A Little Rambling

So far, my alliterative plan of school + sleep + social life (+ sanity) is working out just dandily. Fridays are my favorite days right now, because it's my day off and I only have two classes. After 11:30, I have freedom! (Until observations start...sigh.) This Friday was reminiscent of the best parts of summer in that I got to spend about 12 consecutive hours with the Knights of Ubiquity and friends. I went out to lunch at Pita Jungle, which was delicious - so much so that I went again tonight (although in Peoria instead of Tempe) with a very old friend to celebrate 17 years of friendship. (I am constantly in search of a döner kebap substitute, so I keep trying different gyros. Pita Jungle's was delicious, but it's just not the same! The shawarma I had tonight was delicious, too. I do so love middle eastern/Mediterranean food! I need to eat it more often. Oh so scrumptious.) The rest of the afternoon ended up being movie at Matt's ( The Italian Job ), dinne...

Oh how I love summer vacation! The freedom to lounge around and soak up sunshine without a care in the world but not frying and not being late for a barbecue. It doesn't get better, does it? I've had such a fun week! I went to Big Surf with Jessica and lounged around in the wave pool and on the slides during the hours when very few people venture out to a water park. Delightful! I saw Marc and Mohamed perform in "The Music Man" at the MAC, which was way better than I was expecting. Afterward, we enjoyed deeeeelicious food at Old Chicago , along with copious amounts of laughter, as usual, and one particularly awkward moment. My bad. I took my first piano lesson in 7 years, and my first jazz lesson ever. I have a healthy new respect for my adult students now! But it was great fun, and I'm excited to continue. I had a girls night involving a ton of scrumptious junk food and lots of really bad 80's movies, redeemed by finishing the night with Dr. Horrible...

It's amazing how fast people can adapt. We get thrown into a situation outside what we know as our comfort zone, and yet very soon that very new and frightening situation can become familiar. I just started back up at ASU this semester and was totally and completely overwhelmed for the first week or two. I left my little tiny school where everything was on track and on time to be thrown back a year or so in this massive university and have very little idea of what was going on. I didn't speak the specific dialect of this school, I didn't know a single person in this place, I was older than most of my classmates and yet behind them in many ways, and I was, once again, the new kid. Well, after about 6 weeks of school, I finally have friends! Well, sort of. I have good acquaintances who are likely on their way to becoming my friends, which is a wonderful thing. I've settled into a routine as much as possible. I've found some kind of balance between getting ever...

So, today was my last day working at Jamba Juice , and I have once more become a "normal" person with only one "real" job. I am thrilled beyond saying. The last couple semesters have been kind of insane. Last fall, I had 22 credit hours at school and was working two "real" jobs (teaching and nannying), as well as all those little odd jobs - babysitting, housesitting, tutoring, modeling, donating plasma (not a job, I know) - that start to add up. Besides that, I was doing the school musical, and dating, and living on my own, and paying my way through school. Unfortunately, school proved to be a bit more expensive than I could handle, so I ended up taking last semester (mostly) off to work instead. So now, I only had two credits at school (voice lessons and my junior recital), but I had three "real" jobs, plus the odd ones. At first, it was not overwhelming. I had a lot of close friendships, and a boyfriend, to help share the stress and mak...