Wordless Wednesday

Is it Spring? Or is it Summer? DECIDE ALREADY MOTHER NATURE!

April 27, 2011

It started as another typical Wednesday morning. My alarm jars me a awake, and I push through the sleep induced brain fog, to solve the math problems that will give me 10 more minutes of blessed sleep. 15 minutes later, I force myself to slide out of bed, as I realize I now ONLY have ten minutes to get dressed, let the dogs out, feed them, crate them, do my hair, gather my supplies, and get to work at a reasonable time.  


I noticed it was really warm for 7:40am...


As usual, I dawdled a *little* and made it work 5ish minutes late. On the way over, our local radio host did bring up the possibility of sever thunderstorms later on throughout the day, which, of course, filled me with *joy*. 


Rainy days + Three dogs + Finals = Miserable me. 


I was shocked, when the Chief of our department, sent out a campus wide alert, about Tornados being spotted about sixty miles away. My first thought was: "Really? Its SIXTY miles away, why are we worried?" But I did get out and go into another room, to see what the Weather Channel was proclaim. Satisfied that we were just under Thunderstorm warnings, I went back to work. 


In fact when I left two hours later, the sun was shining, the birds were singing..(and it was hot as all get out) which quickly lulled me into a false sense of security. 


Oh those weather men. What do they know with all their radars and fancy equipment.... 


I thoroughly enjoyed a day of procrastinating, on the porch with a book, soaking in all the sunshine I could get, before laying down for a "quick nap". I don't normally take naps,but up with finals, you need all the rest you can get. It was during my repast that the rain started. First heavy, the lightening up when it came time for me to, once again, pry myself from the depths of my mattress and make hurry to class. 


I skipped out early, since all they were doing was watching our final Powerpoint presentations, and because the weather reports were starting to turn dire. 


And because I didn't have my laptop with me.. 


As I was driving home, is when we started getting Tornado warnings for surrounding counties..the rain was coming down in sheets, lightning cracked across the sky, starting fires.. and I was starting to get a little nervous. They don't get Tornados around here..right? 


It was around 8:00pm when the storm hit full force, my family, and friends were all in church when we heard the "THUNK". I had just gotten an update from Twitter that a funnel cloud had been spotted, about 30 miles away...and the only thing I could think was, the winds were so strong, it was blowing debris around. A few second later there was another THUNK, then with a roar, the HAIL came down with a vengeance. Our speaker who has a very loud voice, was yelling as he prayed for our safety. 


Children were freaking out, and some even dove under benches. All I could think about was, one the cars getting PUMMELED and my poor puppies all alone at home. 


Five-extremely-long-minutes later, the hail slowed down, and we all poured outside to see the damage.

Golf Ball sized hail 

Golf Ball Sized Hail on the Ground

 Of course all the cars had poc marks, and broken glass..but a couple were completely missing windshields.
The wind and lightning were crazy, at this point, so my father sent everyone on home... However I was far from ready to turn in for the night. At this point we were getting tornado warnings, and all I could do was pray  that we wouldn't actually get one, as I knew our trailer would not be the place to be. 


My roommate and I finally convinced ourselves, to abandoned ship (and TWO of my puppies!?!?!) and go hangout with her sister and roommate, in their slightly more solid structure...at this point, the Tornado warnings had stopped coming for our county, but were still every 2-3 minutes for outlying counties. 


If this had happened during the day, there would be some small measure of safety in being able to see, but not being able to see, or know really what was going on was terrifying.


At 10 pm, the warnings for our county started back up again, and all four of us, abandoned the house, and moved up to the church cafeteria, as it had no windows and was more stable than any of the four houses on our property. At this point, I made my friends help me gather up my other two, (having three dogs is kinda of a pain in times like these...) and we all migrated up to the cafeteria, where the rest of my family sat listening intently to the radio.   

Our Neighborhood Storm Shelter

We stayed up there for about another two hours, loosing power once, before calling it a night. Or morning. I stayed up for another TWO hours AFTER that, as lets face it, the warnings had ceased but the storm was still raging around us. I was NOT about to wake up, to my bed floating around in a dark swirling cloud. Could you imagine sleeping on wet pillows? 


