Sunday's Successes

Today I:

1. Made enough homemade pizza for my roommates and I to have supper tonight, lunch tomorrow, and some leftovers. I used Betty Crocker's Stir and Roll Pizza Crust recipe, and random ingredients from the fridge. It was super tasty, but I should have had the oven a little lower (maybe 375), and checked it at 15 minutes. It was a little crispy, but still tasted wonderful!
2. Made a batch of homemade Chex Mix to take to work for a snack, and to my EDU 119 class tomorrow night. It will be another day of not getting home until 8 or later, but I have my three roommates in the same class, so it's fun.
3. Took a long overdue nap. I've been working over fifty hours a week for the past three weeks, with very few breaks. It felt so good to relax and get caught up on sleep!
4. Researched an article for my EDU 119 class.

What did you do today?

Laptop

I am now the proud owner of a Toshiba laptop! It has a high Energy Star rating, 3 GBs of memory, a 320 GB hard drive, and a webcam. It can stay charged for four and a half hours, and I can type on it without hitting four keys at once (don't you hate the small keyboards that some laptops have?). I'm thrilled!

I can now take my online class without having to reserve a computer at any one of four random libraries and hope that I can work my schedule around their open hours. This is a huge relief!Especially since my hours are so crazy---very few libraries are open before 8:30, or open much past 6 p.m. Trying to fit my online class in in fits and starts was not an appealing option, so this is a much needed relief!

Strange Places to Sleep

My cat always chose the strangest places to sleep---upside down on the top of the couch, in the bathroom sink, under the couch cover---you never knew quite where you'd find her.

I had a friend in college who had the enviable ability to sleep just about anywhere---on the grass next to the busy commons, in the corner of a dining hall, on the roof of the residence hall---he was able to crash just about anywhere and catch up on a few hours of sleep he missed while studying for exams. It's a useful skill to have. Personally, I could crash in the music rooms (little individual rooms with a piano inside). I would just push a bench up against the door and catch a few hours of sleep between classes. Since I was shuffling between multiple campuses, this was a useful way to pass a few hours.

North Carolina

In just two short weeks, I head off for North Carolina.


I am not a fan of the heat. Humidity is horrible. So why, exactly, am I headed off to a place known for its heat and humidity?

For the chance to earn my Early Childhood Education Credentials. For the opportunity to work with preschoolers for an entire year. For the chance to see somewhere completely different. For a lot of reasons.

Let's just say that I'm definitely looking for a place with great air conditioning, though!

Rent a Textbook

I have personally never rented a textbook, prefering instead to borrow mine from the college library or get them cheap through http://www.isbndb.com/, but I recently came across a Yahoo article on strange things to rent.


Chegg is a textbook lender that charges just 10 to 30% of the purchase price of a textbook to borrow it for a quarter or semester. Though you have to pay to have the book shipped to you ($3.99 Standard is the cheapest option), you can return it for free through UPS after the borrowing period ends. To sweeten the deal, Chegg plants a tree for every book you rent.


They offer a 30-day "Any Reason" guarantee, which begins the day the book is shipped to you. This comes in particularly handy if you happen to drop a course, or discover that you don't really "need" the textbook. How many students have discovered that their professor only alludes to a particular book in passing, after having spent $50 on the book? Annoying, to say the least. This sidesteps the issue nicely.


They calculate that "A student, on average, will save over $500 a year by renting compared to buying textbooks." However, "the savings are calculated by subtracting each book's rental fee from the book's publisher suggested list price." Maybe I'm the exception rather than the rule, but I never pay the publisher's listed price. Talk about inflation! However, 10-30% of the list price is still a really good deal.

I'm definitely going to give this site a try for my next online class. Paired with isbndb, this could mean some real textbook savings!

Today I Donated Blood

Donating blood can be fast and efficient. By giving just under two hours of your time, you can save three lives.

