Another Day of iPod-less-iness

Yes. That's right. iPod-less-iness. Stupid thing is plugged into the speakers in the living room, and I'm here at work trying to not have a headache. Note to self: don't forget the iPod. It is vital to your sanity.

So anyway. Today is like my Thursday, because I'm taking Thursday and Friday off this week. I would be more excited about that if I was actually doing something fun with those days. Alas, I will be tackling the biggest and baddest spring cleaning project this year: The Dreaded Storage Unit, which will hereto forth be referred to as the "Pit of Despair." And yes. I will need two whole days to get through it...probably more (though it does give me an excuse to buy storage bins for all my holiday decorations, which is something I should have done long ago really). Please pray that it is warm in Salt Lake on Thursday and Friday of this week so that I don't freeze my tail off for two days. I'll probably take pictures of the process so that I can share it with the world. Look forward to that for sure! ;-)

In other news. Vinnie and I made our annual trip to Idaho Falls for Eastern Dinner with my family on Sunday. It was a lot of fun, and mom made excellent food (as always). I'll be posting pictures eventually, and I'm going to edit a film I took on my camera of Dad and Mom and Anna performing Tears in Heaven. The battery on my camera was nearly dead (apparently), so the focus kept going in and out on me. That's okay though, because my plan is to put pictures of the day in the spaces where the focus goes all screwy. Wish me luck. Yet another project I'll be taking on during my "vacation" at the end of this week.

As most of you probably already know (and those of you who don't already know can know by reading previous blog posts), I've been thinking a lot lately about the world around me and my connections with it. I've found myself more and more politically minded (it's about time), I've been contemplating my job (and weighing the positives against the negatives--so far the positives are still winning obviously), and I've also been thinking a lot about my future (as most people do, I'm sure).

I think it's common knowledge that I don't want to make a career of Fidelity. It's going to take me a long time to be able to do what I want to do, though. It doesn't have to take me a long time, of course, I could do it in a relatively short amount of time. It is possible. However, circumstances being what they are, I cannot. When I was actually in college (and by that I mean it was a main priority), I really had no problem working full time and going to school full time. Nowadays there is just no way. I'm taking 7 credits this semester. 7. That's it. And one of those credits is a yoga class. So technically I'm really only taking 6 credits for which I actually have to put forth any real academic effort. And I still managed to feel overwhelmed sometimes.

I knew it was going to be hard, going back to school after a two (almost three) year hiatus. I had gotten used to only worrying about work and having fun with my husband and friends. Now I have to worry about work, having fun with my husband and friends AND school. It shouldn't be that big of a deal, really. I guess I just get frustrated because I would much rather be doing school full time and working part time instead of the other way around so that I can get it over and done with more quickly. Then, I could start doing what it is that I really want to do: Teach.

Of course, the issue that I am constantly contending with (and constantly losing against) is money. Money, money, money, money, MONEY. Stupid money. Isn't it weird that the more money you make, the more money you seem to need? Why does that have to be the case? Because we live in a capitalistic society and money is a necessity. Did you know that there are places in the world that you don't have to pay for a decent education? Well there are. And I can't say that I'm not tempted to move to those places purely to get an education that isn't going to put me into years and years worth of debt.

But for the time being, what choice do I have? None, really. I am, after all, the one who is jonesing to buy a house and wanted a nice new-ish car (which I love and am very grateful for). So what I want to do is being sacrificed for what I have to do to pay for the things I want. And to me, that's really a pretty decent compromise. And after all, I'm not completely sacrificing my education, right? Right. I'm just getting it more slowly than I would like.