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!