smaller than usual (10 people only!).  Oh well, we had some fun.  :)

we like to party