Mucinex in, mucus out...or so they say

I went to the doctor today and was prescribed a Z-pack (zithromax 5 day antibiotic), along with a strong suggestion to not take sudafed, but take mucinex, tylenol and do whatever I can to keep my sinuses moist (humidifier, steam shower, hot liquids,nettipot, etc). So, we'll see if it works. So far all I've gotten is digestive upset. :-) Apparently, I have a sinus infection that is turning into an upper respiratory infection. No flu. So I've got that goin for me, which is nice.

I'm very tired, but am having a difficult time sleeping -not surprising really since I'm so stuffy.

I have to decorate the church hall tonight for Jami's baby shower tomorrow. Hopefully that won't take that long!! I'm sick of sleeping, but I still am tired...know what I mean? Anyway, I'm excited for that to be over tomorrow because it will be awesome and it will be done & I can concentrate on my field study.

I'm sick...ughhh.

So, I am finally sick. Really sick. Well, I suppose I could get SICKER, so it's not that bad. I stayed home from work today and will probably stay home tomorrow and head out to the doctor. I think I've got a sinus infection that's quickly turning upper respiratory.

I say "finally sick" because nearly everyone around me from students to coworkers to friends have been sick for weeks...and I've been healthy. I hope I don't get as sick as some people I know. No time for that, I've got to finish up my lit review. It's mostly done, I just have to put it all together. Tonight I was too bored and sick of sleeping to just watch tv, read a book, or sleep more, so I typed in all 6 pages of my references. I think I have a few electronic sources left to input, but at least I know my references are finished. Sunday is my planned day of making sure everything's up to par so I can send it off Monday morning.

Also, I've got to help out with Jami's baby shower on Saturday. And before that I have to run to DL to get my license plate and get my weather stripping looked at. You know, lately I've really resented living where I live. Everything I want to do is an hour or more away. I even got really pissed yesterday when I was looking to find out the times for Ash Wednesday services at area churches. I knew my church in Moorhead's schedule, but even when I called other churches in the area, there was no answer with no mention of Ash Wednesday service on the answering machines, no website, or if I did get a hold of someone, they were not sure. *Sigh*. This area is definitely not conducive to my lifestyle and not very accommodating to people who are busy either. I'm sick and crabby tonight, but still, i can't wait to move to a more accommodating area. I mean, gas stations close at 9pm, the post office is only open from 8:30-4:30 (8:30-10 on saturdays) so if I have a package there, it's sometimes two weeks before I can get off work in time to pick it up, grocery store is only open until 7pm -and then you can't be sure of the quality of the produce you might want/need, plus, like tonight, I could use more cold medicine, but nothing is open until tomorrow at 8 or 9 -and then I won't be sure I can find any because the last time I bought cold medicine from the pharmacy it was over a year expired....i could go on and on and on. I find small town life/living very stressful. I gave it a shot for 10 years and it's time to get back to civilization. This is just ridiculous.

I'm watching Obama's speech to Congress. Boy, it is strange to watch a president who doesn't snicker, get words wrong, get phrases wrong, and whine. I don't know if his economic plan is viable or will work...but at least it's SOMETHING other than war spending. I honestly believe that the country will be in a better mood to weather this storm with positive and proactive leadership that believes in and encourages self efficacy as American citizens. I'm not sure I like all the government involvement and oversight, but I do feel that it's needed. It's like having a teenager. You want to give them freedom to make choices and learn to live in the world while creating a future for themselves. But maybe that kid gets too caught up in stuff like drugs, gambling, skipping school, alcohol, etc while you were giving them freedom. So, you decide that maybe you need to step in and law down some rules -because the kid will not "get better" themselves...you've tried that and it just spiraled out of control. So, you take over their schedule, you drive them to and from school, you watch every move they make, you put them on an allowance, you get them counseling. You do this not because that's what you believe parenting should be, but because it's what that kid needs right now for a while to get back on track so they can have a better future -and it's your responsibility to play that role sometimes as a parent. The trick is knowing when to cut some of those strings and at the same time allow others to unravel slowly. I'm quite pleased to be part of this generation.

