Moving into break

Hopefully I can get ahead on my papers over this break. I have an ambitious but hopefully doable list of tasks to accomplish over Easter break, which runs from tomorrow until Easter Monday. This list includes writing one paper, outlining another, going to the doctor, and tidying my room. Perhaps I will post before and after shots of my room. Or possibly I will decide the before shot is too humiliating and only post an after shot!

This Easter will be new, as it's the first major Church holiday since we moved. I am hoping that our proximity to the D-house will mean we can go there, but I suspect the others will want to go to a parish church. Oh well.

Spring is coming

I don't have meteorological proof for that, really, but I have felt so much more cheerful in the past two days. I have way more energy, and was even described as "bubbly" by my mother. The grey of winter tends to leave me feeling sapped and depressed, and the little bit of sun we have been getting lately is a lovely change.

I am busily working away at finding a job. If anyone knows of a company in the DC area that wants to hire someone with a PhB in philosophy, let me know! Or if anyone wants to hire Kevin as a Greek or Latin teacher, that would be great too. Haha. I am remaining optimistic that we will find something--it's way too early to be freaking out.

Nothing is really going on around here that is terribly interesting. I am the only member of my family who has not thrown up in the last three days, and so I am trying very hard to not interact with them much so that I don't get sick.

Hopefully something more interesting will happen soon. Perhaps I will go on a photo walk--the blog has been kind of short of photos lately, I think.

7QT, vol. 22: snow days!

--- 1 ---

Wow. The federal goverment is opening, albeit late, and we are closed. I can't remember the last time anything in DC was open and we were shut. Our people in charge like to keep classes running! And now we have two days off in a row. My theory is that we shut because Metro isn't running the metrobuses on anything close to a normal schedule.

--- 2 ---

I love the four-day weekend. I am going to get so much done, and catch up on everything I fell behind in last week (not sure what happened there). I realize it's not so good for other people, though. The show at CUA which was supposed to run Thursday-Sunday was canceled last night and will probably now be canceled tonight. And missing out of two whole days of work in the costume shop is going to cripple the next show.

--- 3 ---

I have to admit that I haven't ventured out into the snow yet. I realize I am not that old, but I find temperature changes harder and harder to deal with the older I get. At some point today I will probably brave it outdoors, if only to take some pictures.

--- 4 ---

Oh yeah, and Happy Valentine's Day!  It's one of my least favorite holidays, if only because I think it's so stupid and the candy is usually not very good.

--- 5 ---

Kevin came home with me Wednesday night, for the purposes of playing in the snow with my siblings. Now he'll never get back to campus! Haha.

--- 6 ---

Of course, while he like spending time with my family, and they like spending time with him, that meant that he had to miss the Dominican Rite Mass at the D-House because the roads were not looking good and we didn't want to risk it. Had he stayed on campus, he could have just walked.

--- 7 ---

Ok then. I heard rumors of pancakes floating around last night, so I am off to investigate those. Stay safe, everyone who was hit by this storm!

For more Quick Takes, visit Conversion Diary!

A productive day!

I had such a productive day Tuesday! Here's what I did:
-Packed three boxes of books
-Packed a box of fish tank supplies
-Freecycled a box of fish tank supplies
-Wrote a description of the fish tank we're selling
-Finished J's Christmas present and wrapped it
-Wrote my friend in the convent a Christmas card and packaged up her present
-Wrapped Teresa's fiance's Christmas present and wrote him a card
-Started and finished M's Christmas present, and wrapped it
-Finished Kevin's grad school check list (since he had more final papers due than I did, I pulled together a list of everything he needed to apply for grad school)

Yesterday was less productive, as we had two Christmas parties to go to. But I did manage to do 2.5 hours of work for my grandfather, get the oil changed, and cut out one Christmas present.

Let's see if I can keep up the high productivity!

7 QT, Volume 18

--- 1 ---

Starting today, I am using Jen's template. I am not sure why I never started using it before, but when I realized it included the link back to her blog, which I always forget, I was sold.

--- 2 ---

Classes and finals are all over! I have not received any final grades yet, but I am anxiously awaiting them. At least one is going to be lower than I had hoped, but I don't know what I could have done differently. My classmates and I felt like the grading standards changed from assignment to assignment. Oh well.

--- 3 ---

Coming up is a nice long break. I intend to spend it productively. I have a long list of things I would like to get done, and I am going to pick a few and make serious progress on them. I hope so, anyway. On today's to-do list is clean my room and go to Confession.

--- 4 ---

Speaking of Confession, for my birthday (which is actually tomorrow), Kevin gave me a book about making a good Confession, which I sorely need, and a book called How To Pray the Dominican Way. Those of you who know me in real life may know that I am slightly obsessed with the Dominicans, so I am really looking forward to reading it!

