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I got an email from DePaul yesterday. They have received my request for degree conferral and are happy to announce that I have met the qualifications to graduate. Never mind that I applied for degree conferral in October of last year and never mind that I haven't attended a class at DePaul since November. It's OK though. The good news is that the government also doesn't think I have finished school till now and therefore I have another six months of not having to pay back school debt...
So I now officially have my Masters in writing. It doesn't really feel like I have a masters degree. Maybe because the classes felt more like classes I should have been taking long ago, or because I was only ever on campus for no more than three hours a week, or that I have no intention of looking for a new job.
It's weird because on one level I feel like I didn't really learn anything in grad school. But on another level I feel as if I learned things I may never have learned otherwise. Like that personal essays are a genre and a good alternative to fiction when all you ever wrote was thinly veiled accounts of your own life anyways. And there was that travel writing class that you took despite the fact that you'd never travelled anywhere before and the best you could come up with to write on an assignment on your experience with food while travelling is eating Dunkin Donuts in Milwaukee...or you write about a lovely gondola ride you took through the canals of Venice in Las Vegas. And your teacher thinks they're fantastic. And how after the class is over you want to travel somewhere new. And how after that it's now all you want to do for the rest of your life.
Those are the important things I guess i learned. I know. My grammar still sucks and my spelling is awful (yeah...before I spell checked this sucker I did in fact misspell awful...and now I misspelled misspell for that matter) but I'm now a wanderlust narcissist.
And I have this Masters but I've never been published. It's mostly laziness because I never actually finish anything I start. And lately I don't even have the willpower to start. And I blame someone else for my inability to write but technically that's unfair. And technically I would take the exchange of what I got in return for it sucking out my desire to tell a story that I used to feel the need to tell. Because, really, I started writing because I wanted to tell just one story. But now I'm rambling.
Anyways...so, I have a masters degree and not in the way I've been saying I have a masters degree for the last five months. Now it's official. I have an email to prove it.
Oh, did I mention that ten minutes after getting that email the person sent a second email that said "There was an error in the previous email you received regarding degree conferral." and I nearly died thinking that I didn't actually meet the requirements and had to take another class? It was just to say that the link for transcripts was wrong. But honestly, that is not something to do to a person.
p.s. once I actually get my diploma in the mail I am so throwing a graduation party...because I take any excuse to have a party in my honor. Watch for details.
1. I am now only responding to the name Master Val. I worked hard (OK...I at least kind of put some effort forward) to get my masters. I deserve a title.
So...my papers were due by 5 on Sunday...I turned them in at noon on Monday. Believe me at 5 on Sunday I had hardly even started. Isn't it great ot know that I gained absolutely no study skills in FOUR WHOLE YEARS of grad school? Technically according to university policy we couldn't be required to turn them in before Tuesday, so I'm all good there. The papers still sucked. But I am done. So I don't care.
2. I finished half of my Christmas shopping this morning. It was actually the easiest shopping I have ever done. All of the stores had no crowds and twice the staff.
3. I had to go to work yesterday (boo) but they sent me home early (yay). It is really hard to do your job anyways when the design company you deal with constantly is closed. I got out early enough to catch up with my sisters to see Enchanted. I thought it was very good except the almost end didn't make any sense.
4. Apparently any movie trailer will make me cry unless the movie has Nicolas Cage in it.
5. Have you ever gotten drunk dialed in the middle of the night? I think I got drunk facebooked the other night.
6. Next week I am seeing Die Frau ohne Schatten, The Sparrow, Penn and Teller, and Cirque du Soleil.
7. This is where Emily and I are going tomorrow.
1. I am officially a master. OK, not officially because I still have to turn in two papers over the weekend and I still won't get my diploma until March because I am a slacker who missed the deadline. But I never have to go to school again! Joshua, who is apparently my only friend, met me at the wine bar to celebrate. I had lots of wine and raspberry beer. All you people who didn't come celebrate are bad people :( (insert valsadnoisehere)
2. Krystal posted my pictures!
2. I really need to stop impulsively buying Steppenwolf tickets.
3. Seriously, how is it that everyone else I know is seeing opera and I am not?
1. He changed from single to in a relationship on myspace. :-(
2. If I had to go see a naked magic show, the least JoeJoe can do is go see an educational Australian nature program.
3. After spending the night with the travel channel as they profiled Fiordland followed by Anthony Bourdain boar hunting in New Zealand...I have decided that I am accompanying Joe and Alina on their honeymoon...