I love the Red Cross' Top Ten Reasons to Donate Blood:

10) You will get free juice and cookies.
This is quite the enticement for college students everywhere. Who can turn down cookies?
9) You will weigh less — one pint less when you leave than when you came in.
In our weight-obsessed culture, this is probably a powerful draw.
8) It's easy and convenient — it only takes about an hour and you can make the donation at a donor center, or at one of the many Red Cross mobile blood drives.
From start to finish, I find it takes closer to two hours. Only half of that time is really spent giving blood and enjoying the nice cookies and juice afterwards; the rest is spent waiting, filling out paperwork, or getting your iron levels and blood pressure tested.
7) It's something you can spare — most people have blood to spare... yet, there is still not enough to go around.
Very true! The body can replenish it's blood supply remarkably fast---in fact, within 24 hours.
6) Nobody can ask you to do any heavy lifting as long as you have the bandage on. You can wear it for as long as you like. It's your badge of honor.
A definite draw for teenagers whose parents would love for them to mow the lawn or clean the garage.
5) You will walk a little taller afterwards — you will feel good about yourself.
Knowing that you made a difference in a person's life is very uplifting.
4) You will be helping to ensure that blood is there when you or someone close to you may need it. Most people don't think they'll ever need blood, but many do.
In fact, 38,000 donations are needed daily.
3) It's something you can do on equal footing with the rich and famous — blood is something money can't buy. Only something one person can give to another.
There is no way to create blood in a lab---only people can give blood.
2) You will be someone's hero — you may give a newborn, a child, a mother or a father, a brother, or a sister another chance at life. In fact, you may help save up to three lives with just one donation.
How can you argue with that?
1) It's the right thing to do.

Click here to find the blood drive nearest you.

Garlic Mashed Potatoes and Pickles

I am still such a college student. I crave simple meals (and some strange ingredient combinations). I love Garlic Mashed Potatoes and pickles. A simple tofu stirfry with plenty of vegetables (usually frozen, from the Farmer's Market in the summer) is a perfect dish. I usually make up a bunch of brown rice ahead of time and freeze it for a quick complement to the meal. I also like fifteen minute meals: Curried tempeh, Teriyaki Tofu, and Tofu Guacamole Sandwiches fall into this category. On the weekends, I might make a "Hamburger" Hotdish, or Teriyaki Garbanzo Beans.

If I can find Teriyaki Chex Mix at the discount grocery store, I am a happy camper! I am absolutely in love with the discount grocery store. I can find 75 cent tofu, $1.99 Soy Dream Chocolate Chip Cookie Dough Ice Cream, and $2.49 "Chicken" tacos. It is a paradise for the budget shopper!

IRA

I've been planning and saving for a Vanguard Target Date IRA. Call me a geek, but I love planning financial matters. I know that I am far too young to be seen seeking out a banker to discuss the differences between traditional and Roth IRAs, but now is the best time for me to consider retirement.

Not only will the compound interest definitely work in my favor, but by saving now, I give my money just that much longer to grow. I don't want to be one of those people who waits to save for retirement until they're in their thirties, and then struggles for years to catch up. I want to slowly build my retirement fund, squirreling away money as my (somewhat tight) budget permits.

Now if I only had the $3,000 to start an account.

I really wish that an investment firm would offer a comprehensive IRA for those of us who don't have that much money starting out. I can't be the only one in this boat---aren't there just hundreds of thousands of new college graduates who earn very little? Surely there are others who want to save for retirement, but don't know how, or can't find a good retirement account.

If only they advertised.

Sometimes I feel like I'm destined for a crazy existence.

Take, for instance, the attempted kidnapping of two years ago, as I made my way back to the bank where I had parked my car from the Oriental food store just three blocks away. There's nothing like being followed in a car and having your car stormed to get your blood pumping. Especially considering that this happened in broad daylight, and I only just got my door shut and locked in time.

Or recall the unprovoked gunshot incident in Xela, Guatemala as I made my way home from class. I was just a few blocks from my house, in the middle of the day! I didn't know the guy, or even say anything to him! It's just one of those random things, I guess. My bad luck mixed with anti-American sentiment just creates trouble, I guess.

It seems like something crazy is always happening. Do I have the words "Pick me! Great target!" written somewhere on me?

I think I would be bored with an ordinary, uneventful life, but sometimes this just gets to be too much. I took a self-defense course, and learned Judo. I carry mace. I try to be as safe as I can be, never venturing out alone at night, taking all of the right precautions.

