getting ready for the rest of my life

It's sunday night. I'm sitting on the floor of my living room. Adam is asleep on the small couch right behind me. Chris is on the big couch. The two dogs are in the doorway to our bedroom, but sometimes they get up and eat a few bites of food in the kitchen. Chris is watching animal channel something about polar bears and seals. I was originally going to sit in here and do some advanced reading in my textbooks, but the light is off and now that Adam is asleep I don't want to turn it back on.

It's 8:30 and I have porkchops in the crockpot. I sauted spinach, and made brown rice. I bought produce from Sprouts today with Rosie, after we got done at the gym. I have chopped things and divided things into baggies for the rest of the week. I made my lunches and dinners for the next two days. I did most of the laundry - just have one load in the dryer. I laid out my clothes for exercise tomorrow morning, then for work. I've checked my email, I've labeled my textbooks. I've updated my calendar and my food tracking on sparkpeople. I've fed the dogs. I've made the bed.

I'm a little nervous. I am trying to make up for this feeling of unease by overpreparing. Tomorrow I work from 8:30am until 12:30pm, then come home and train Juno, and then go to CSULB for my first day of grad school. Tomorrow I am taking classes with the textbooks: Intentional Interviewing and Counseling, Culturally Relevant Ethical Decision-Making in counseling, Issues and Ethics in the Helping Professions, and the DSM-IV-TR.

I woke up this morning with a headache and sore throat. I went back to sleep for about 3 hours, took ibuprofen, and drank tea. But the thing that made me feel the best was the hour I spent at the gym. I really need to remember this.

I wish I'd thought to clean out my car today. I get more easily overwhelmed when my car is full of stuff. I will need to keep my spaces well-organized. My dresser is doing pretty good - it's my "grab and go" pile - where I leave textbooks, current project, and gym bag.

What I will be taking with me tomorrow:
Phone
4 textbooks
2 notebooks
my life planner
laptop and cords
purse
workout shoes and socks
breakfast, lunch and dinner
water bottle
pens, highlighter

ok. I am going to go get the last load of laundry out of the garage, put away the food, soak the crockpot, make tea, take a vitamin, and go to bed early and start reading Intentional Interviewing and Counseling.

registered for classes!

I registered for my first semester back at California State University, Long Beach today! Starting on August 30th I will be taking 5 classes in my pursuit of a Masters of Science in Counseling and a Marriage and Family Therapy License!

Mondays
4-7 COUN 513
7-10 COUN 510

Wednedays
7-10 COUN 515

Thursdays
4-7 EDP 400
7-10 COUN 508 A

the numbers don't mean much to me yet - I can't wait til they do. I'm excited. The only bummer is the Wednesday night class, which will be at the same time as the Lightbulb Mouth Show. This is very sad. But I will just not work on Thursdays, and still go out for after-show fun those nights.

Exciting!!!

scholarships

I am on the hunt for scholarships, if anyone has any access or ideas.

This post is just me collecting research:

http://www.ced.csulb.edu/scholarships/

http://www.congressweb.com/cweb4/index.cfm?orgcode=BPW

http://www.avoncompany.com/women/index.html

http://www.fundsnetservices.com/women.htm

the house that Roya wants

Since Adam was about 11 years old, he lived next door to Chris and David. As they got older, he has lived with or next door to at least one of them - with the ONLY break from that being the 4 months he lived with ME in Alaska, and a couple of months ONE street over from them when we got back. As soon as possible we moved into the house in back of theirs. We call Chris "Uncle Chris" because he is Joey to our Chandler/Monica - he is already Uncle Chris to our dogs, and one day when we get married and have kids, he'll have a Joey room in our house and will be Uncle Chris for real. For the last year we've enjoyed an excellent living situation - bbq's between the houses, dessert sharing, movie watching, brunch-going, etc. It's been so nice to have our really close friends as our closest neighbors.

Then David decided to move. He'll be living about 1.5 hours northeast of us as of next week. Chris suddenly can't afford the double rent, so he was thinking of moving too. Our situation will be drastically uncool as soon as neighbors move into our front house. The driveway is tight. It was okay with friends...not so great with strangers.

I almost cried when Adam told me, and as he put it, he was "seriously bummed out." He really has lived with one or both of them for most of his life. Chris is pretty damn introverted also and I couldn't see him spending too much of his time out of his home, whever he moved to.

We decided then to start looking for a new place - Adam will be working far away, we could split the difference, maybe find something cheap to save money, etc. I don't remember who suggested it, but we jokingly said Chris should just move in with us. Then we "joked" about it with Chris, and Sunday the three of us spent a good portion of the day driving around looking at houses.

We found the house I want. It's a 3 bedroom, right between the two freeways the three of us need. It has a HUMONGOUS backyard - HUGE HUGE HUGE, with fruit trees and a work-in-able two car garage and a covered patio and tons of grass and a big giant garden plot already created with grape vines!

And - it's one street over from my family!!! I want it. I want it so badly. I have managed to talk Adam and Chris into the merits of this house, and tonight we go to meet with the rental company and...it is now time to start crossing fingers.

It's such a family house. It's in the neighborhood I grew up in, for crying out loud. It's a house we could stay at for a long time to come. Chris could really be Uncle Chris. Hell, there's even a shed he could have. ;)

Anyways. That's tonight. So I'm hoping and wishing, etc.

In other news - I went to CSULB for the Human Services graduation today... yay Cousin Becky and Intern Nancy and Friends Karen, Dawn, Kristin, Sophia and more! Yay for seeing KJ and Susan and go Beach!

I finished 1 of the Pippi kneestockings and it fits Rosie! I'm 3 stripes in on the second one! Here's to finishing a project!