Yet another update...how nice.

So it's been x amount of time, and therefore a good time for another update. Yep.

I've moved back into Boulder, and am now living with a friend of mine from work. I'm paying about $100 less in rent, all utilities (including internet) are included, and it's much closer to work and school...plus far less stressful. Overall, I consider this a positive change.

I'm also just finishing up spring break. Katie (the sister one) came to visit for a few days, which was excellent (well, I thought it was anyway). So here's a picture to illustrate the fun.

This picture is also posted on my facebook, and may therefore look familiar.

Additionally, moving back into Boulder has greatly decreased the ridiculousness of my schedule. I'm also working slightly different shifts (although about the same number of hours) at work, which has helped make the whole process far more bearable. I also have far less to do now, as I have moved, sold my truck, and sold my cello and violin (which I never played and which I was feeling guilty about owning).

I've still been spending a lot of time playing guitar, and am still taking lessons. I actually had someone ask for the number of my guitar teacher, because he said he thought I was really good. I don't consider myself that good, as I'm still on first-position chords, and can't do any bar chords yet, and also don't know hardly any scales or anything, but that's okay.

Speaking of guitars, I have a new one (yay!) which I bought with the money I got from selling the Cello...seemed like a fairly guilt-free way of doing things, especially since the one I had been playing was just on loan from a friend. The one I just got is folk-style, and has pickups so I can plug in if need be. I'm quite happy with it. Here's a picture of me holding it.

Other than all that, life is normal. I continue to go to work and school, and look forward to spending time in Oregon. Feel free to e-mail or whatever if you want to chat. I also have skype, and can probably arrange talking time if you so desire. Later all :)

Update, rapid fire.

My my, where has the time gone? It's been a year since I last posted on this thing. A lot can change in a year. In fact, a lot has changed within a year. Most of you probably have no idea how much exactly. Allow me to enlighten you.

First of all, I got married over a year ago. No, I didn't tell most of you. Yes, I was probably already married when I saw you last. No, there doesn't need to be any congratulating, because Tim (who, if you hadn't figured it out, is the guy I married) had an early midlife crisis and left me exactly 8 months after we signed our marriage certificate. Therefore, I am currently going through a divorce as well. It's actually more complicated than that...but I won't get into that now. You can ask if you want more info.

While we're on the relationship note, some of you may remember Zack, who I dated in high school. Well, through weird circumstance and coincidence (maybe?) we ended up getting back together. So you may see us, not only speaking again, but interacting in a positive manner sometime in the near future.

Which brings me to my third point: I'm coming back to Oregon for the summer. I've been going to school here for a couple of years, and I'll be graduating in December, but I'm coming back for the 2 1/2 months-ish from June through mid-August to visit family and whatnot. I'll be staying at my family's house, so feel free to contact me for hanging out or chatting or whatever when that time rolls around.

Both work and school are hectic but good. I'm a manager at the Boulder Book Store (if any of you have been here, you may be familiar with it). I also get paid to play with elementary school kids for an hour each morning, which is awesome. I am going to school full time, and as much as I love it here, I'll be glad to get my degree and take a break. Which leads into my next point....

I'm planning on applying to the JET Program. This is a program that sends native speakers of English to Japan as assistant teachers in English classrooms. I'll be applying this fall, and if I get accepted, leaving the following summer. That's the current idea anyway, who knows what'll happen before then. Anyway, after that, I'll be going to grad school. I still haven't decided where I want to go yet. I think the school I'm at now (which also has an MA program) would best prepare me for work in the counseling field, but a different school might increase my employability. Thoughts?

On a less cataclysmic level, I no longer have dreadlocks. Since Tim had been helping me take care of them this whole time, and then waltzed out of the picture, I didn't have anyone to help me take care of them. I didn't shave my head. Instead, I cut off about half of the length, and combed the rest out. It took 48 hours, two bottles of conditioner, a fine toothed metal comb, and way more patience than I ever desire to spend on hair again. But I have normal hair down to my shoulders, which is undamaged.