4. Does rare food (rare as in hard to find an expensive, not as in undercooked) taste so good because it tastes so good or because people are pretentious?
5. I stole this pic from Emily. I think it pretty much sums up the friendship between MK and me.
6. I thought my homework sucked, but for two of the four humor shorts I turned in, my professor said they were amongst the best in the class. (p.s. the other two sucked)... Since I probably will not do anything more with this one, thought I'd share:
In light of the positive responses Chicago has received to increasing the smoking ban to include public beaches and parks, government officials are now weighing other options for increasing the ban. The anticipated ideas include raising the laws banning smoking from within 15-feet of office buildings to 150 feet from offices and 1,050 feet from beaches, parks, gas stations, hotels, schools, and houses. Other suggestions include banning smoking altogether from churches, firehouses, gas stations, libraries, and any rooms with "room" in the title (bedrooms, living rooms, bathrooms, and dining rooms would be banned but basements, attics, kitchens, parlors would still be OK, as long as they are not within 1,050 feet of an entrance).
Sometimes a complimentary poncho doesn't actually protect you from the spewing banana puke that then gets all over your jacket and hair and sweater and chair... :(
So I saw Blue Man Group twice in high school, but haven't seen it since. So I grabbed Joew and Meredith and Andy and Josh. First thing you have to do when you go to BMG is go to the bathroom, not because you have to but because you want to hear the bathroom song. The second thing you do is get a mimosa...just because mimosas make any show a million times better.
The show was kick-ass awesome (aren't you sick of the fact that the only adjective I seem to know is awesome? Be grateful that I at least several modifiers to it). If you have never seen it, go...and take me with you damnit. I mean, any show that gives you a free poncho to wear (and seriously, you need that poncho) and toilet paper to wear on your head has o to be good.
My only complaint is that the show definitely has the Rent-effect where some of the magic of the show is lost when half of the audience has already seen it and knows what to expect.
Some highlights (or maybe lowlights): I wish I could catch marshmallows like that, getting covered in blue man chest puke, trying to read all the signs, half-expecting to have to lead everyone in the national anthem, Me to Josh: There's a blue man on your head!, painting the town in tp, ummm everything!
After the show we headed to Clarke's for pancakes. mmmpancakes.
Hare Krishna on the street: Would you like some homemade vegetarian food?
Meredith: I only eat meat.
hahaha.
We also saw a giant penis and were fascinated. It did not belong to the Hare Krishna.
Everyone agreed that they can't take me anywhere. They determined this as I tried to wipe the puke out of my hair at the table and licked the hot chocolate off the side of my glass so I wouldn't lose any of it.
I TOOK MORE PICTURES!
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1. I am apparently not going to officially have my masters in November because I am an idiot who does not pay attention to deadlines.
2. I came home and watched Next Great American Band...exactly what I thought would happen did. The commercials for auditions called out to any band any type...but then when they showed polka bands and such they criticized them and didn't take them seriously. Lame. The Australian dude who's supposed to be Simon Cowell also made way too many Simpsons references.
3. Hood's reaction to me buying new software:
Fish8581: for $700 you can buy a damn pretty box and have $683 left over
Fish8581: OR
Fish8581: you could fold a $100 bill into a box
Fish8581: it's called origami
Fish8581: they have books at the library
4. Did I mention that I have all this new awesome (there it is again) software and my damn CD drive is still broken?
on laziness
1. Two years ago DePaul got new ID cards and required that every student go to ID services to get a new one. Today, I finally went.
2. I ordered some software today...but it will come on CD and my CD drive has been broken for six months.
3. I suppose I could delete that email draft I wrote and never sent in 2000...it never bothered me before but the new hotmail interface makes it glaringly obvious that it is there.
on baking
1. Any recipe that calls for seven chocolate bars has to be good, right?
2. Bad idea: keeping the candy bars and marshmallows on the stove while it was preheating.
3. Good idea: S'mores bars!
THE GOOD NEWS:
I am going to Chattanooga for the Krystal Square Off!!!
