untilgradschool

I’m heading back to Massachusetts today. Ask me how sad I am… VERY! My grandmother just made breakfast sandwiches for a house full of people. So good! We had venison sausage left over from my grandfather’s last deer kill last winter. Caitlin is planning on sneaking one more monster turkey sandwich before we pack up and leave this afternoon. The sandwich will be a comfort if we get caught in the snow that’s being forecasted mid-afternoon.

Tomorrow is the beginning of December; the month of family, travel, debt stress and weight gain. All good stuff. I’m happy that my family and friends are generally doing well and are healthy and I’m hoping the best for those who aren’t doing well and need a little help or inspiration. Maybe my new year’s resolution will be to act more compassionate and giving (I wonder if I’m not enough already).

I have pretty high standards of where I want to go to grad school and what I want to study. I take into consideration the faculty, the resources and location. But, a new consideration I’ve been weighing is how the college or university acts in the community they are situated in. I have always tried to be an active member of whatever community I live in and I feel any university I give lots of money (no matter how much money, actually) should show a solid cense of civic responsibility. \

There are lots of colleges in Worcester and the neighborhoods that they are in vary greatly. I’d really be curious to see what correlations the colleges and universities have to where they are located.

So Caitlin and I got to Maine about six hours ago and did a bit of shopping in Freeport, the home of L.L. Bean. I didn’t plan to buy anything at the beginning, but I was seriously temped to go to town in some of the stores with all of the deep discounting. I couldn’t believe that some designer label stores such as Nautica, Timberland, Northface, etc were taking 50% off of all their merchandise.

I was informed upon arrival at my grandparent’s retirement home on Cousin’s Island that we weren’t having Turkey 2.0, but instead would be having Surf n’ Turf with lots of pie and fixings. I’m quite excited. I may go back to Freeport or to some other shopping centers before I head back to Worcester and see if I can get some good deals for all of my holiday shopping.

I hope everyone is still enjoying their long weekend.

This Thanksgiving went off exceptionally well. Even the family members that I regularly quarrel with were generally amiable. The food turned out to be abundant and delicious all around. I indulged in almost everything, except the wine and spirits.

Serving thanksgiving dinner to the homeless at St. Paul’s Cathedral was a highlight of the day. I was really happy that I got up and went with my mom. Even thought I got really tired later in the day and needed a nap, I think volunteering is something I’ll do even more now. Christmas morning is likely going to be the next meal that I serve at.

I visited with Caitlin’s family too, which was great as usual. They’ve all got great sense of humor and it’s easy to joke around with them.

I must say, i feel generally content with Thanksgiving Break so far. I’m about to do a little contract work and then put the laptop away for work purposes for the rest of the weekend.

I hope everyone else is doing well.

I was so tired when I got home today that I needed to take a nap, otherwise there was absolutely no way that I was ever going to get through the skype conference I had scheduled for tonight.

The nap was delicious. I felt so good drifting off to sleep and waking up. But, now I am jolted wide awake and unable to sleep. My family wants me to get up early tomorrow and get stuff done for them and I may head down to my grammar school to serve meals to the homeless too. It’s going to be a long day, I suspect. I may need another nap.

I don’t know what it is lately, but I’ve been developing signs of insomnia gradually over the past few weeks. It’s not affecting me too badly yet, but I don’t want to indulge that part of my past. I’ll become an ogre.

I’m quite happy to have a short week for Thanksgiving. I’ll be stuffing myself repeatedly and hopefully won’t gain too much weight. I plan on bringing my exercise gear while traveling to get a few quick workouts in each day.

There have been whispers of use getting out of the office early today. I don’t foresee it with my work load. I won’t hate on those that get to leave early too much, but I could really use a few hours of reading and reflection to get my mind suitable for a lot of family interaction. I just need to figure out some good answers to the questions I’m sure to be asked about work, school, etc.

I am officially accepted to the masters degree of marketing innovative technology, but because I’m non-matriculated (for time line reasons) I am unable to be given a federal loan. My only options are for private loans. I really really really don’t want to take out another private loan again in my life. They’ve caused me so much drama and headaches and I feel like if I take anymore out my financial situation could only get tougher. I don’t want to take a bank loan out for these either as the interest rate is high and the repayment period is high as well. This leaves me with few viable options. I want to start classes so badly, but it’s not looking good right now. I may have to wait until next September. Bleh!

Nothing but grim financial news right now. Quite depressing if you ask me. Considering that I’m starting a freelancing business, I’ve got to be damned crazy to try and start a business while I have a full time job as well as looking to take grad school classes. I say, bring on all challengers. I’m feeling more motivated now than ever to make it over this big financial hump that everyone else seems to be suffering. When you come to a crossroad and need to decide whether you’re going to go for “it” or just settle for whatever you’re given, the choice you make will affect the rest of your life. I figure if I’m only going to live once, I should give everything my best until I’m too exhausted to move or think. Then I’ll rest for a bit and get back at it when I’m better.

Although I’ve done more work related stuff than most people I know this weekend, I still feel quite unaccomplished. This lousy assignment on deer hunting (of all things) is taking me forever to finish and the pay is way too low to get motivated about. I definitely won’t accept any assignments from this buyer again at this rate of pay.

On a separate note, I got to hang out with some friends last night and sit in a 104 degree hot tub when it was 14 degrees out at midnight. My hair turned completely to ice. It was nuts and relaxing. I can understand why my grandparents bought a hot tub then they built their new house in Maine. Hopefully that can be part of my splurge someday.

I’m beginning to think I’m either cursed or targeted by identity thieves. I woke up today to four voicemails saying that there were likely fraudulent accounts on one of my credit cards. I called as soon as I woke up and sure enough, over $1000 was charged to my visa in Indiana.

Do I have a sign written on me that says “steal my identity?” Right before the holidays when I’m strapped for cash and present money this has to happen. I can’t believe this! They said that the fraudulent charges will be credited to my account within 90 days. That’s 3 months! Until then I’ll have an overdrawn credit card that I can’t even use.

I’m beginning to think I need to pay every credit card off (I already knew that) and shut them all down and go back to cash transactions. If only…