December 21, 2010

• It's Christmas Time in the City

  After a bazillion years, I'm back with some updates. It feels obligatory somehow that I write out what is going on in my life at least periodically, no matter how tough it is to actually log in and do this.

  Here goes the trusty bulleted list method:

  • School
    • Just finished fall semester (straight As, including a 100% in one class!), and I'm so glad it's over. Both professors were HORRIBLE in that they ignored the class the entire time. Neither was familiar with online teaching, neither met deadlines (sometimes they were weeks behind in getting assignments to us), and neither communicated with the class at all. In one class, I didn't even get a SINGLE GRADE until after the semester was already over. Can you believe that? The classes themselves were good (Black Women Writers and American Indian Women), but I never, ever want a class by one of those profs ever again. Ugh.
    • The first 2 weeks of January I'm taking a super-condensed class on campus (called a "Winterim" class). It's just like a regular, semester-long class (3 credits), but it is squished into 10 days (9am-1:15pm, M-F, for 2 weeks). Obviously I am taking time off work to do this, but it will be worth it to get those 3 credits out of the way in such a short time. I'll let everybody know if the class is kicking my ass or not (I suspect it will). The part I'm least looking forward to is spending 4+ hours a day in those incredibly uncomfortable chairs with the teeny desk attached to them. I hate those fucking things.
    • Immediately after my Winterim class I start spring semester, and both classes will be online. I'm taking Gender & Communication, and the Psychology of Sexuality. Both look like awesome classes, and they are only Sophomore-level, which will be a nice break from the Senior-level stuff I've been working on this past semester.
    • Now I'm trying to figure out when I will graduate, and if I push myself, I should be able to do it by fall of 2012. It would be great to finish in the spring of 2012, but I don't think I can swing that and keep my job and remain sane.
  • Work
    • I joined my first professional organization last month, the Colorado Association of Libraries. I also plan on joining their subcommittee on Intellectual Freedom. This seems pretty much perfect for someone like me.
    • It gets harder all the time to deal with the bullshit bureaucracy and lack of funding, but I don't have anything better right now, so I'm keeping what I have. If it wasn't actually government work, it would be so much better, but we are technically part of state government, so I just have to deal with that. In the meantime, I keep my fingers crossed that libraries can remain relevant, and that someday I'll get a pay increase (although it has been 4 years since I've gotten one, and all they do is reduce our pay and furlough us). Sigh.
  • Home/Family
    • I pretty much just want to stick around at home all the time and watch Heroes and go to bed early lately. Part of that is the economy, the cold and dark weather, etc., and part of that is me being depressed *and* anxious, which makes me want to avoid, avoid, avoid. I'm going to just let it ride for now.
    • My dad gave his dog to my sister (who lives with my mom), and the dog is peeing everywhere and is being super aggressive. My mom hates the damn dog for ruining her house and pretty much just wants to have him put down, especially since she is scared he will bite her. My sister would be devastated, but she doesn't do enough to take care of him. The real bullshit of this situation is the fact that my dad dumped the dog on my sister because he didn't want the dog to ruin HIS apartment.
    • Speaking of my dad, he has a new girlfriend named Anne Rice. Ha.
    • My mom and I have been closer lately, which is really good because for awhile I thought I would never stop being angry with her. Things are better now and it's great.
    • My sister is a fucking train wreck. She is aggressive, rude, avoidant, and negative. She goes out of the house at odd hours (like 2am, is constantly texting people saying she doesn't want to be around her family (I checked her phone at Thanksgiving), and is either fucked up on meth or completely stoned. Basically, I just don't know what to do anymore. If she doesn't want help, nobody in the world can help her. It's so completely obvious that she is back on the meth again. For awhile she was better; she was in a program and had stopped using, and was actually nice to us and participated in the things we did as a family. Now it's back to the way things were, and I just hate to even be around her. She is even worse during the holidays. I'm going to do my best just to avoid her, but not so much that she will become suspicious and get in my face about it (which will just piss me off/upset me even more). I'm walking on eggshells here.
  • Me
    • I finally realized how happy singing makes me, and how much I miss being in a choir. I was in choir from 5th-12th grades, plus I even joined a church choir for a couple of years after high school because I was desperate. Unfortunately, they fired their music director for being gay, and I realized that I just can't be around people who would do something like that.
    • Soooooo I'm auditioning for the Denver Women's Chorus on February 20. I was at an event they were singing at and they invited me up to sign with them, plus I know somebody in the group, so I feel I have a good chance of getting in. (Plus I have a pretty decent voice. I think the audition is mostly to make sure I can match pitch and blend with other voices, and to place me into which group I will be singing with - probably alto 1).
    • For the first time in a long time, I'm looking forward to the new year instead of dreading it. 2010 sucked (I was sick for 3 months, and Ron died, etc. etc. etc.), but 2011 could be really good.

  • 6:33 pm
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