THE BAD NEWS:
Getting back from Chattanooga involves driving 10 hours all through the night and going straight to work in the morning.
THE GOOD NEWS:
Getting to Chattanooga involves stopping at some fun road side pit stops.
THE BAD NEWS:
I was so swamped at work today that I didn't get to go see La traviata. Hopefully I will be free enough to go watch La Boheme.
THE GOOD NEWS:
Since I do all of my work on a computer I can at least do some of the stuff at home.
THE BAD NEWS:
Since I do all of my work on a computer I can at least do some of the stuff at home.
THE GOOD NEWS:
They posted the winter and spring schedules for school and there is nothing I really would want to take. So I will totally be done with school in Novemember!
Last night was my first class of Humor 101 (OK, so maybe a little more advanced than that, as it is a 400 level course). Basically I am going to learn to be funny, but not neccessarily haha funny. I already learned that it is OK to make fun of people who are "better" than you and that you can make fun of people who are in the same "group" as you.
It's my last class of my Masters program and that is kind of bittersweet. I can't wait to not have school anymore, but at the same time, since my program was so odd and I only took one class for 3 hours a week, I never really felt as if I really went to DePaul. Like I took classes there but really wasn't a student there. I miss being a student.
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It's always nice when you find out someone else had the same opinion of someone that you do.
1. So, I put off touching most of my big final class project for the ten weeks I had to work on it. I managed to go to work on it Sunday morning and finish by 3pm. I'm either really good or the project is really crappy. I don't care though, I'm done until September! And then I'll be completely done in November!
2. I am moving out of my bigbig office and into a smallsmall cubicle :(
3. Tonight was Scotty McHotty and KennyK's b-day party at the froggy. I will post tomorrow when I have time to upload all the pics. Happy birthday!
4. I bought a book on Amsterdam today. Maybe I should go?
5. WHAT
6. THE
7. FUCK
8.?!?!?!
1. I am officially signed up to take "humor and satire" next quarter. I can be funny, I think, so it should be an interesting class :) Once it is over, I will have my Masters!!!
2. I was so damn upset with Q101! They moved Sherman to earlier in the day - which means no more Your Request Sucks at 11 :( One of my favorite things to do was drive around at 11 listening to it...but...it looks like he's still doing it! Of course, it's earlier, and I will never ever hear it on air...and they knocked it down to 7 minutes...but, I still know it's out there! Listen here - best 10 7 minutes in radio!!!!
3. Since no one responded to my desparate emails for 24 borrowing, I sucked it up and paid $1.99 to dl the episode from iTunes. I still don't like the show, but I've come this far! I couldn't miss an episode now! Worst mistake ever. :( Worst episode ever. :( I'll try not to ruin anything - but they totally killed any chance for this season to redeem itself with the only storyline I cared about. :( I screamed. Out loud. A lot. And maybe kind of cried. :(
4. All my nails keep peeling, so it looks like I'm going to have to go get falsies on Friday.
5. Did anyone else notice that on Idol tonight they totally tried to pass off Pink's performance, which was filmed like a month ago, as being live??? Yeah, I know the answer is "no" because none of you fools watch it. But it's so true!
1. Everyone in my class complained over the readings for this week saying that they made technical writing look like a rather crappy. So our professor had us go around saying what we wantd to be when we were younger. Everyone laughed when I said that I had wanted to be a ballerina, not realizing that it wasn't a baby's dream but something I truly wanted until I was a sophomore in high school. I grapple every day trying to figure out what I really want to do. Is there ever going to be a day when I am not contemplating my career and trying to figure out what it is I am good at or would want to do?
2. ummm...24...WHAT THE FUCK?!?!?!?! You can't go 18 hours convincing us that the season is following one plot and then completely fuck with our heads and switch it completely! Unless, of course, you're focusing on the Milo/Nadia romance :) Why don't you show more of that?
3. I killed a bunny. I hit it with my car. That makes me sad :(
4. COUGHCOUGHCOUGH I am sick and feel like crap.
They call it a spoof, but it's more reminiscent of Tori Amos does "Smells Like Teen Spirit" than Weird Al does "Ridin." Anyways, I actually kinda like it:
Speaking of "Smells Like Teen Spirit," in class tonight we watched a kind of awesome documentary on Seattle and the rise of grunge and it showed the first performance of that song.