I believe we will see a different, but better, America in five years or so. I don't think Obama will do it. I think he'll help guide it -IS helping guide it....but WE the people will change things. I get what he's trying to do. It's not to throw hard earned money at people who are lazy. It's giving us that guidance, those rules, those oversights, those changes that we need to get out of our self-destructive rut. If something goes wrong, we need to stop and ask OURSELVES what we are doing to set it right. It's that personal responsibility we've lost. I bought a brand new car last week. I was looking at it for over a year but I did not buy it until I had a sizeable down payment. I could have bought one last summer...but I couldn't in good conscious do it. I'm not completely responsible with my spending and decision making, but I'm up to the challenge to do so to create a better future for myself.

That being said, I need to practice some responsibility and get back to working on my literature review. :-)

This Sunday is Wicked Awesome.

I've gotten a lot done today already after getting up at 8am. Last night I turned off my alarm and made sure my room would be dark in the AM, but I woke up fresh & ready to start the day anyway. That was a-ok with me cuz I had lots to do today. I had to clean up my interview data and refine my data analysis process for my small committee that will be reviewing my data to obtain trend consensus. All I have to do now is locate email addresses to send it off. I may have to wait until tomorrow morning because most of my addresses are on my work laptop. No problem!!

Now I can start on my lit review and the writing of the rest of the study. I'm pretty confident I can get chapters one and three completely finished because I pretty much already did them when I submitted my request to IRB last fall. My lit review will be completed this week and then all that's left is revising whatever my advisor wants me to, completing the analysis, and writing that up with chapters 4-5 as well (conclusions & recommendations). Oh yea, I also have to do the reference page. Ew. I should have been using refworks to store and organize them, but I never got around to it. Oh well! I'm pretty good at APA style referencing, so it's not that big of a deal. Plus, I have all my papers from the past saved and can copy/paste the articles I've used from them (which is about 1/4 of the references). Otherwise, it's merely busy work I can easily do while at work, watching tv, and even talking on the phone.

So, today has proven to be a good day so far. I hope it remains that way. I even read through my car manual and onstar info packet. Maybe later I'll take a break and go for a drive! :-)

The Second Day Was Better

The second day with my car was much better. The weather was great and some of the ice melted off of it. hoooray!!!!!!! I got XM fully activated and it will be difficult to get used to because my sirius radio was a replay and i could rewind 45 minutes worth of programming and had it set to beep at me when one of my favorite songs/artists were playing on another channel. Oh well!! Soon I'll have the time to have fun with it during the day.

From tonight until Monday morning I am going MIA to do my literature review. I've started it several times, but I finally think I've got it now....and I'd better cuz it's due on the 1st of March!!! That's what I get for holding off so long! It will be difficult too because a baby shower for my friend Jami was scheduled for this Saturday and there goes 1-1/2 days of work...if not more!!

Anyway, I'm still happy with my car and I'm not all the way familiar with all of it yet. I'm hoping to play with the onstar system one of these days...probably after March starts...I think I'll find some obscure address and let it direct me turn by turn. I think I'll also "accidentally" lock myself out of my car and call onstar to unlock them for me. Don't tell. :-)

Pacific Slate Metallic Rocks!!

I bought my car today! The weather was terrible and I was way too busy, but I made it to DL to get my car picked up. It is beautiful! I'm very disappointed that the weather was so icky. I had to pay attention to only the road and everyone else and did not get to do anything or try out anything (including the radio and CD's). Here are some pictures:




It is a pretty color and drives like a dream! I can't wait until winter is over! It's got a coat of ice on it now from driving 70 miles back home in the sleet/snow. I'm having a little trouble with the xm radio...it was "updating" the entire 70 miles (about an hour and a half). The onstar is super awesome though!!

