Report on Life

Don't plan on this post being wholly coherent. I'm just typing stuff as I think of it. It may be kinda long, too.




So my laptop is dead. This is inconvenient. I have to go to the library or use my apartment's computer lab to check email/check teachers' websites for homework assignments (I actually found out in class that I had an assignment due online before that class started)/do homework (three classes of mine post homework/parts of homework online)/etc etc. Maybe this will help me use my time better, though. I used all the time that I WOULD have been on Facebook last night cleaning my room. Having my room clean made me feel WAY better than I would have felt after just checking Facebook. And now that my room's clean(er), I can think and study better. There are still stacks of paper I need to sort through, trash to be taken out, and a basket full of clothes that need to get on hangers, but for the most part it's helping my mind. I guess not having a computer always next to me will be a good thing. (everything's what you make it out to be, after all.)

It's also amazing how a clean room can have an affect on your well being! Since my room's been disorganized, I've been disorganized. It's like the state of your room is the state of your brain. And boy would I like to sort through my thoughts and goals. Lately I've been scatterbrained and unmotivated in just about everything, or my mind will dwell on the negative and confusing aspects of life, which is NOT conducive to making good grades, being active in organizations, and keeping a boyfriend happy. Maybe having a clean room will help with this. Scripture study and prayer is also a daily must to get me out of this funk.

My job as a dental assistant's still going good. There are a lot of instruments and procedures I still don't know, but I've only been there just more than a month and working only five hours a week, so that seems pretty understandable. Some things are becoming natural to me, like sterilizing instruments, cleaning rooms, and taking out the high suction tube when Dr. Shea grabs a drill. I just need to get setting rooms up, knowing where instruments are located, and anticipating what the dentist will need next before he asks for it down. I'm really so blessed to have this job. I like it a lot.

I also love my job at Cane's. I would describe is as way fun. I'm comfortable with it for sure. There are a couple managers that I get a little awkward working around, and so I get really self-conscious and consequently start messing up, but the other three are so positive. I feel like I do my job so well when they're working. One in particular is my age, takes a bunch of the same classes I do, and likes a lot of the same stuff I do/did (video games in particular, and he likes anime/manga, too, something I used to be WAY into but not so much now) so we always have something to talk about. He's definitely my favorite manager to work with. Also, you know how on some shifts you work, all your favorite people are there, and everything runs just so smoothly? I love those days.

Speaking of being awkward around people... I'm feeling kind of alone in school lately. I don't know many people in my classes, and the people I DO know tend to want to gab with each other. I'm not so much a gabber. Sometimes I wish I was, but that's just not something I enjoy or am good at. The whole "omg i have a test today, barf!" and "heeeyy, how are you??" thing is so boring to me. Can I find someone to talk about real things to? Things of substance, value? I'm tired of being "in" a conversation with cheerleadery people and I say something incredibly dorky
and feel stupid. For example:
"Me and my boyfriend are going to Gulf Shores for Spring Break! We're gonna get so drunk, it's gonna be awesome. What are you doing?"
"Well, I'm staying in Baton Rouge and studying for the DAT."
"Oh. Okay."
I have far better conversations with professors than I do with other students. I thought college wasn't supposed to be high school. I'm just not like most people, I suppose. Or maybe I just haven't met the right people. Meh, I dunno.

There's at least one person I'm bonding pretty well with. My Chinese teacher is taking some anthropology courses with LSU, and has to do some field research on a group of people. She picked the Mormons! hahaha. She learned I was Mormon when I told her I went to China with a BYU Study Abroad. She's actually been to Temple Square and knew a lot of Mormons when she lived in California. So, she's been coming to Institute and church with me. It's way cool. It's weird, too, just that she's one of my TEACHERS...now I'm on a hugging basis with the person who grades my work. But it's still awesome.



Class starts in half an hour, and I have some studying to do. Peace out.

The Death of a Laptop

So my laptop's been on the decline. The CD drive stopped working, sometimes it doesn't want to connect to my printer, the quickplay buttons stopped working, and the screen got really weird. It would be normal and fine until a few minutes later it would either black out (but programs would still be running--I could hear sounds coming from the speakers) or the display would go crazy...like the whole screen would turn yellowy, then reddish, then switch to black lines about two pixels apart from each other. The black lines are what it eventually settled on, so reading text was really hard. I had to change the screen resolution or zoom in a ton to be able to read or type stuff.

Last Monday night, though, I get home and my computer won't start at all! After much talking with HP, I find out my computer is kaput and needs a new motherboard, which to replace it would cost more than I bought the laptop itself for two years ago.

I'll explain more later. Now I need to go to class. Long story short, though, now I don't have a computer. I'm resorting to hanging out in the library whenever I need to do something online, and when the library's closed, I use the computer lab in my apartment complex. We'll see how this affects my blogging resolution...

100% chance of freezing rain

School's cancelled tomorrow!

It was supposed to cancel today, but it didn't get "inclement" enough until 4:3o, which is well after my classes are over. But hey, I get to skip out on four classes tomorrow. Sweet!!

(That probably means I can't do anything fun, though. Driving around tomorrow may not be a smart idea. I guess I'm stuck in the house... I'll just study. And make jewelery.)

I have an interesting experience from a few days ago which taught me a good lesson on not being quick to assume.

I was getting a little bit tired of being the only one who would take out the trash, refill the paper towels, and load the dishwasher, so instead of confronting my roommates, I left a couple harmless sticky notes in the kitchen. On the paper towels I left "You kill it, you fill it" and on the trashcan "You fill it, you kill it."

I wake up the next morning to find that (1) the paper towels were empty and the note gone, and (2) the "You kill it, you fill it" note on the dishwasher. "WHOAH. Is someone giving me attitude??" I thought. I was livid. I've been doing the dishes, putting other peoples' dirty plates in the washer and taking them out when they were clean. Who's saying that I don't do the dishes??? "Surely it was Zatabia," I thought, "she knows how to dish out an attitude. Heather's too cool/chill to do something like that." Zatabia once put a note on the fridge about not crowding the sink with dirty dishes, so I assumed she was making a fuss again.. I fumed for a while, thinking about how I could dish it back out (get it? dish? nyar nyar).

The whole WWJD loomed on my mind, too. I was angry, but I knew I had to do the right thing...namely, to be a peacemaker. I filled the paper towels again and took the trash out (but in the new bag I threw the sticky note in it in plain sight...). I decided I'd kindly ask Zatabia if she moved the note, and if there's a problem, what can I do to resolve it? She comes home, and I ask her about the note. "What note?" she replies. OH NO! I felt really bad for assuming it was her. But then I was baffled. Did Heather REALLY do that? HEATHER?? No way! Is Heather really not as cool & passive as I thought she was? So I was brought kind of low at this point. I misjudged Zatabia, assuming she did something that Heather did. I would have to approach Heather now.

Heather came home. I asked her about the note. "Huh? Oh, I found it on the floor, and I was in a rush to go and couldn't remember where it was, so I just stuck it on the dishwasher. Wasn't it there before?" Ouch. I was brought WAY low at this point. I made these terrible assumptions about these girls, while this mess was all in my head. I almost started drama for NO REASON.

Don't assume! Because, as we all know, it makes an... (you can finish the sentence).