When we got up the next morning, the sun was shining the birds were singing as if nothing had every happened. Yet mentally we were all still reeling.. reading my twitter feed, I wanted everyone to stop and mourn with us, however life goes on... I feel for those in Alabama who got the brunt of the storm. 

Hail Damage to my parents car..and I don't have one. Woo! 

I'm thankful God saw fit to spare us, and all of our Alabama friends...


I was walking back to my house the other day, and looked all the trees surrounding my humble abode. Not one of them even bent during the storm. That my friends, is God's mercy, as right down the street a huge tree was UP ROOTED. 


Makes you look a life a little differently... 

Getting to know you..I mean Me...

1. what's something you've eaten and liked, but didn't think you would?
Calamari? I don't know if LIKE would be a good word for it.... was interesting though.
2. plastic surgery..yay or nay?
Can you ADD fat with plastic surgry? Even still I'm not about to let some human try and make "better" something God has made. :)
3. 2 things you love about spring are.....?
Sunshine and... Sunshine! I could do without the rain, bugs, and whacky temps though.
4. when's the last time you went on a picnic?
In September? I'm sorry, its been winter so picnicking in the snow hasn't been overly appealing. :)
5. what's your favorite app?
Um.... GoSMSPro, Plume, Mint, Woman's Day, Alarm Clock Plus
6. who does the grocery shopping in your house?
Well my roommate and I shop for ourselves, so I guess you could say both of us.
7. would you rather take a spin class or zumba?
Zumba
8. how often do you go out to dinner?
According to my budget too often.

Last week...

Was spring break.
The saddest, most miserable excuse for a spring break.
Even though it wasn't sad or miserable.
Just a sad excuse for one.
Cause it didn't FEEL like spring break.

I worked my normal hours, and while those school free hours after work, were nice it just didn't feel like a break.  One of the highlights of this week, was finally getting together with my neighbor/friend and going to lunch.  We've worked about a mile or two apart for the last six months or so, and just realized how close we were. Since both of our schedules are pretty flexible we finally decided on a time to go out. It was so nice just to get to sit and chat.
We became a lot closer during the summer of last year, since she was "nannying" three boys out of her home, and I was working an afternoon shift, so many mornings we both be outside with our "kids" (her 3 boys and my 3 dogs).
But since she got a new job, life has kept us both busy and it was nice to be able to have that time again, I really hope we keep it up...before one of us does something "crazy" like start dating or something. #notreadyforthatyet.

My roommate and I celebrated 1 year of "room-mating". I joke that I lend her my back-room for the times she decides to spend the night.. :) I actually like being by myself so I don't mind too much.

I wound up baby-sitting not once, but twice over the weekend...not something I've done for a while, but they were all good kids, and it was fun. Now its time to pick up the books and well the camera in my case, and hit them harder than ever. The down side of spring break, is the loss of momentum, you start out hard, and then settle into a steady pace...that comes to a screeching halt, the instant 12:00AM hits Saturday morning. Trying to get it started back up early Monday is d-i-f-f-i-c-u-l-t.

Not to mention daylight "savings" time.
Come to think of it, why in the world didn't we have our spring break this week instead of last week!? hmph.

Thanks a lot PSTCC.

Spring 2011: First Day

Those of you who read my blog on a regular basis know I'm a world class procrastinator. Never do today, what can be done tomorrow is my motto.  You also know that one of my goals  in 2011 is to eliminate that ...or at least squash it down to only putting of mundane things. 
However, I have never registered for a semester four days after its started. 
Day before? Yes. Four days after? No. 
So to say I'm a little stressed about the semester is....an understatement. Ask my roommate. 

Anyway, I sat down with my advisor Tuesday and hashed out my schedule, adding more classes so I'd be up to my alloted 12 credit hours. The good news is I may just be finished by next semester. Being the extreme visual learner that I am, I put my full faith and trust in my advisor to make sure my school and work schedule could co-exist in peace. 