In other news: my car broke down, so I'm looking for a new one now...more on that later I guess. Also, I realized the other day that I have moved 9 times in the past 4 years, and will probably be moving at least 3 more in the next 10 months, one of which should be happening around the end of this month. I've lived in 3 cities in 2 states during that time. Great fun. Needless to say, I don't have very much stuff any more. Additionally, I have started playing guitar, and am currently taking lessons. It's a major stress relief for me, and since stress seems to be served for breakfast, lunch, and dinner these days, I spend a very large portion of my time playing.

Which brings me to my final note: my schedule. My schedule is ridiculous. I must be some kind of masochist, because there is no other reason I would do this to myself. I am taking 15 credit hours at school. For every credit in class, I am expected to spend 2 hours outside of class on studying/homework, which is 30 hours. I am also volunteering with an organization called Intercambio, through which I am doing English tutoring to recent immigrants (I've been working with a fascinating woman from Iran lately, and it's been a great experience). This takes 4 hours per week. I work approximately 25 hours per week at the book store, and 5 hours per week at the elementary school. Add these all up, and you get 79 hours. I also live in a town that's 45 minutes into the mountains west of Boulder. So, in order to get into town in time to catch a bus to my first job, I leave the house at 5:45 every morning, and arrive in Boulder at about 6:30. Then I ride the bus back up in the evening, sometimes not getting home until 11:00 because I work at the book store until 10:30 twice per week, and do English tutoring until 8:30, after which the next bus doesn't leave until 10:25. This means another hour and a half per day just in transit to/from Boulder, not to mention the transit time within Boulder itself...so that's another 10.5 hours, bringing the total to 89.5 per week of busy time. This means that, per 24 hour period, I have about 11.2 hours to sleep, eat, shower, get groceries, travel from the bus station to work/school/wherever I need to be, and any other activity I need to take care of. Which means that, if I got 8 hours of sleep per night, I'd have exactly 3 hours per day to get everything I need to taken care of, including eating. Naturally, this isn't enough, so my sleep gets cut. I wake up between 4:30 and 5 on weekdays, and I usually go to bed around 11:30. I'm lucky if I get 5 hours of sleep per night, and am consequently tired all day, every day. I imagine it's probably not that good for me. Why do I do this? Because Boulder's cost of living is sky-high, and minimum wage is super low. I work 30 hours per week, 25 as a store manager and 5 for the government, and still only make about $900/month after taxes. My rent, utilities, and phone bill come to about $500. I can usually put $100 or $200 per month into my savings account. The rest is spent on food and random things like deodorant and the occasional guilty purchase of a chai. Such is life.

However, I'm hoping the next move (back down into Boulder) will free up some time, and allow me to spend more time at home as well, which will mean more meals cooked at home, which means less money spent. It shall also lower my rent by about $100 per month (meaning I'll be paying $300 for a small room on the outskirts of town...there is no rent control here). We shall see how that goes.

And that's been life. Any questions? Feel free to ask. I'll try to update this regularly. Cheers!

An update

So I'm finally updating.  Both Tim and I have been pretty sick for the last week or so, and I haven't really felt like updating...or doing much of anything. Christmas was good.  Tim and I went over to a friend's house and sat around all day, which was quiet but nice.  New Year was spent playing Oblivion (computer game) which was also nice, but passed too quickly, because now it's time for work again.

Speaking of work, more shifts opened up at the Bookstore about the same time as the Candy store job turned sour, so I am now working about 30 hours per week at the Bookstore exclusively, and is so much better.  I get every Wednesday and every Saturday off (except for this Saturday because I picked up an extra shift).  Having a set schedule is very nice.  School starts again on the 12th, but my first day is the 13th because my first class is on a Tuesday.  I have most of my books, and those that I don't have are waiting at work (I ordered them) for fafsa money to come in.  I get a 30% discount at the store, so that's pretty nice.

My ankle is much better now, I still wear a wrap on it when I'm going to work since I have to stand for so long, but otherwise it's back to normal.  Tim's arm is also better; it seems like he probably just pulled some things.  The snow has also melted for the most part, and it's about 55 degrees out, which is actually a nice change.  Snow is nice, but it makes riding a bike everywhere difficult and particularly cold.

And with that, I shall go.  Ttyl all,

-Mari

Tired now...

