Back to school?

I just started a new program in school. I'm two whole weeks into my second bachelor's degree. Bachelor of Science in Human Services Management. Already having a BA in English and a MAED in Curriculum Instruction with a focus on Language Arts, I'm feeling pretty ahead of the game. Is it possible to just coast through a program so that I can learn just what I'm interested in and defer my student loans at the same time? Is this wrong?

Looking above, I sound so over-qualified! Ha! I anticipate being a life-long learner for the sake of just being a life-long learner. After the BSHS/M, maybe I'll go get a psych degree- you know- one of those ones that college kids get because they want to know what's wrong with them? I believe that a degree in psychology would get me nowhere, just as the English and the education have. So, I'm sure you're all (all one of you) asking yourself: "why is she bothering with human services? what the hell is human services?"

The most logical thing to answer first is "what the hell is human services?" Human services is the field that things like case management, hospice, and counseling fall under.

Then, the why? The reason I'm going into human services is, simply put, because there is a problem with our current system, and maybe with some "insider knowledge" I can do something about it.

I've found the most trying part of the program is letting other people be new students... It's mean, but I'm terribly frustrated by the other students not having the slightest clue what they're doing. In the MAED, I certainly created outlines and formatted papers which were to be team assignments, but I never had to walk someone through where to find their syllabus, and how to know when something is due... JEEZ!

Here's a picture that's totally unrelated to what I'm talking about.

The update on dinner

The joy of planning ahead, is that you have to actually plan!

We're on the sixth day of pre-planning meals, and I'm wondering if it's as awesome as it should be to not have to go grocery shopping daily. Four out of five dinners worked out, which is awesome- I had everything I needed. Friday's dinner, however, was a nightmare.

Friday was supposed to be macaroni & cheese with chicken and bacon and a side of spinach salad. Ultimately, what we ate was macaroni & cheese with bacon, a side of hot dogs and a spinach salad. One might wonder how hot dogs were entered into the equation. Simple: when I (L), make chicken dinner on Monday, I don't notice that I've used all of the chicken- leaving none for the mac & cheese. A normal person, when making chicken dinner, knowing that two meals that week have chicken, would have thought to themselves- gosh, tomorrow I should go buy some more chicken for that other dinner. Yours truly (L) did not!

The other dinners this week were amazing! I probably should have taken pictures so that I could prove how amazing they were. I will try to post pictures of the "yum" faces of myself and my boyfriend.

I'm nervous about tonight's dinner. Pork and Caraway Pilaf. Terrifying! Who's had this? What does a caraway seed even taste like? How is Pilaf made? what if I bought the wrong rice? I know, I know- not the end of the world. Just embarrassingly close.

EDIT: Did not make.

The power of Craigslist compels me

I have no hopes or dreams of getting rich quick, but I do want to get all of the crap out of the garage. Broken MacBooks, broken iPods, giant easel, old desks, giant coffee table... even a telescope!

It's incredible that no one on Craigslist feels that they are able to haggle. If I've asked too much, offer me less! What? Is your online/over the phone low-balling going to offend my delicate sensibilities? Do you feel like I'm so emotionally attached to this shit that a low offer will throw me off the deep-end? I'm not going to find you, and then find your first born child and then make your lives hell- it probably won't even cross my mind.

My boyfriend is sad because he put up a mac mini (which works), and no one has called about it yet... It's like I'm rolling in the cash, and he's left out. How do you console someone for something like that? I certainly don't know.

Friday someone bought a giant desk that was originally from Ikea- they managed to fit an almost 5 foot desk into a tiny hatch-back, and were super-excited. Today a man bought two iPods (broken); he just texted all morning, then when he got here, he just sat in his car out front instead of walking the whole 20 feet to the door...

I'm bored of sitting around, waiting.

Mystery Dinner Theater... kind of...

After the "fight" about food, we decided that we should come up with all of our dinners for a week. Turns out, I'm the one that came up with all of them.

Tonight: Egg-salad

Monday: Mustard Baked Chicken (an Irish recipe with whiskey mustard); a side of mint carrots & fried potatoes with parsley

Tuesday: Tortilla Pie; a side of avocado/guacamole

Wednesday: Macaroni and Cheese (by cheese I mean all of the cheeses in the house) with chicken and bacon; a side of steamed broccoli

Thursday: Stuffed Cabbage; a side of baked potatoes

Friday: Pork and Caraway Pilaf; a side of spinach salad

Saturday: Cornish Pasties with lamb, carrots, peas, onion

We'll see how this goes. Apparently Caraway Seeds are incredibly expensive... who would've thought?

Trying to get back into old hobbies

On Friday, I had a depressing conversation with my boyfriend. It started out as a conversation about what to eat for dinner. He was afraid that if we didn't live together, I would never eat; he felt as though he had to always decide what to eat; I felt like he was pickier than me. While I am happy to cook and clean-up dinner (less happy about the clean-up), I just can't pick what to eat.

That conversation morphed into me explaining that I cannot think of what to eat for dinner or make for dinner because I am not a creative person. He, annoyed, pointed out that I was creative years ago when we met. I explained that the creative time in my life was just a fluke. He rolled his eyes, sighed, then said that this is obviously un-true.

Outside smoking, he asked why I stopped writing, and drawing, and painting. I explained that it was obviously because I don't have enough time- between cooking, cleaning, working, sleeping. He pointed out that for the last few years I have had the same routine:

Wake up (grudgingly)

Get ready for work (grudgingly)

Go to work (grudgingly)

Work (not so grudgingly)

Go home (happily)

Find food to cook for dinner (non-creatively) / or go to grocery store to get food for dinner (ambivalently)

Make food for dinner (happily)

Eat dinner with boyfriend (happily)

Watch t.v. (ambivalently)

Watch t.v. until it's time for bed (ambivalently)

Get ready for bed (grudgingly)

Read before bed (sleepily)

Fall asleep with the light on until the book hits the floor

My boyfriend pointed out that I do not have any hobbies. Horror movies and cats don't count as hobbies, apparently. He urged me to go to the Dictionary of Great American Hobbies, turn to page 32 and take-up that hobby. When I pointed out that there is no Dictionary of Great American Hobbies, he asked me why I don't get back into the hobbies that I once enjoyed.

As I've been feeling uniquely under-creative for any of the hobbies that I had before, he pointed out one of my previous goals: collecting thrift-store paintings, and adding elements to them to make them amazing. I agreed that I would probably still really enjoy doing the project.

Yesterday (Saturday) we went to a Salvation Army, two Goodwills, and Deseret Industries (a Mormon Thrift store). The Salvation Army produced two paintings (well, a print, and whatever the metallic/hollographic pictures are); the second Goodwill produced a delightful painting of a lady skiing with her dog; Deseret Industries produced an $8 overhead projector.

Today's the day I start!!! My progress on the paintings can be documented at: http://thriftstorepaintings.blogspot.com/