Winter Break Thus Far

The holidays are over, and we have entered the stage of winter break where I pretty much sit around all day doing nothing. That's if I even bother to get out of bed, which so far I've done every day. I've loved all the snow we've been getting! Sure it's a hassle to drive in but it's lots of fun to play in. What can I say, I'm a kid at heart.

The only real annoying part about the snow is it effectively eliminates my job at the golf course. Thus, I've started seeking other employment. I previewed/interviewed for a job at a clothing store in a mall nearby. I really like their clothes, and it seems like it'd be a fun job, but the manager in charge of the interviews is starting to annoy me. He's really not so great in the follow-up department. He was supposed to call me to set up the initial preview, but instead I had to call him ~2.5 weeks after turning in the original application. He *said* he was actually going to call me that day, but I wasn't convinced. The job preview was this past Saturday, and the manager told me he'd call me on Monday around one to let me know either way if he liked me. So Monday afternoon comes, no call at one, or in the hour following. I begin to think, maybe I misheard him and he just said Monday, but no call for the rest of the afternoon, or the following day, which was yesterday. So today was another lazy day. I called the store around 4pm, spoke to the manager, and told him, maybe I'd misunderstood, but I thought he'd said he was going to call Monday, and maybe my phone missed a call or message from him (my phone randomly does that at times). He said he hadn't called anyone Monday or Tuesday, but would call me back in about an hour when he had time to talk. ::Sigh:: Fair enough. So I wait. 5 o'clock comes, no call. 530, no call. 6pm I sit down to dinner with my family. Phone goes off a couple times during dinner, but nope, just a text message. Currently it's 930 and he hasn't called. ::Grumble:: If he doesn't call tomorrow, I'll probably call him back on Friday. I'm beginning to think I'm going to start applying elsewhere, as this is getting a touch ridiculous.

Tomorrow I venture to the eye doctor for the third time in as many weeks. The first time was my routine yearly checkup. We switched eye doctors this year, and I'm liking the new one so far. I told them my current contact prescription was not sufficient, as I was still having depth perception issues and distance clarity issues. After examining my eyes, they doctor said I needed a different type of contact, one that corrects for astigmatism. She also told me my right eye, in which I had previously not worn a contact, needed a slight prescription. So she gives me the new contacts, and for the first few days, they're great. I can see much better, my depth perception has increased, and there's much much less distance blurryness. I received the contacts on my second visit, Saturday Jan 2 (insurance wouldn't cover them unless we bought them in the new year) and for the first few days they were great. My right eye was taking a few days to get used to having the contact, but otherwise all was well. Toward the end of the week, the contacts started to irritate my eyes. Saturday, Sunday, Monday I was using the eye drops frequently to control the irritation. Tuesday I could't even get the contacts in without them hurting my eyes. I tried for about half an hour. I washed my hands several times, switched contact cases, changed the solution a few times, nothing. So I grabbed an unopened contact from my old prescription and put it in, then departed on my day. The vision quality was noticeably less, but the irritation was gone. Today I got the left one in, with only mild irritation, but it increased throughout the day, so I took it out and again put in one from the old prescription. I have another eye doctor appt tomorrow so hopefully they'll be able to figure out what's going on.

My list of things to do this winter break:

• Reading: I've done a good bit but dropped off recently. Stupid internet...
• Clubbing: hasn't happened yet. People are broke/lazy. Maybe next weekend.
• Skiing: Hasn't happened yet. It's expensive, and nobody really has the money.
• Ice Skating: Once so far. Love it. Need to do more. It's the same price/time as a movie, only you get to talk to your friends.
  
• See movies. Sherlock Holmes check x2. Nine check. Still to see is It's Complicated and The Imaginarium of Doctor Parnassus.
• Find a job: in process. See above rant.
• Gain weight: I'm trying to gain 5-7 lbs. Nothing serious, just enough to keep me healthy. I've been making protein shakes 2x a day, a banana flavor powder mixed with orange juice. It's actually pretty good.
  