So it turns out that I spoke much too soon, because the financial aid situation was actually an error in the system which appeared to be in my favor but ended up meaning I owe them more money than I thought I would. As a result, I will now be taking only 2 classes instead of the three that I was hoping to take...so on the upside, I'll get fafsa money back for half the amount of the third class it would have paid for, but on the downside I don't get to take the class. Oh well. I will be taking the Contemplative Psychology 1 class, and Dynamics of Intimate Relationships (always a good thing to learn about while in relationships, and it fulfills a requirement, so I figured, why not?) starting sometime in mid January. Also, all of my finals are now over, and my last day of school was today, so other than 50-60 hour work weeks, I now have a whole month of "rest" to look forward to. Woot.

In other news, someone brought a goat to school today, which kept peeing on the carpet and disturbing class, but was quite cute anyway. It was part of a "culture presentation" of one of the people in the class, so it was admissable...I guess. That's about as interesting as it's gotten today. I went to school from 9am to noon, then work from 12:30 to 2, then the other work from 2:45 to 11:30 (yes, I am still at work, there's a computer in the break room). So yeah...long day. And my body is deciding that it's okay to get sick now that finals are over. So that's going well.

Not much else. I'm going to go eat something now. Ciao all,

-Le Mari

Woo snows :)

So it snowed a lot between today and yesterday, and is supposed to keep snowing tomorrow.  There's about eight inches right now and it's still going.  There are also gigantic icicles all over everything, and the town is absolutely beautiful.  Here are some pictures of the current situation:

We also put the cat in the snow to see how he'd react.  He ended up not wanting to move so he wouldn't get his tummy snowy, but not wanting to stay because it was cold.  in the end he compromized by taking very slow steps, and ended up getting more snow on him because he kept ducking when snowflakes hit him.  It was fairly amusing.

Also, Tim hurt his arm by managing to lay his bike over and slide 3/4 of the way through an intersection (when he had right of way) to avoid being hit by a cop who ran a red light.  The cop didn't come back, and didn't have his flashy lights or siren on or anything.  We're not sure what's going on with that, but he thinks he pulled a few muscles or sprained it or something.

Finals are next week.  So now I'm going to go study for them.  Bye all,

-Mari

Thanksgiving and the like...

So, thanksgiving was good. I got to laze around all day and watch the X-files (well, the lone gunman actually, because we're at that point in the show) and eat a delicious vegan nut loaf (courtesy of Jaime's recipe, and if you read this Jaime, thank you very much ^_^). Tim also made cornbread and I made a peanut butter, chocolate, coconut pie...and yes, it was all vegan, and yes it was yummy. So yeah.

But now, of course, it's back to work. My work day started at 10 this morning and ends at about 11:30 tonight due to both jobs. I guess it's not surprising though, since it's the day after thanksgiving and both of my jobs are a) on the mall, and b) retail.

In other news, an unexpected turn of events in regards to financial aid has led me to have be getting money back from the fafsa rather than having to pay extra this term. While this isn't enough to take another class, it is enough to pay for things that we've been needing, such as a vacuum cleaner (cat hair everywhere....ugh).

Not much else is going on. I am anticipating the healing of my ankle, because they just set up a seasonal, outdoor ice-skating rink in the Pearl St. Mall (why is there a pearl street in just about every city in existence?) and I've never been ice-skating.

And with that, I shall go, because I'm just on break at work and I want to eat something. Bye all :)

-Mari

Misc. happenings

Hi all,

Well, a couple of interesting things have happened.  First of all, I registered for next semester's classes, and am going to be taking Contemplative Psychology 1, Developmental Psychology, and Psychology of Intimate Relationships...yaaay...lots of reading is in my future -_-'

Second, it snowed about a week ago for the first time during my time here in Boulder (just a little bit, but hey, I'll take what I can get heh), then promptly melted and has been about 70 degrees outside ever since...people here are a little worried because usually it's snowing like crazy now and not only isn't it snowing, but the snow up in the mountains is melting already.  Woo...global warming...anyway, here's a picture of the snow outside my livingroom window:

Third of all, I went to a microbrewery called the Red Fish where there's live reggae every Wednesday, and managed to sprain my ankle while dancing.  So now it's all elevated and wrapped and purple-ish and the like.  I've had to miss a day of work, but I really shouldn't be on it at all.  Not that that matters as far as life is concerned.  So now I am gimpy and going to go make myself some lunch.  Ttyl all,

-Mari