So that's the car. It's too bad I'm super busy right now and don't really have a chance to enjoy the thing and only pay attention to it. I have 2 deadlines to meet for my study. One is by Sunday and the other is by next Sunday. The one next week is a product of procrastination. Once that's done though, I'm more than 1/2 way finished with it and can concentrate on applying for more jobs.

So, if you want a ride in my new car, I hope you can wait for about a month or so -cuz that's when I have the time to spare!!!

A Very Good Monday

On Monday I bought my car. Albert found me exactly what I've been looking for (well, including a sunroof, which I would have rather done without), and it was fairly close so transportation costs were low. I was able to get good financing, so I'm quite happy on that end as well.

I get my car on Friday! Isn't that cool!?! I'll post pictures once I get a change to actually take pictures, but in the meantime, here's a stock picture of what it will look like from the outside:



Here's another where you can see how awesome it is from the front. I'm quite happy I was able to get the color I wanted and more happy that I was able to finance it affordably.

Other than that, I think that's about all I've got to say. I hope to finish the major leg of my study by next week (the literature review) and then compile analysis from 3 colleagues by the middle of March. Then its revision time and put-it-all-together time. It will be SOOO nice to be finished with that and get done with this degree. Whenever I'm in classes or have graduate school related projects, I let my apartment go to crap. I look forward to being able to concentrate on thinning out and clearing out stuff so I can pack up in May/June. I just can't give that energy until I get the grad school stuff finished.

I Heart My Tax Guy

I got my taxes done this afternoon and I was very pleased. My accountant is in Fargo and he's amazing. Since I don't have any kids to deduct, I'm always looking for other things to deduct. This year I had some serious college expenses to deduct and I took advantage of the "uniforms" deduction and deducted all of my "school clothes". That helped a lot. It's also interesting to see how much I spend on clothes in a year!!! I didn't think I had bought a lot of clothes this year, but I guess I was wrong!! :-) I should be getting over $2000 back this spring thanks to the know-how of my accountant. Pontiac G8, here I come!!!!!

That being said, I really hope that I am able to find one that I want. I meet with Albert (my brother, the salesman) on Monday and hopefully we will find one that I want so they can transport it to DL for me to buy. I'd like to get rid of my alero before I get too many miles on it since I'm selling it to my dad. I'm also getting impatient to get that car! It will be awesome!!

Hooray for Winter

I guess I am two hours late tomorrow! Hooray!!!!!!!!!! -although, I hope we DO have school and I'm not stuck with so much time on my hands...it's not like I get anything done when I've got extra time!!! I did get the "Twilight" book read. I can see why it's so darn popular, especially with the teenage girl crowd. It's very sweet and very page-turning...and very addictive. I can't wait to read the next book in the series. :-)

I'm looking forward to my week. I should be able to get a ton of stuff done at school and then at home later on. I do need to buy some laundry detergent though cuz i'm down to my last bath towel!!! I also need to wash my bedding so I can switch that as well. I did three loads of laundry Sunday after I scrounged up some sample Tide packets I had stashed in my closet, but since I prioritized things (wash the clothes first that I have to wear...then the towels and bedding), I did not get to finish.