The bad news is..that didn't happen. Well actually, it did, my work and my school don't over lap, but as I was putting my schedule on my calender I noticed, that one of my classes ended at 3:35PM at the Main Campus, and the other started at 3:30PM on a campus 25-30 minutes away. Not.Going.To.Work. Thankfully I was able to find the class online, and sign up for it there.
However I have already missed the first assignment. While I've done many many online classes, all the info they are throwing at us to "help" is OVERWHELMING. I'm pRaYiNg I can focus enough to get two assignments done by this weekend. 
In the real world, I have put two classes (Studio Still Life and Introduction to Media Tech) behind me and my last class of the week begins in thirty minutes. (Photojournalism)  
Intro to Media will be one of those easy A classes. I hate that I have to sit through a semester of learning Powerpoint, Photoshop 6 (talk about back-in-the-day) and creating a blog. A BLOG. I had to laugh out loud when he said that.  Don't worry, he didn't hear me, since the class is broadcast from the main campus via live feed or what have you. I was surprised that the other two people in the room with me, had no knowledge of this stuff, so I offered to help them if they needed..
However I may regret that.....
Anyway, if I don't make an A in this class, I have issues. Or have too much on my plate or something. 
Now if I only were that confident in my other classes....

The Small Miracle Happened

...It started one monday morning. I woke up irritated with the world, I was even irritated that I was irritated an absolutely nothing. Stupid Irrational female emotions.

Ok that has nothing to do with my story, but I wanted to include that in here. Don't ask. ...and I won't tell. :)

I've been given lots of time this week, to put my "resolutions/goal" of procrastinating less into practice.
Much to my.....irritation....My knee jerk reaction ,to being faced with something big, or overwhelming, is to put it off for as long as possible.

Cause we all know that makes things much easier to handle. 

First situation was school: This whole transcript fiasco required me to go the extra mile, not just fill out the transcript request form, but to send it, and to follow up via email...and phone..I hate talking on the phone.

I knew my parents and advisor would want to know that I was doing everything I could to get into school this semester, despite the fact that I really.didn't.want to go.

I figured, I'd also email my advisor to see if he could sign me despite the hold, just so he'd know I was trying... but it wasn't to be. So I began the process resigning myself to a school-less semester...because at this point the thought of NOT doing school for the next three months went from YESS to omw-who-am-I-kidding-what-am-I-going-to-do-with-myself!?

Can you imagine how I will be once I finally graduate!? Yikes.

Then my dad calls me and tells me I have a decision to make.  About What?

"Regarding the car, we can get such-and-such amount of money if we just let it be a total loss, but they would take the car" 


Hold up, Dad-on-the-phone-say-WHAT? 

My dad has graciously allowed me to drive his car for the last two years, since I wrecked mine in 2008. I've wanted to get a new car, but different things kept coming up preventing that from happening. My parents did offer to let me buy the car last year, but once again my financial constraints got in the way, and I decided to pass. Because I am stupid. Had I known this would have happened....but as usual; hindsight is always 20/20.  However after both my wrecks last year, the car has been deemed "totaled" and the insurance company is offering my parents a tidy sum if they give up the car. They would still give us some money if we kept the car, but the amount would be thousands of dollars less.  

Sigh. 

Truthfully letting me have a "decision" was mere formality, I knew that amount of money was too significant for them to pass up, and began resigning myself to whatever decision they made. 

A days passes. 

I decided to  go to PSTCC (my school) and try to register in person. Once again that transcript yanked me back to square 1,  however I got some more information from the extremely-helpful-office-lady. She told me to try and have HCC fax the transcript directly to the Admissions office so they could take off the hold as soon as they got it, and then try to register again. She also told me registration may be extended due to the school closing earlier this week because of the weather.  

Deep Breathes.

I call HCC. 

They were closed.

Due to the weather.

REALLY!?! 

That was Wednesday.

School started on Thursday. 

I emailed my advisor of the happens, and he sounded like I could still register if I got my transcripts in on Thursday. 

Thursday morning, I was on the phone with HCC again. 

They were STILL closed.

I called my parents. And told them it looked like school was a "no go" this semester.

I called PSTCC admissions office to see if registration had been extended. 

"No I'm sorry..you can add classes but we're not registering" 

I told my boss that school wasn't happening this semester.

I emailed my advisor with an update on the situation.

I called my parents and told them. 

Then I went on about my day, trying to come to grips with not being in school this semester. 