My social life has been somewhat increased over winter break, but I don't get out much, as Luke generally has the car. His working in college park takes priority over my scampering over MoCo. Plus I'll have the car all next semester, so it's not a big deal to let him have it for a month. After all, if he's driving it, he's paying for gas.

I'm super excited to be going back to main campus next semester. Sure it's only tuesday/thursday, but it's better than nothing, and I get to see people! I'll likely still be there on weekends as well. Yay for reconnecting and actually having some meaningful classes. Shady Grove was ok, and I made a couple friends, but it's not the same when I've been in Catonsville for 2 years.

Now I'm going to do some misc facebook, make my drink, and maybe eat cookies or ice cream.

Peace y'all.

P.S. Common Sense Life Lesson for the day: When planning a museum trip, make sure you look up the admission fee before you get there. Then you're not standing around going "huh, we don't have the $ for this, now where to?" Thankfully there are other free museums in DC.

New Year's Resolution

Happy 2010! It's going to take me a bit to get used to writing 2010 on my papers instead of 2009, but I figure the same goes for most people.

So. It's that time of year when everyone makes "Resolutions" and sets goals to accomplish in the new year. Local gyms and vitamin shoppes must do well this time of year. Everyone has something they want to do or get done or stop doing in the next 365 day period.

When I was younger, my family had a New Year tradition. My brother and sister and I would all write down a number of resolutions/goals on a piece of paper, read it aloud to the family, copy it with the fax machine (the closest thing we had to a copier, yay fax paper), then burn one copy. I never really understood why we burned them, but we did it anyway. I don't remember much of what our resolutions are, or if we ever really kept to them, but it was nice to have a family tradition (even if I did scramble to come up with 10 goals at some point during the evening).

Nowadays, it seems like everyone's goals for the new year are somewhat cliche...there's the health related ones: lose weight, eat better, work out more, reduce or stop altogether the intake of alcohol/tobacco/other substances. There's the religious ones: go to church/religious services more, be more involved with a particular church/religious community, read x number of religious texts or books dealing with religious matters, read through the Bible/other sacred texts in a year. Academic ones are popular among students of all ages: Get better grades, get straight As, achieve a certain grade point average. Athletic and artistic goals are likely also common. To me, it seemed like everyone was doing the same thing, and half of them forgot all about it come February 1, if not sooner. So I said, why bother making a resolution? Why make one just to make one? Sure I want to eat better, take care of my body better, get better grades, read my Bible more, find a church in which to get involved, but I feel like a resolution should be something different.

Sunday morning I was sitting in church, and some of these thoughts were running through my head between songs during the worship hour. Then I had a thought. I caught sight of a shirt being worn by one of the guitarists on stage. His shirt had a logo on it from a youth ministry theme a few years back. The logo is simply one word: Liveworthy. Two words, a verb and an adverb, combined to make one command. As worship concluded and the guest speaker was introduced, I knew what my New Year's resolution was going to be. I sat down and wrote "Liveworthy" on the back of my hand. It was a reminder to myself [and a potential tattoo idea, we'll see, I tend to change my mind about what I want for a tattoo every few months], moreso than a resolution. A reminder that every day I wake up, go to work, go to class, go out with friends, my life should reflect who I claim to be. People should know there is something different about me. Not just becuase I go to church or go to a Christian fellowship group, but every action should reflect Christ in my life. It should be as natural and almost as obvious as acting like a female. I'm female, this is evident when people look at me, it comes out in how I act, talk, dress, carry myself, etc. So should be my faith. I claim that my faith is the all encompassing ring within which everything else in my life takes place, but it's all too easy for me to take it for granted and act just like any other person. Not even acting in ways contrary to my faith or morals, but just not actively acting in a way that does reflect who I am.

When I look back a year from now on how my life has gone, I want to be able to thank God that I was acting and living the vast majority of my life (ideally all, but I'm not perfect) in a way that causes others to pause and wonder, what is it about her that's different? Food for thought.

Peace y'all.

P.S. Common Sense Life Lesson for the week: Lock your car from the outside with your keys, not from the inside. This taken from a friend of mine who has locked her keys in her car 2x this past semester.