I started watching The Principal's Office, a show on the TruTV channel (dishnetwork channel 204). It's AWESOME. I saw a couple clips on The Soup on E and thought huh...that looks interesting. And it IS!!!!!!!! I haven't laughed so much in a while!!! That's mean, cuz most of the things I was laughing at was the absurdity of what students say/think when they get called into principal's office. I don't know how some of those principals keep a straight face. They are awesome! They keep a straight face while at the same time try to act confused and appalled at some of the things the kids say. It's GREAT. You KNOW they are going home to their spouse and saying "honey, guess what this kid did today and then guess what he said!" or just talking to colleagues the same way (without the "honey", of course!). Finally, a show that's close to my heart and portrays much of my day at work with the kids I have. I'm no principal, but in my program, I'm the end-all-be-all and I could have filmed an entire season of that show myself with some of the stuff I'd heard from students, ESPECIALLY when confronted on behavior/discipline issues and ESPECIALLY when I catch them in lies. My very favorite that I've seen so far (I still have a few episodes to watch and I missed about 5 of the first episodes), was when this kid comes into the principal's office after getting kicked out of class cuz he drew on himself with marker. NO LIE-the kid had a black beard (FULL too), purple glasses (which, apparently started out as a "purple unibrow"), and a backwards black w/green outlined "L" on his forehead....which he thought was "right" cuz he drew it by looking into a mirror....never realizing the rest of the world would see it backwards. OMG. I LOVE it. These principals are quality administrators and it's very nice to see their individual styles that really have the kids' best interests at heart -and strive to maintain the kids' dignity...even the guy who drew on himself because he was "bored" in class.

So since I know that school is 2 hours late tomorrow, I've decided to stay up a bit. OOOOOOO, Jay Leno has headlines tonight! I LOVE that! :-) What a day of fun for Angela!

Today is a snow day! Actually, it's an ice day. Unexpected but very nice. I'm very glad I don't have to go anywhere today. It's pretty icy out there and I'm not sure I could even get out of my town. I guess a sanding truck slipped into the ditch this morning just outside of town and the city pulled the garbage trucks back due to the icy conditions. I am excited to read more of the "Twilight" book today. I got into it yesterday and it is a very sweet story.

Right now I'm watching Brothers & Sisters from last night. I really like this show. I think the characters are wonderful and each episode makes me laugh out loud and get teary-eyed in the span of minutes. I highly recommend it, especially if you've come from a large family. Even if you don't have brothers and sisters, I think that it would still be relevant -unless you are completely and utterly alone and have no immediate or extended family relationships/experiences. If that's so, quit watching TV and meet some people!!!

So, here I am, catching up on reading and relaxing on a snow day. I remember the years that we had no snowdays all year. Those were sad school years. :-) HAHA

Spring Can Now Come To Town

Guess what? I finally got that tree taken down!!! No more Christmas stuff around here anymore. Now spring can come. I always give my friend Jami a hard time because she keeps her "winter" stuff up until late March and I tell her that is why winter keeps hanging around. Well, I almost got as bad as that. No, really, she's an awesome decorator who enjoys changing things with each season. Me, i don't see the sense in that. Too much stuff to worry about and do. I'd rather just leave that alone. In fact, the only season I decorate for is Christmas, and then it's not too much either. Everything I have including tree and ornaments fit into the tree box it came in and two smaller rubber maid tubs. that's EVERYTHING and most things are in their original boxes, so it's not packed very tightly at all. That's all I ever want and in fact, I threw out half a box this year, so I have even less now. I can't wait until I box everything up here. I wonder what I'll decide needs to go? I've got pretty good ideas right now.

Gotta go get my tax information organized for my appt on Tuesday morning. I hope the weather isn't too bad because I really don't want to reschedule!!! Gotta get those refunds, you know!

Back to the Grind...

I got back from my Rochester conference Friday evening. It was a good conference! The last 5 CEC conferences have not interested me, but this one was pretty good and had more sessions I was actually interested in.

Saturday I took a break from everything and did pretty much nothing. I found that I am out of laundry detergent and fabric softener, so laundry will have to wait until I can pick up some. No biggie. I've got a pretty light load this week in the evenings, so I'll be able to do some housework after work this week.