I just wish I could see the world as some of my friends do---as a welcoming, non-threatening place. The prospect of random violence is utterly foreign to them. It only happens to other people.

One good thing that came out of all of this---I vowed to always be doing something meaningful. I won't take a job that isn't personally fulfilling, because I know that life can change in an instant. I can only deal with this craziness if I know that I'm doing something meaningful. Bad things will happen, and my way of coping with them is to devote my life to doing what good I can, so that I don't feel regret when they do.

Maybe that's morbid, but for me, that's just life.

Washington!

In a little less than a week, I will be heading out for my new job in Washington. I am still debating between going by Amtrak or taking a vehicle. My work site is not within walking distance, which is annoying, and it's a half hour commute by bus each way. It would cost nearly $30 in bus fares each month, just to get to and from work. Then again, it would probably cost that much or more in gas and maintenance.

I am finishing up random last pieces of business---burning downloadable audiobooks to CDs, returning the last of my library books, and taking all of the recycling down to the drop off center. I'm clearing all of my food out of the freezer and pantry (I have a ton of tofu and falafel mix), and wrapping up presents for the birthdays that I'll miss. I'm getting refills of medications that I'll need until I can get set up with a doctor in Washington. I'm also putting all of my student loans in order.

It seems like my list doesn't really shrink---there's always one more thing that I forgot to do. Moving is a little harder than I remember it being. It should be interesting!

Saving on College Textbooks

Textbooks from the college bookstore can be expensive. Even the used ones can easily cost $50. One great source I found online to comparison shop is ISBNDB. When you enter your textbook's ISBN number into the search engine, this site pulls up the lowest prices from dozens of online bookstores (such as Biblio and Amazon). It also collects the best price from eBay and Half.com.


I recently bought a collection of essays for my college writing class for $2.49 from eBay. It cost $34 used from the bookstore. I asked my professor if an earlier edition of the book would work, and was able to cut costs considerably when she said yes. Earlier textbooks usually aren't fundamentally different from later versions, and it pays to ask your professor if an earlier version will suffice. It can cut the cost down on used books by half or more.

Late Nights

After two nights of staying up until 4 a.m., I am beat. I love hanging out with my cousins, but I just can't hack these late nights. My cousin has insomnia, so he just keeps going and going. It's like living with the Energizer Bunny!

It's been a great few nights, though. Even though we only see each other once a year, if that, it's like no time has passed at all. We're soon talking about work and life and love, and everything in between. Best of all, we laugh. My cousins can make me laugh like no one else can. Even hard subjects become funny. It is a rare person who can make a panic attack or getting shot at funny. When you meet one of those people, hold on and never let go. They are a rare breed.

Life is more manageable after a weekend with my cousins. Even though I haven't had a good eight hours of sleep in days, I'm ready to hit the job search running again, and finish off the rest of my American Lit course.

Procrastinating

It is just a little bit possible that I am procrastinating. Horribly. About completing a college class that ends in just five days. What do I have left to do, you may ask? Just five two page papers and a few surveys. Oh, and an informal interview with a student, where I go to class with a child all day and note their interactions with their classmates, their reactions to how the room is laid out, any particular learning issues, and their background. Nothing much.

Yikes.

Crazy Times in Education

Life at my internship is never dull. Whether it's being hit on by eighth-grade boys, dealing with a sprained ankle, or having a second-grader jump over his desk to threaten to punch the boy who I told I'd sit by, life is interesting. I wonder if I'm getting a skewed view of the educational system. I went to a choir concert last night in a town less than an hour away, and the kids all looked so much younger. They didn't look as world-weary as my internship kids. The kids in my town are more sheltered---they're actually allowed to be children. I wish my kids had that.

On a completely unrelated note, my college just overcharged me by $7,000. This has got to be a joke, but I'm not laughing. Somehow the part-time credit load did not compute. I met with three different people at the beginning of the semester to explain how I was only taking six credits, and completing the others elsewhere. They cut my scholarship in half. I can understand this (maybe). Yet I have to ask: do they have liability insurance, in case they give an overworked student a heart attack? I can deal with one $6,500 bill a semester, but two? I wish for once they would undercharge me.

It's time to have some fun with the Financial Aid Office!