UT 02: the Dead of Winter

What a semester.

I know I fell off the face of the earth, but I am back. My schooling has gone alright, but I know I'm not going to do as well as I have in my past semesters since coming back from my leave of absence. Just too much going on to concentrate.

What's going on, you ask? Hoo-hoo.

Well, I lost my house and I had to move in with my aunt and cousin up in Sussex County, which was a good hour and a half from my job. But, you know, I'm a good employee so I did the commute. Then I got canned. So, yeah. Then I had no commute. And I've been on interviews and stuff; I got a job at a department store for the holiday season that, while it is a major pay cut, at least buys me another month while I try to apply for a decent, permanent job. My brother in-law had another stroke (he's 27, and the first one was this March I think) and my sister and he both lost their jobs and had to move back in with family. I had swine flu and then I had walking pnemonia. And now I'm healthy.

SO! That was my semester.

As for books, I'd recommend Teacher Man by Frank McCourt, Nocturnes by Joe Connolly, McSweeney's Mammoth Treasury of Thrilling Tales edited by Michael Chabon, McSweeney's Enchanted Chamber of Astonishing Stories likewise edited by Michael Chabon, Heart-Shaped Box by Joe Hill, and some other things that I can't remember right off the top of my head but will attempt to get to asap.

How have YOU been?? If, you know, you still read this.

UT01: The New One

I'm reviving the 332-60 blog: welcome to the surprise post!

Let it be known that "UT" stands for "Uncharted Territory;" this blog will go where it has never gone before - to the next semester. Dun dun duuuun.

Hokey, yes. Warranted, yes.

Last semester, now that all of the horses are in, went better than I thought it would. I wonder how all of you did? (Maybe you guys won't even be checking blogger.com anymore. Either way, this should at least help to keep the edge off - a place to vent frustrations, fears, and interests. At any rate...) Well, grades aside, another semester is about to begin. The question slamming around inside of my head is probably obvious: HOW BAD WILL IT BE???

How bad, indeed. I have one English course (contemporary literature, I believe) to fulfill a requirement that a previous class wound up not qualifying for, Urban Anthropology, Social Psychology, and Spanish I. The Spanish class has me a little terrified for a few reasons. 1) I suck at langauages that are not English. 2) Half of it is online and I have never done a distance learning class before. 3) Did I mention I suck at foreign languages???

Let's hope for a good semester.

The weeks of winter vacation went by very quickly for me, as well as uneventfully. I worked 50hr weeks pretty much the entire time, which wound up doing me absolutely no good at ALL. Our paychecks for that period take into effect a new tax increase, which completely trainwrecked my overtime pay - so it's the equivalent of getting my regular base pay, with no taxes taken out... Which isn't great, considering I would have had about five hundred extra dollars on top of that. Yes. Five hundred in taxes. Ugh.

Well - that should be all for now. I'll be back! I'll leave you with this in the meanwhile...