Hello, Sunshine!

I finally did it this morning! I got up before the sun did and I'm working on my school work for the week! A few weeks ago I randomly woke up at 7 in the morning (or maybe I did it on purpose, I can't remember) and I got so much work done that day! Something that I haven't really been able to replicate since. So for a few days now I've been trying to get up around 6 and it hasn't been working. The past few days I've gotten up around 9 and I always feel like I'm not getting much accomplished.

We tried going to bed earlier last night and it just didn't work. We ended up getting up at midnight and watching 3 episodes of Family Guy before we were tired enough to go to bed. I don't know how I actually managed to get up at 6:20 because I don't recall the alarm clock going off, but here I am! It's 6:47 and I'm watching a video for school. Fingers crossed I feel the same sense of accomplishment at the end of the day as I felt so many weeks ago!

I Died in Good Health

I Am a Mucus Factory

Friday evening I was hit hard and fast with a rather nasty sinus infection. It was really the anti-perfect end to an anti-perfect week.

• On Monday my grandma fell at work and was rushed to the hopsital.


• On Tuedsay I drove the 150 miles out to Lompoc to help take care of my grandma.


• On Wednesday I got to spend the entire morning with my grandma, taking her to a doctor appointment and running errands around town. That night I drove back home to Bakersfield.


• On Thursday I had a lot of reading to catch up on as I got no work done in Lompoc.


• On Friday I still had a lot of work to do. Then I got sick.

Saturday morning was the community garage sale and Jeff and I were up from 4:30am until a very bad hour late Saturday evening. By not taking any medication I was able to get all my school work done. I'm not sure if anything that I wrote can be read and understood by another human being but I'm hoping it can. Sunday - yesterday - I finally took medication and floated along in a Benadryl haze for most of the day.

Today I am a mucus factory. I'm starting to get my appetite back a little but not much. I've been eating even though I haven't been hungry, simply because my body could have been starving and I would have had no idea, that's how sick I've been.

For some reason my workload with school is much lighter this week than it has been in weeks prior so I'm using it as an opportunity to stay proactive on my job search and get better. I haven't been outside since Saturday morning and my goal is to at least be able to walk downstairs and check the mail sometime this week. Probably when I go to pick up my iPad.

Oh yeah, I broke my iPad Monday night. Anti-perfect week and all!

This One's For You, Jeff!

Jeff is looking at my blog's site stats right now and unintentionally making me feel bad for not blogging more. So, here's to you, Jeffrey. A new entry on my blog!

 

85% (or, an Asian F)

I think I have developed a better sense of graduate school now. I'm in the third week of the term and I've had my first unhappy grade: an 85%. I neglected to recall some pertinent facts from the syllabus in my Identity in the Virtual Age class and wrote last week's paper in the wrong format. The professor made sure to emphasize the fact that there is a difference between undergrad writing and graduate writing. Perhaps it's the absence of physicality in my grad school program that has made me not feel that I'm a graduate student. That being said, I'm more in that frame of mind today than I was two weeks ago.

Why does an 85% bother me when it isn't that bad of a grade? Because I've always worked hard to get A's and despite that hard work I always managed to miss a straight-A semester by one class grade. I'm still in the pursuit of that elusive 4.0 term.

I was assured by my professor, Jeffrey and a calculator that this minor setback will be minuscule in the grand scheme of things. In fact, that 15% accounts for less than 1% of my final grade, assuming I continue to do well in the remaining weeks.

Graduate Student

I'm in the second day of the first week of graduate school. I thought I'd feel different. You know when you have a life changing event you somehow expect to feel different? Maybe it's not something you're supposed to feel instantaneously. I certainly didn't feel different for a long time after graduating from CSUCI. I suppose I wanted to feel different about being a graduate student. Alas, I don't.

I had a few different expectations upon starting school again and so far the impact has been minimal. Except for an enormous amount of reading I have to accomplish this week nothing really feels all that different. Again, maybe it takes some time.

I haven't been feeling well today. I'm wearing socks, sweat pants and a hoodie with the air conditioner on. My logic? I'd rather be warm in cold air than warm in warm air. Jeff isn't really buying it though. At least I'm comfortable. He says I should take a nap or just go to bed all together but I hate the idea of not getting any work done and throwing off my sleep schedule.

Hmm, come to think of it, I should have realized that sleeping more than 9 hours last night was a clue that I'm not feeling my best. I should try to make it into bed earlier tonight. I'm sure the 36 page article I'm about to read will help out with that.

On another note, it really sucks when my ADD kicks in while I'm doing required reading.

Our First Party :)

Though Jeff and I have only lived in Bakersfield for two weeks it feels like so much longer. I miss my mom and grandma and was really looking forward to them coming out to visit. They had only seen the apartment in pictures and since we finally got the place cleaned up and put together it was an absolute perfect time to have them come out for a party. We also happened to be celebrating my grandma's 75th birthday!

We put together all of the fixings for tacos, sat around the dining table and talked and ate and enjoyed really yummy food! The highlight of our lunch was the homemade ranch dressing I made this morning. I've never made anything like it before and it turned out absolutely perfect!

It had just enough zing to it without being overpowering. Ranch is something I typically associate with just salads or dipping but this particular recipe has me imagining all the different things I can do with it!

Homemade Ranch Dressing

No preservatives. No high-fructose corn syrup. Creamy, tangy homemade ranch dressing in 5 minutes!

No preservatives. No high-fructose corn syrup. Creamy, tangy homemade ranch dressing in 5 minutes!

Ingredients

• 3/4 cup mayonnaise


• 3/4 cup sour cream


• 1 Tbsp olive oil


• 1 Tbsp lemon juice


• 1/4 to 1/2 cup buttermilk


• 1 small bunch of chives


• Small handful of parsley


• 1 clove garlic


• 1/2 tsp salt


• 1/4 tsp white pepper

Instructions

1. Place all ingredients with 1/4 cup of buttermilk in a blender


2. Blend for 10 seconds. Check consistency and blend in additional buttermilk if desired. Less buttermilk for dipping, more for dressing.


3. Store in an air-tight jar in the fridge.

Nutritional Information Calories: 102.3 | Fat: 10.7 | Fiber 0 WW Points: 3

Notes

Yields: 16 2-Tbsp servings

Adapted from The Gourmet Cookbook, 2004

Estimated time: 5 minutes

As you can see from the photo mine came out a bit greener than what is expected. Truth be told a "bunch of chives" and a "small handful of parsley" is fantastically vague. Pretty sure the reason mine came out so green was because I over estimated the amount of chives and parsley required. Regardless, it tastes wonderful and I look forward to making it again in the future!

Tomorrow I will have to tell you about the positively divine cream cheese bundt cake I made!