Friday dawned bright and... well.... early in my mind. (12ish early?!) 

My parents wanted a decision about the car.

Ummm... now!? 

Yes.

To buy a cheap vehicle or repair the 20-year-old vehicle sitting under my parents car port. 

Deep breaths. Made a snap decision. Something I hate doing. But I did. 

Then had a moment of instant panic. 

My dad once again encouraged me to see if I could contact HCC. 

The temptation to put it off was so strong I could almost taste it.

Just go ahead and put it off until its too late...

But I knew that wouldn't fly. 

I could already hear my dads voice....

So I called. 

And they were open.

And were willing to fax my transcript. 

whoa.

I thought about emailing my advisor, but decided to wait until it was in the hands of PSTCC admissions people before updating him.

I waited about 15 minutes before calling to see if the fax had arrived.

It hadn't but I was reassured they would take off the hold as soon as they got it. 

Thank you so much! 

Life went on. I cleaned my house, did some laundry, took the dogs outside and chatted with my father about the goings on...I was right in the middle of keeping my dog from attacking a passer by when my advisor called. 

"Hi this is So and So, with the Photography Department"

"Um yes this is a bad time I..." 

"Well I don't have much time. Did you get your transcript in to admissions office" 

" Well I did call them earlier this afternoon and..I'm sorry my dogs...this is really a bad.."

"Why don't you just email me what's going on....

And my phone dies. 

Gargh dude. 

 I race inside and send a quick email, call HCC again and ask about the status of my transcript, and was assured they would be sent out before 4PM. 

Ok awesome.

The time is 3:45PM.

I emailed my advisor to update him on that news, and we all sit back and wait. And wait. ...and wait some more. 

Finally at 4:36PM I refresh my account page and am rewarded to see "No Holds". 

Yes I shrieked like a little girl, before frantically trying to navigate to the "Add/Drop Class" page. What if this doesn't work? What if I still can't register because its too late? The screen with the photography classes listed comes up and I hurried click the boxes of the classes I want to be in.

Am I in?

I'm IN!

OMG I'M IN!

AAAAAAAAA!!!!!!!! 

Me Expressing my excitement over being back in school. 

Should I sign up for another class? Might as well Erin. 

AaAAAAAA!!!!!!!!!!

Art of Photography 

Studio Still Life

Neither one classes I'm think I'm going to like but...a necessary evil. 

I email my advisor.

I email the Human Resource person so she can let my new instructors know about the puppies. 

I call my dad. HE DOESN'T answer.

I update Facebook. 

I see my friends are home and run over to update them with the good news. 

I get back and some of the excitement wears off as my advisor suggests getting together so we can add more classes. 

More?! Um.. I don't know really, but sure why not, might as well graduate sooner than later. 

Weeeeeee! 

I can't believe this is happening. 

Finally get in contact with my father. He's "overjoyed". Not. 

He three ways my mother into the convo who displays the proper amounts of excitement.  Thanks Mom!

Am I excited? Yes I keep waffling back and forth once I realize  that my taste of three day weekends is back to being a thing of the past, but I'm so.happy to have the chance of graduating with the people I've come to know over the last year. 

And that, my friends,is the story of my miracle. 

The End. 

P.S. (What do you think of the my blog makeover?)

April 1st 2010

No more April Fools.
Please!!
My heart is still trying to restart from several of bloggers faking they were going to stop blogging. NOT FUNNY GUYS!!!
Granted I think mine was pretty funny.
I laugh every time I obsessively go back and look at it.
Its a rare occasion I feel this funny, so I'm going to wallow in it a little bit. haha
April 1st
I really have no goals for April other than to get throught school.
I CANNOT BELIEVE THERE ARE ONLY THREE WEEKS OF SCHOOL LEFT!!!
And I feel really good about this semester; its been tough but I think i've done

Random fact of the day: According too my roommate the 3 second rule is A MYTH!!! I know this comes as a surprise to most of you, but I actually find it oddly reliving to hear that a piece food picks up the same amount of germs whether its been on the floor 1 second or 10. I mean I no longer have to dive to the floor to save that piece of candy!


" HEY Watch that piece of food on the floor! I'm coming back too it in a minute!"