Speaking of class tonight, I think I am dropping the class I took tonight and am only going to take one class. I guess I can stay home and watch reality TV instead.
Speaking of reality tv, if you watched the Apprentice the other night you would have seen that the winners of the task got a surprise visit from family. Nicole's mom was on the show. Her mom was one of the realtors I used to work with.
1. HAHAHAHA
HAHAHAHA
HAHAHAHA
HAHAHAHA
HAHAHAHA
HAHAHAHA
HAHAHAHA
HAHAHAHA
HAHAHAHA
I'd trust a bunch of bar thugs to catch my terrorists over the ctu any day!
2. Wendy's now has a Frosty Float. Go get one!
3. You know you're in for an interesting class when your professor says that the best way to contact him is through AIM and that he will respond to your papers by sending you an mp3s of him telling you his comments.
4. Speaking of school, since I never have anything to do anyways, I think I am taking 2 classes this quarter and will probably be done with school in June. Maybe.
5. I just discovered that my computer came with chess. i love playing chess against the computer because it tells me when I am in check and i would never know if it didn't tell me. By love playing chess i mean i like to move the pony around and when he dies i cry and start over because i miss the ponies.
6. i should put on clothes.
1. I always knew he'd be the perfect boyfriend:
2. Wednesday I went for coffee with MK and his friend Dan, but I had a milkshake and it was damn yummy. We then went back to Matt's for Top Gear and I made him play the episode where they go to America and show how horrible of a country we are :) At one point they have a challenge to drive through Alabama without getting arrested or shot...and at the same time try to get the other guys arrested or shot...and they did so by painting things such as "Nascar Sucks" and "Vote for Hillary" and "Man Love Rules OK" on each others cars. Yeah...they were almost killed...
Since I had to follow MK and Dan back, they kept trying to throw me off by constantly switching lanes and turning on the turn signal and switching places with each other Chinese firedrill style. It was funny. :) And, since it was a *warm* 35 degrees I put down all my windows and sang because the shuffle Q101 was playing had a bunch of my fav sing at the top of my lungs songs (when's the last time I ever heard Little Black Backpack on the radio???)
3. Today my department had our Christmas party. Yup. We got some yummy tapas (I had some muchrooms stuffed with duck and topped with cheese amongst other dishes).
4. I am currently signed up for 2 classes next quarter and can't decide between them. Now, I could take both of them and be done with my masters by June...but I don't really want to devote that much time to class while working full time plus hopefully there will be something I really really want to take next quarter. My choice is between technical writing and text and image. I probably should take tech writing, but it meets on Mondays so I will no longer be able to attend any 24 things. But then again, text and image is on Wednesdays so I will be in class when they announce who gets kicked off of American Idol. Decisions, decisions... Opinions on what sounds better???
1. You know you've found a good job when your boss says, "Have you ever been to youtube.com? You should take some time to look over that site."
2. There is a cafeteria at my work that serves food buffet-style for $5.69 a pound. I think I am going to get good at figuring out how to get the best bang for the buck. For instance, today I got the roast chicken. Bad idea. The bones were pretty heavy and therefore upped the price. My new rule is to not buy anything that is not entirely edible.
3. Tonight was my last class until March. We just turned in our papers then headed off to a bar. I finished my one beer because when we were leaving one of the guys told me I had to finish. So I did. I'm actually really going to miss this class because the people were awesome and I love essaying (despite the fact that the essay I turned in was horrible).
4. After 5 months on unemployment I am so not used to waking up so earlyzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzz
1. It was probably a bad idea to go to MattyK's when he invited me over for a bbq at 10pm the night before my second day of work. Ah well. I took the HIGHWAY (there and back, be proud!) so it didn't take tootoo long to get there, and I was good and left at about 11:30, which was when I said I should leave. I didn't even eat or anything, just hung out with him and Hood and Chris (who I told could get into my pjs, but alas he didn't (yes I was wearing pajamas (parenthesis within parenthesis within parenthesis, woohoo!)))
