For the First Time...

I feel quite productive. I lengthened two pairs of pants and fixed an unraveled hem on one of my skirts today. On top of that, I wrapped a bunch of Christmas presents and just started the wash. (Shit, that doesn't sound like much in retrospect.) This break I am taking advantage of all the time I've got, rather than pretending that it's going to be as long as it feels, because school breaks always fly by.

I work the next couple of days, so I have had to pen things in my planner to ensure stuff gets done before Matt and I's real vacation to San Diego on the 26th. I say "real" because despite not flying (as we'd hoped we would), we will be staying at a nice hotel in the middle of the city (rather than his grandparents'; they moved to a nursing home a few months ago), and we planned for this 5-6-day vacation to be, well... a vacation. All our previous visits to San Diego have been so short we'd barely spend more than one full day there, and we were in Santee (a suburb of SD) most of the time. I think most of those "vacations" were spent driving than actually vacationing. Despite expecting to visit Seattle/Vancouver, I'll take whatever I can get.

On my agenda this upcoming break is to search for and complete internship applications, finish my study abroad application, sell some clothes on eBay, and download lots of music.

What I hope to continue doing is not spend money on outside food if I am by myself. This has helped my finances considerably, considering how much I dropped last week on presents.

Wishing everyone a safe and happy Christmas. Hope you have a good new year, too!

Post-Holidays Post

I reserve the same sentiment at this time of year that I've held for the past few years: a slight feeling of dreariness. It is always a drag after Christmas and New Year's, and I find myself not wanting to let go of the previous year. Maybe that's a good thing; maybe it signals nostalgia. 

Pre-Christmas and post-finals was an especially awesome time. I did probably 80% of the Christmas shopping for my household this year, and thoroughly enjoyed it. The wrapping was also fun. I ended 2008 celebrating Matthew and I's one-year dating anniversary. I know how cheesy it sounds, but I wasn't about to pass up my boyfriend's own initiative to arrange something special. Since his parents would be out of town he was staying at his parents' house to watch his younger brother. I joined him on the 31st (the anniversary) for quiet time involving a home-cooked dinner, pizza, and two Jack Nicholson movies: Something's Gotta Give and As Good As It Gets. I don't think we could have celebrated the occasion better; I had also caught a cold of sorts in the days prior so I appreciated the low-keyness. Something's Gotta Give is one of my favorite movies. I could watch it over and over again. In the middle of the night at some point, Matthew gave me a very small gold chain! Stunning. It is only one-half of the gift, though. The online store fucked up and have yet to deliver the koala bear pendant that he bought separately. But I don't mind, as he's been refunded the fee he paid for expedited shipping.

I have also finalized my class schedule for my second semester at the U of Utah. It's gone through two or three rounds of adjustments since my starting registration date in November. My last schedule arrangement included a half accounting/business focus and half history focus, as preparation for a tentative move toward a professorship in history or something similar. Since then, however, I got a B in my Victorian Britain history class and have become rather disillusioned at the prospect of a professorship. I don't think it was the lower-than-expected grade that made me doubt my abilities as much as that it simply got me thinking, as little things tend to do with me. It got me to thinking about the potential finance route I had always imagined myself pursuing as a youngster. I realized that I have always been more comfortable in a static environment--not that I wouldn't like business trips or hustle and bustle in my work place. But I guess I have always seen myself as a business suit wearing professional working on Wall Street. So now I've got half of my schedule devoted to accounting, and the other to economics. 

I just hope my classes end up being a good fit for me, and that Matthew and I will study well together. Crazy as it sounds, it really was great to study with people in Bobst even if I didn't always get much done. It was great even studying there alone but surrounded by strangers, to be engulfed in a place where everyone was working toward one thing. I have always been pretty comfortable in a classroom type of environment when I have been left to my own devices, i.e., not picked on by the teacher to say something insightful.

I hope everybody had a nice holiday. I don't have a new year's resolution because I don't believe in new year's resolutions. I just have resolutions. I guess I'll end this post with a list:

1) Devote myself to once-daily bikram yoga when schedule permits (to begin once I get my car back from the shop in 10 days or so... )

2) Read more

3) Sell my latin dance shoes

4) Be more extroverted

5) Cook more, eat out less