--- 5 ---

I am making decent progress on Christmas presents. I have several ready to go, and several more than need work. If I follow through on my goal of sewing a lot of them, I have some busy days ahead of me. But I think it will work out. After Christmas, I will post pictures of the things I sewed.

--- 6 ---

Can I just say, making a wedding registry is weird? I have an aversion to gift lists, although I usually wind up being asked for them because I am a hard person to shop for. I get that. But the wedding registry seems strange. Not, "we will need some glasses," but "these glasses, right here!" I guess that makes other people's lives easier, and some of the glasses that exist are very ugly, but it still feels weird and greedy.

--- 7 ---

If you are reading this and coming to my wedding, feel free to ignore or be inspired by the registry. Or just not give a present. Also, the invitations haven't gone out, so if you haven't got one, don't stress. Also, the registry is hidden because it's not really done at all. So I don't know why I'm talking about people who haven't been invited yet buying things off a registry which no one can see. I should probably just stop talking.

For more Quick Takes, visit Conversion Diary!

7 QT, Volume 17

I'm just popping in to say 7 quick things...about moving!

1. We made an offer on a new house, and it got accepted. The closing is scheduled for right before Christmas, so we'll probably move after Christmas.

2. The pros of this house are as follows: it's in a better parish, it's closer to Papa's work, there's an intellectual Catholic community there, and it's prettier than our current house.

3. The cons are as follows: it's smaller, the yard is smaller, and it requires leaving the house we've owned for fourteen years.

4. The older people think that, on balance, this will be good for our family. The younger people, who can only see what they would lose and not what they would gain, are rather distraught.

5. Prayers for them would be appreciated!

6. Since the house is smaller, we'll have to do some purging. That's definitely not a bad thing. We could use it.

7. Lastly, lest I leave you on a depressing note, here's a little beauty for you.

Budgeting

I am trying to set a budget and stick to it. It's rather difficult, because since I work on an hourly basis, my pay isn't constant from week to week. I also get paid on the 10th and 25th of every month, which offends my sense of order because I can't just have the two categories of the first and second halves of each month.

This first paycheck, which I just got, is also unusual because it includes my pay for tutor training--eight hours I won't usually have.

Also, my two different jobs pay different amounts! It all gets rather confusing.

To add to all that, I have four bank accounts. I have a checking and a savings account from my mother's bank, which I have had since the beginning of college. Last year, when I was going abroad, I got a checking account and a savings account from Bank of America, since they have better terms for people going abroad. I also have a credit card from them.

Here is what I'm thinking as a budget. Obviously, once I graduate and have to pay rent and utilities, this will all have to be reworked.

10%: charity
15%: general spending
15%: short term savings
60%: long term savings

I have got a budgeting app called EEBA. The app doesn't seem to like a flexible income very well, but that's ok. We'll see how it goes. Since this paycheck is unusual, I'll just track my spending for the next two weeks and see what I spend. Then I'll input my actual numbers from the next paycheck and see how it goes. If anyone thinks another app is better than EEBA, let me know!

The plans, they are a-changin' (7QT, vol 15)

1. Instead of writing blog posts, I have been busy turning my life upside down.

2. How, you ask? I'm not applying to any PhD programs. I was sort of working on my applications, which basically meant watching many episodes of SVU to avoid thinking about them, and then I realized I don't want to spend the next six years of my life writing papers. I hate writing papers. I love reading philosophy, I love reading Greek, and I love talking about philosophy. But I hate writing papers. And grad school involves a lot of writing papers.

3. However, that means that I don't really know what to do with my life. I might apply to some MA programs, but I'm not really sure yet. It's hard to get funded for an MA in philosophy (since you usually go straight to a PhD) and I would still have to write papers.

4. I'm still behaving academically as though I were heading to grad school. I'm taking a graduate class this semester, and I have three hours of week of translating Greek with professors and grad students, which takes at least another three hours to prepare for.

5. Ideally, I think I would teach sewing classes to children. I'm not sure that I can pull that off, but I do think I will try to make money sewing in some way.

6. I've come up with the following ideas: alterations, an Etsy shop, sewing classes, mending/alteration classes for adults, custom made clothing. Depending on my area, some of these may be more or less realistic. I'm not going to do a link-up within a link-up, but if anyone has advice on making money sewing I'd be glad to hear it.

7. And, for no real reason, BIRDS!

Go over to Jen's to see the rest of the quick takes, or to add your own.