2. I gave a dollar to a guy in the el station because he played some kick-ass violin and made it a little bit better that I was standing 3 inches from a puddle of piss.
3. It is really scary when a guy in a subway tunnel knocks on the window of your moving train.
4. Quote from my professor: "I don't know why I can't tell my dad that I smoked. I mean, I told him that I did pot...I probably shouldn't have told YOU."
5. Every time I watch Trading Spaces the format is different. What the hell?
6. Saturday Night Live did a Kobayashi cartoon! (alas, I cannot find it online :( )
7. I found the sandal I thought I left at my ex-boyfriend's apartment a year ago.
8. I just saw a craft show on TLC that showed you how to make a condom case. True story.
1. I should be obese. I could not decide what to get for dinner so i ended up going both to White Castle (chicken rings and cheese sticks) and Wendy's (double stack and fries). I have always wanted to do that but never have before. At least I stopped short of getting a blueberry doughnut at Dunkin Donuts.
2. You learn about the five paragraph essay in high school, then go to college and find out that is all crap. Apparently you learn "show don't tell" in college and when you get to grad school, you find out that that's crap too.
3. I can't eat all this food.
1. I have officially decided to take next quarter off from school. I am supposed to register for classes tomorrow but there are none I want to take. I'd rather not waste my money or time on a class I am not interested in. I was planning on being done by June, but I guess I will have to continue on next year.
2. It really is a good thing that I have become obsessive over detailing my life in this journal. I am working on a mini-essay for class where I am structuring events around my horoscope from the day they occurred. If it weren't for this journal, I would have no clue of the exact date anything happened.
10:00am: Interview 3 - Southern Chicago
My friend Paul form high school imed me a few weeks ago about a possible job at the company he works for. I finally got to go interview for them. It looks like it would be a great job, fixing up and centralizing all of their marketing materials and such. It seemed to go really well and they seemed interested in having me help them. Unfortunately they are only looking for someone part time or to come in full time for a couple of months and I really am looking for full time so I can move and not have to worry about being unemployed again soon. We'll see though.
2:30pm: Interview 4 - Glenview (aka, past Northern Chicago)
This interview was for a hospice care center in Glenview, doing some marketing and design work. On my way there is started SNOWING very hard and I had a hard time finding what street I was going to because all of the street signs were covered in SNOW. Anyways, the interview seemed to go well and while it is not in the city it wouldn't be too bad of a drive from the area I want to live in. Again, fingers crossed.
6:00pm: Michael Steinberg reading - Lincoln Park
Michael Steinberg is an author and the editor of the creative nonfiction journal Fourth Genre. He gave a reading of his essay "Chin Music" which was totally different than the version that I had read. He says that every work is a work in progress and, despite the fact that this was already published, he always keeps working on things and never sees them as truly done. Afterwards he talked a little about his essay and his memoir and some tips on sending out our manuscripts. Goodstuffs.
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I managed to have three and a half interviews (I also had a pre-screening phone interview with the lyric) this week without once being asked my strengths and weaknesses!
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Did I mention I drove to all of the interviews today all by myself??? Did I mention that I took HIGHWAYS to get there! Yeah, be proud. Your little Val is becoming a grownup :)
"You are such a quirky writer! I love the oddness of your essay, the unexpected moments throughout that make me laugh and ponder..."
We workshopped my essay in class tonight. That was the first line of the response my professor wrote. Hehe. That rocked my socks off.
Overall, workshop went well. Lots of work to make the essay well...work. But I got a lot of new ideas now. :)
Stop the world.
My mom has a cell phone.
It is one of those prepaid ones and she has been instructed to keep it off unless she has to make a call. My dad programmed in our home number and her work number and showed her how to go to that. She will forget.
...
DePaul is now a Pepsi school. That makes me sad. What will especially be missed is the Coke machine that, after putting in my $1.25, would often give me five bottles of coke.
...
The CTA has an ad campaign called "Don't be Jack" Basically it is little stick figures talking loudly and spraying graffiti and such:
(only pics I could find online, sucky quality)
Remind you of anything???
(the inline posters i designed 5 years ago)
From this I have determined that...
a) I am a marketing genious.
b) I should sue the CTA
...