Just Kidding.

Ok I'm feeling a little giddy here.
But who wouldn't, with a three day weekend ahead of them!?
I LOVE YOU UT AND PSTCC!!!

My plans? Sleep, sleep, do homework, and probably do some more sleeping.

Oh yes, I'm sure I'll post pics of the kitchen and living room redo later on. The kitchen is white, and the living room is more Honey colored..I think Christina and I both panicked at the color at first, but once it dried..and we got used too it...

Its a little better.

Anyway, gotta go get back into civilian clothing! Yeehaw!

TATA!!!

Tuesday – March 30th

The sun is shining, the flowers are blooming, my papers have been submitted
…..Its a good day!
I’ve also realized something very important.
I am going to school for me, not to please my teachers, I am going to school to learn a trade that I hope will be fulfilling ..(Yikes I can feel another blog post coming on!) in this case Photography/Web Design is the field of choice.

Yesterday I made the decision NOT too turn in my photo assignment, and give myself one more day to try and come up with some photos I think will meet my standards, and get me a good grade. No I don’t really like this teacher, or his teaching style, no I don’t really feel I’m learning much in this class…but the thing is that’s not what matters.
What matters is I do my best.

End of Spring Break

I don't like traveling. But this week, I SOO wish I could have gotten away from it all, and actually had a BREAK! It doesn't help that my friend R is going to Florida next week. :-{ Not that I have money to go on vacation right now...or in the next six months for that matter..


My sister almost purchased her first car yesterday. I say almost because as they were test driving it the engine quit. yeah. Needless to say they came home car less...but we're just glad it happened then, and not after we got it home.

I have to admit to being a litttttlllee bit glad that she didn't get it, so that I will perhaps have the chance to get a car. I mean cause how lame is it for your YOUNGER sister to have a car before you do?

Ok I DID have a car, buttttt I kind of ran it into someone's hitch, and my parents said it wasn't worth fixing. Then they sold it to our neighbors who have been happily putting around in it.

Granted it probably wouldn't have survived all the traveling I do around here but...that is Not.the.point.

I am really hoping too get my FA money in next week, so I can start some serious vehicle inquiries..cause I'm really tired of driving my dads car.

Right now I'm looking at the Ford Escape, Mazda Tribute,Pontiac Vibe or the Pontiac Torrent. I am a "big car' sort of girl, but trying to get something within my budget. Plus my friends would LOVE to be able to ride with me, without having....dog hair on them, or the actually dogs on them.

image credit

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What can I say. Love me? Love my dogs.

Anyone own any of these vehicles Pros? Cons?

I wanna know!

A College Student

It is Finished!

WOOOOOOOOOOOOOT!!!!

Ok so I thought Monday was bad, but today has been a doozy, I won't go into all the boring details, but I was at one of the campus's for at least 5 hours. But is finished, I am taking on a 12 credit hour load this semester, which is four classes. I'm hoping that FA will only require 9 credits and I can drop one class. And that will even out my work schedule.

My Math classes and Public Speaking were transferable, so don't have to take those again.

And because I did very poorly in English I had to take the placement test for that, I did great on the reading, but my Writing was two points away from being passable. GRRR!

So I have to take a Writing/English Course, and for some reason I can't even start any other classes in my major until I get that completed, so we kind of had to browse around and FIND something for me to do. Though I am proud that I stuck to my guns, and didn't get a class before 9AM (my sister had classes at 7:30AM last semester..KArAZy! I can't even eat that early much less THINK!?) So heres what I got.

Spring 2010 

• MWF - Developmental Writing [9:40AM - 10:35AM] what is up with these times??
  
• MW - Introduction to Photography [10:45AM - 12:05PM] Just going from one class to another
• Tuesday - General Sociology - [12:25pm - 1:45pm] Hoping to drop this class cause this just messes up the schedule. 
• Online - Introduction to Theatre 
  

 Tomorrow my boss and I get to hash out a new schedule. Yay. I am just SO relieved this is over.

I have spoken via voice-mail, with the Disabilities Person at PSTCC, and doesn't look like their will be a problem with the puppies coming with me. Least I'm taking him bright and early Friday and they beststa not say anything!!! :)