I'm thinking that I will finally take my tree down today. Turn the channel to Octane, crank up the volume and get stuff done. That's my plan and my emerging follow-through. I have lots of plans...the follow through is a problem lately!! :-) I think it's cuz I have too much stuff going on and just too much stuff to do. I'd also like to get stuff together to get rid of by selling on eBay...books and beauticontrol stuff. I'm planning on having a huge rummage sale at the end of May/early June. I'll keep you posted, so come on up to Ada and help me get rid of some stuff! :-) I'm selling off my entertainment center, a chair, my old kitchen chairs, and probably a couple bookshelves. Real cheap too. Not to mention a bunch of dishes, other kitchen stuff (including my microwave stand) and decorating things. The only thing I know for sure is that I'm moving out of Ada this summer. That's about it! :-) Only God knows where I'm going I guess! I think to make things easier for myself, I might commandeer a spot in my parents' basement to store some stuff until I know where I'm going. My Christmas stuff and some of my storage stuff can definitely be in storage through moving transitions.

I'm loving the warm weather lately. 25-35 degrees is WARMM???? you say? well, up here, it is. February will be half over in a week and I'm very excited. I'm kinda looking forward to Easter. I have a feeling I will be feeling healthy and feeling much better about all the balls I have in the air right now. My study will be finished and I'll be close to doing the things that will allow me to finish my degree (like defending the study to a panel of professors/experts) and I can concentrate on extracting myself from the transition school and preparing for my replacement, if the board decides to keep the program there. If not, I'll be prepared to begin the painfully huge project of closing the place down. We've been there for 7 years and I've acquired enough stuff there to easily fill an entire high school special ed department. The task is figuring out which is my stuff and which is ASEC's and convincing people that even if it IS mine...I might not want it anymore or have any need for it. Should be fun.

You can tell the weather is good today. My back yard is riddled with snowmobiles! I kinda don't like snowmobiles. They are loud and they smell. It's probably because I don't ride them. I'd probably have a different opinion if I got into the "sport" and participated, but as an observer, I find them rather annoying.

I think I'll be able to get my car at the end of February. I see the tax man on Tuesday and that will let me know how many paychecks I need to wait through before I can affordably put down a good sized down payment. When I went down to Rochester this week, I really wished I had my new car!!!! It would have been much more fun. I'm glad I'm selling my car to my dad for my sister Audrey to use. I hope it holds up for a long time for her. It's got over 150,000 miles on it, but I've taken pretty good care of it. It has new tires (in November), and I've changed the oil every 2-4ooo miles, not to mention fixed anything that was wrong with it now and then, including tune-ups. It's been a wonderful car and I've been insanely happy with it. I'm glad it will be going to a "good home". :-)

Tomorrow is work again. Last week I was at work a total of about 5 hours!!! Can you believe that?? I was so busy with conferences, other meetings and doc appts. They all fell on the same week. This week will be better though.

Happy Tuesday!

Today is Tuesday. I love Tuesdays...and I'm not sure why. I think it has something to do with the end of Monday. Maybe. I guess it doesn't really matter why!

Tomorrow I'm going to Rochester for a conference until Friday. I'm excited for the conference because this year there are some sessions I am interested in. I'm driving down there with my c-worker Betty and it should be a good time. I like going to conferences with her cuz she's a ball of fun and a very good conversationalist. -that makes for a not-so-boring 6 hour drive. Yup, that's how long it will take me to get there! From the Ada Ghetto to the Radisson in downtown Rochester is 341 miles, about 5-1/2 to 6 hours...at least according to Mapquest.

I've been trying to read "Twilight" for 3 weeks now but I haven't found the time. I hope one of these days I can take a break and not be so darn busy. I guess busy is good though, huh? :-) One of my former students suggested I read it and borrowed me her copy. I definitely need to read it by the end of March so I can read the other two she has before the end of the school year.

On Saturday I think I will have about 5 loads of laundry to do!! I have an entire clothes basket full of towels & washclothes, enough bedding to fill a laundry basket and at least two loads of clothes. Should be a fun weekend! Ha! At least all I have to do all weekend is catch up on life and finish my transcribing and start typing out my lit review. I also want to do some cleaning. I'm in a "toss-out" mode, so I want to thin out some of my stuff. Want anything?