All I have been doing lately is homework and job applying and searching all over for my damn missing health insurance cards (I got them in the mail a few days ago and they have disappeared off the face of the planet). Hopefully things will change soon and I will be back to my normal blogging adventures.
I decided today that i need to be in the city. Not that I hadn't already decided that, but today it is for certain. Two main things sparked this:
1. I was on campus for the first time in a long time and was surrounded by people sort of my own age. You don't get that in the burbs. I want to be at least semi-closer to my school and to that feeling of walking around your campus.
2. JoeJoe signed himself a lease in Lincoln Park. So I'll actually have a friend here.
Now, to find a job to pay for it...
...
I started school again tonight. Only three courses till I have my masters! It was a personal essay class, my third essay class with this particular professor. She is probably one of my favorite teachers that I've ever had and creative nonfiction is the area of writing I am most concentrated on. I sometimes think of ditching my novel in progress and turning it into a memoir. Not in the James Frey sort of way. I mean taking out all the fiction and solely writing what went on in my life, not just passing it off as truth as is. I don't think I could make it work though. My fictional alter ego will have to live on.
We workshopped my story on Wednesday in class. I was actually really proud of it for many, many reasons. First, it was probably the first fiction I have ever written that actually was not based on my life. Second, I wrote it in third person, which I never really do. I also was also on one of those kicks when writing it where I'd keep coming up with more and more information about the characters lives, and that feels amazing.
My teacher thought that the writing was good, but the story was confusing and he had to read it a couple times to formulate what he thought was maybe going on. He basically got it right though. I knew it was confusing. i guess that's kind of how I often write. Like where the characters have some secret but I don't want to give it all away right away. I do that in my novel and in my essays too. He said though that a lot of the writing was good and that made me happy. Although he probably doesn't like me because I never talk in class.
Only 2 more weeks of school and ONLY TWO MORE WEEKS OF WORK!
Of course, I still have to polish up my resume, design a professional website for myself, put together a portfolio, and well, find a new job. Hopefully I won't be unemployed for much longer than three months.
And, of course, there is still no one here to replace me which is making my job even more miserable since I have tons of work and people calling constantly who I don't want to talk to because my mind is definitely not at my job.
Oh! And DAMN YOU MSN FOR RUINING THE O.C.!!!! Seriously, I haven't watched it since vegas, but have like 7 weeks worth of that show on tape. I planned on catching up this summer. I hate when they put big headlines about who dies and such that are unavoidable when checking your email. :(
I also hate shaving cream because the can gives you no indication that you are about to run out of it until you have one smooth leg and one hairy leg and nothing left.
Musings from my professor:
"She was a bitch...I think she needed more Prozac."
"I love a world where poetry can pay the rent and get you laid."
Short story is done in the sense that it is turned in. I guess its good that its not great because it can now only get better in the rewrite. I don't like the ending though. I basically had one paragraph that I really liked and then another paragraph I really liked with a big ole blank spot in between where the guy was supposed to say something brilliant. It sat like that for 2 weeks, he never thought of anything. We'll see how it goes in workshop.
And wtf? I was so totally fine and then he calls and now doesn't call back. He was probably drunk or high or something and didn't know what he was doing.
1. I think I might not take summer school. I was going to do it so I could graduate in November, but now it looks like there is only 1 class offered in the fall that I would take so I wouldn't graduate until March anyways. This will free up two nights a week and give a little extra travel/novel writing/wedding planning, and give me $1700 extra.
2. No, I really don't want to hang out with you and the girl you may be dating, especially since you never want to see me any other time anymore and especially since you are now making plans with her before me and have seemed to have replaced me completely and especially when you ask me at the last minute when you know it will take me 45 minutes to get there and therefore know I wouldn't make it. Also please stop pointing out ex girlfriends to me because then all I do is wonder what she has that made you want to date her and not me.
3. I really want to quit my job now. (OK, so I already quit, but I want to stop going now).
4. I've taken to sleeping with my window wide open and my pillow on the window frame and my head kind of hanging outside. This is probably dangerous.
