Wisconsite at last. Tuesday, August 31, 2010
So here it is, three months and nary a peep from me. I've become the most craptastic blogger in all the land.One would think that an entire summer of fun would provide me with endless opportunities to post about whatever fun thing I was doing but instead I failed to write at all. Photos, yes- there are tons and tons of evidence of me having fun. Riding rollercoasters, driving a boat (look at me overcoming that fear of boats and water), running a 5 mile race, visiting my sister in law in alabama/georgia, a fun visit back to Athens and on and on.
I have to admit I've started to feel sketchy about posting my photos here because of my intended future profession. I'm considering purging my old ones, just in case any of my students stumble across these posts and suddenly are like "Oh holy crap, look at this post Mrs. Skeezix* wrote about being totally freaking drunk 4 years ago! WHOA!" and then poof! I'm an unemployed teacher.
That is the crap thing, I love the photos (uh, clearly I'm a photographer). They convey the fun in a way that words sometimes can't. I'm also epically lazy and photos are an easy way to bulk up a lame or boring entry. I have some time to get make a decision.
But that means that I've actually started grad school! Hurrah! It's a week and half into classes and I'm enjoying being back in the swing of things. Class is really interesting and possibly a little overwhelming at times when I think about all the stuff I'll actually have to do once I get into a classroom.
Oh Milwaukee though, I'm loving it so. There is an excellent little tiki bar around the corner from my apartment (and I mean around the corner), I've ended up there almost every weekend since I moved into town. It's cute and hip and the drinks are crazy strong.
I've hit a couple of the breweries in town and sampled some delicious Wisconsin beer plus had my very first cheese curds (oh love). There are still plenty of breweries to hit up and I can't wait to get rolling. I've had a couple of visitors already, a friend who moved to Wisconsin came for a visit and then a friend from Athens who was in town on business. Really! It felt like a little piece of Athens-home here in my new place.
Keep your fingers crossed for me though, I need to find a job and it's been slow going. Which of course is stressing me out more than a touch, I'm paranoid because I've been having to spend money on school supplies and feel like I'm burning through my reserves faster than I planned.
*I realized after I posted this I made myself a "Mrs." I promise I did not have some quickie wedding in all the fun things I did this summer. I'm not sure why I bloody wrote that but it's funny and thus I'm leaving it.
Labels: Awesomeness, beer, drinking, Milwaukee, photos, school
Learning to relax again Tuesday, June 01, 2010
So during my first full day of unemployment I ran, biked, laid out in the sun, knitted while listening to NPR (outside), read some and then took another bike ride and organized some of my knitting needles (whoa boy, organizing knitting needles? That is exciting stuff right there- isn't it?)Seriously.
Kind of sounds awesome, doesn't it? Well, perhaps not the part about organizing knitting needles.
It was, but honestly- I've been running full tilt for the last 2 months that all this time off I'm not entirely sure how to handle it anymore. For example, two weeks ago I was in Florida for 4 days for work, home for one, drove to Cleveland and back in less than 24 hours, packed a bunch boxes, went to my going away party, and had a house guest. All those things in 7 days.
Now I know I should be exhausted, and I am a bit...but I had Sunday and Monday of this week to do very little and so by today I was just ready to bust on out and do stuff.
Perhaps I should recap moving? Eh, it was moving- same as it ever is...too much crap and by 6pm that night I was just throwing shit away. Every single hanger I owned, a whole bottle of bleach, random cake boards I'd never used, old duplicate photos, a storage bin I'd had since I was 18, etc. There just wasn't room for them and they are all things easily replaced. My storage until was packed to the ceiling, my dad's car was filled with my stuff and so was my car. WHY do I have so much fucking shit? WHY?
I'm hoping to get every penny of my deposit back, and my mom was a champ at the cleaning of the apartment and it looked great. I'll need every penny to fund my unemployed summer of laziness plus a deposit on an apartment in Milwaukee and then paying the rent and utilities until I get on feet. Oh and money to buy food would be nice.
I'm not so secretly hoping that with all this free time I'll really get in some good bike rides and running, by the time the summer is over I'll have really amazing calves and thigh muscles. Then of course I'll have to figure out how to deal with the slow return of my regular body once I lose a majority of my free time due to a job and classes in the fall.
But I will know that for one glorious summer when I was 30 my calves were at their most athletically awesomest.
Labels: Awesomeness, bike, cleveland, knitting, reading, running, school
Changes are coming like a freight train Monday, May 03, 2010
How does it happen that I've failed to write for so long? I can't explain it, I've started to write things countless time and then something stops me dead in my tracks (ooh, look at that shiny object over there...wanders away from the computer.)But here I am again, writing another entry- hopefully to completion.
There is news in the land of the Saucy Trollop. Big news. I handed in my resignation at work and my last day will be May 28th.
Oh. My. God.
I'm heading back to school in the fall to get my teaching license and my masters. It's absolutely terrifying. And exciting. And then terrifying again.
The reason I'm leaving so soon is because my lease on my apartment is up on June 1st, and my new school is in Milwaukee. So for the time being I'll be tossing my stuff in storage for part of the summer and then staying with my parents in Cleveland and visiting my brother in Alabama too. I'm aiming for a August 1st arrival date in Milwaukee, which gives me three weeks before school starts to get settled in and find a damn job. I need to work, my student loans won't cover my living expenses and my classes are built in such a way that I don't have to be in class all day. Plus living in a cardboard box under a bridge would be fucking hard in the middle of winter which would be the result of me not finding a job.
This whole thing is a good thing, I've been needing a change for a while and I know in my heart it is the right move but that doesn't mean that without the slightest bit of provication that I don't burst into tears. Lots and lots of tears. I go in fits and starts, I'll be fine for a while and then all of the sudden it will hit me that I'm leaving this place I've called home for so very long. It's been 6.5 years that I've lived here as a non-college adult and then another 4 for undergrad so almost 11 years in total. My friends here are awesome, the community is amazing. It's impossibly hard to say goodbye to it all.
My poor, long suffering sister has had to bear the brunt of my crying. That woman deserves a bloody medal.
I've mentioned before when I get stressed my stomach goes haywire, I lose my appetite- sometimes I throw up. It is like it turns into a Celtic knot of discontent. I am fairly sure I thoroughly worried my parents this weekend because the sum total of my food that I consumed in their presence wouldn't keep a tit mouse alive (yes, I just said tit mouse- because I'm 13 and it's funny). For those who know me this is absolutely not my usual modus operandi. I love food. I love to eat. Granted earlier in the week I was eating everything that wasn't nailed down (thanks PMS), but on Thursday a switch flipped and poof! angry gut and no appetite.
Which is a pisser because my parents took me out to eat a totally awesome restaurant in Cleveland and I had maybe 5 bites of my amazingly delicious food. Do you live in Cleveland? Please go to Lopez on Lee and eat some of their Iron Chef Guacamole. It is absolutely to die for.
Christ the way this post is going everyone is going to have the impression that I'm not really excited about this move. But I am, I swear. Right now it's just the stress is foremost in my mind and thus taking up 90% of my computing power.
Milwaukee is awesome, the beer. The cheese. The people. A whole new world is waiting for me, and that is an amazing thing.
Just breathe.
Labels: apartment, Awesomeness, cleveland, Milwaukee, school