Catch-up

Sorry I fell off the face of the earth there. I went on vacation (which I didn't want to announce in advance for privacy/security reasons) and then I got sick again. My bizarre stomach pain from a few months ago came back, so I missed my last first day of classes sitting in the ER. Oh well. (Again, no conclusive diagnosis. I googled, and there are pages and pages of people who have similar symptoms and a huge array of tests turns up nothing. I'm going to an OBGYN to get an ovarian cyst ruled out, and if that's not it I'll probably drop it.)

This semester should be extremely busy. I'm doing individual tutoring, drop-in tutoring, skills tutoring, working in the costume shop, and babysitting. I'm also taking three undergraduate philosophy classes, one honors theology class, and a graduate philosophy class. And I have to write my grad school writing sample.

No senioritis allowed for me!

Last Full Day in Freiburg

Wow! I leave Freiburg tomorrow. I will spend the weekend in Duesseldorf with my cousin, and then fly to the US on Monday. We arrive in NYC late at night, so I won't be going home until Monday. So, technically it will take me four days to get home. But then I will be home! And I can't wait for that.

Today is going to be spent running around doing all the little tasks that one has to do before moving. I would like to purge some stuff, in the hopes of not needing an extra suitcase to get home. I am pretty sure that's a pipe dream, but it would be sooo nice. I am going to leave a lot of the stuff I bought on arrival behind, such as my coffee maker, extra blanket, and probably a pair of shoes as well. On the other hand, I have acquired several books, and I was not very far under the weight limit when I arrived. Does anyone know if they actually check the weight limit on carry-on bags?

I will try to get up a 7 quick takes post before I leave, but if I don't, then I don't. All my thoughts are focused on getting home at the moment!

Summer Fun List

Catholic Caitie Rose had a great idea: a summer fun list! I am going to borrow this idea and make my own list.
However, I am going to declare that summer starts now. Of course, it isn't summer, but I want this list to include things to do in Freiburg, and I only get about a month without classes this year anyway. So this is not so much a summer list as a list of things to do before senior year starts. I don't necessarily expect to complete this whole list, as that would require doing (roughly) 3.6 things a week, but we will see.

1. Read The Name of the Rose. Completed on May 20th, 2013.
2. Ride the Schauinslandbahn.
3. Ride the Sauschwaenzlebahn.
4. Do a wine tasting at one of the wine places one stop away from my house. Completed on May 22nd, 2013.
5. Spend several hours birdwatching in the woods near my house.
6. Spend several hours birdwatching at the Seepark, where ducks hang out. Completed on May 30th, 2013.
7. Run 10 miles at least once.
8. Finish a bottle of calcium pills. I have been so bad about taking those recently!
9. Try gluten-free beer. Completed on May 18th, 2013.
10. Have an American-style cookout with friends for the 4th of July.
11. Read Part II of the Jesus of Nazareth series, in German.
12. Finish reading Plato's Gorgias in Greek.
13. Get a grad school writing sample into at least first draft form.
14. Finish reading the Gospel of Matthew in Greek.
15. Go to Rome.
16. Get a rosary blessed by Pope Francis.
17. Visit the relics of my patron saint, in either Rome or France. (They were divided.)
18. Preferably both!
19. Organize all the pictures I took in Germany.
20. Post them all on Facebook.
21. Send a postcard to everyone I am supposed to send a postcard to this semester!
22. Fix my bicycle's loose handlebars.
23. Mail my sister the baby socks I made her.
24. Go hiking.
25. Go to the Augustiner Museum. Completed on May 21st, 2013.
26. Sew myself another piece of clothing.
27. Make some more jam.
28. Go to Ikea just to have lunch there.
29. Ride the Oldtimerlinie. Completed on June 1st, 2013.
30. Reread Plato's Republic.
31. Take a tour of the Cathedral.
32. Climb the Cathedral tower.
33. Get a haircut.
34. Do something about the sad pathetic state of my house plants. Completed on May 28th, 2013.
35. Save money towards an icon of my patron saint.
36. Go 24 hours without using my computer at all, for anything.
37. Make a scrapbook of my semester in Germany.
38. Pray all four sets of mysteries of the rosary at once. Completed on June 2nd, 2013.
39. Do a facebook friend purge.
40. Go to a Freiburg Sacristans game. Completed on May 25th, 2013.
41. Buy a gluten-free cookbook.
42. Go a week without using Facebook.
43. Figure out what to do with the condensed milk in my fridge that I bought by accident.
44. Clean out my backpack.
45. Fix the broken hook and eye on my skirt.
46. Make a loaf of gluten-free bread from scratch.
47. Come up with a budget for next semester that involves concrete numbers.
48. Take my little siblings fishing.
49. Get another turtle.
50. Buy a copy of the Bible in German.