Last night my teacher said that writers are the type of people who think of what they should have said after they left the party. That is 100% me. I often go home and start rewriting conversations in my head (I have a knack sometimes for remembering exactly word for word conversations I've had if they mean something to me, I swear by their accuracy, but I oft wish that these conversations went differently, or that I said what I meant or what I felt, or that I wasn't too afraid to talk). Sometimes years later I am still trying to change what I said but I'm not one of those people who can start believing something that didn't really happen. In my head I can go back and say yes to taking that walk on your birthday, I can tell my guidance counselor in grade school that they were just stories, I could say I like you or I love you or I want you. I can never think of anything to say in the moment.
When I got home from class last night (after, of course, watching taped AI and ANTM) I flipped around and got suckered into a Walk in the Clouds, which is a cheesy sappy movie but made me cry. At one point the guy gave Mandy Moore a star named after her. I've always wanted my own star but it's not the type of thing you buy for yourself, it's the type of thing the cute charming guy in a movie will buy for the awkward sweet girl so she'll fall in love. I looked it up online, and I guess to no real surprise, this whole naming a star thing is all a scam. None of it is official or anything. Basically you're just buying a piece of paper. I will never be a star. This made me cry.
In other news, to all those who celebrate steak and blow job day, someone invented this: Cake and Cunnilingus Day! Let's celebrate!
In other news, Ed Gein's property in Wisconsin is for sale. If I had an extra $250,000 to spare I would so buy it. For those not in the know, Ed Gein is the great American serial killer hero who killed people and made people suits who inspired such films as Psycho and Texas Chainsaw Massacre and Silence of the Lambs. Although MattH was against my wasting my money, he did say I should open a horror museum, as long as he got stock options and free admission.
Basically I have to quit my job for the summer because I plan on doing a lot of traveling and summer school, which I totally justify since I have never really traveled much before and want to seize the opportunity, plus I hate my job and was going to look for a new one anyways. However, I am then faced with a pickle. I will have my masters degree in November (hopefully) so then might have more job options open to me (more in location than in education level). So...
Options for quitting my job:
1) I quit in June and look for a new job for July/Augustish
2) I quit in June but ask to come back part time through November (If all goes according to plan, I will have my masters by Thanksgiving). And find a new job in November/December. This way I'm not limited to just finding a job in Chicago. Part of me defiantly wants to stay, I'll miss everyone too much :( But I might be able to find something better if I move somewhere else. Admittedly, I am also frustrated and angry, and sad lately which often makes me think of picking up and starting a new life somewhere. Or maybe I could find a temp job in the city (I'll probably be taking classes in Lincoln Park so I'd have to leave early if I was working at the RE/MAX, hence part of the reason for part time) until November.
3) I quit my job in June then take extra computer classes and work on my writing until November then have more options. Since starting my job over a year and a half ago I have been so worn out to think too much about my novel. I mean, I know it's a long shot to even think about it getting published, but it's even more so of a long shot if I'm not working on it. Plus since I would be taking two classes at DePaul plus at least one more class somewhere else, it would be like I was in school full time then. There are a couple of programs I'd really like to learn and would probably help me get a better job.
4) I just try to get fired and collect unemployment (haha, not the best option I suppose).
Some things to consider:
1) I probably don't need my masters degree to find the type of jobs I would want (I am defiantly finishing it, but I could find a new local job without it mattering if I had one or not).
2) I'm scared of everything.
3) My main goals in life don't really center on having a full time job. However, jobs pay bills and I am not in the position to make a living without a full time job. (I can live with it as I have very few expenses at the moment).
4) I should have a years salary (granted my salary sucks, but still) in savings (even after Europe, etc.).
5) I am probably traveling for at least a month this summer, plus my best friends wedding, plus summer school which is why I will have to quit in June.
6) I'll be in school the whole time, so that counts for something.
7) Not working from mid June through mid November will be almost half a year of unemployment (I didn't really realize that until just now, eep!). Scary.
8) I'm not sure if my company will go for me asking to come to work part time.
So, do I crawl back to my job after a thrilling summer? Do I forget everything for a while and just try to follow my dreams? Do I stay in Chicago or try to brave it out there alone in the world? I more so wrote this out for myself to try to sort through my options (like it hadn't occured to me that not having a job until November was a very long time of being unemployed), but since I am bad at making desisions for myself, someone tell me what to do.
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