saturday evening cheers

I got my grade for my policy class on Wednesday. I got an A. That means, pending my cultural competency grade, I have maintained my 4.0 gpa. That's just so.....weird. I think back to my undergrad days and how that wasn't even a thought in my head until the last couple of years. I had a lot of digging to do once I started taking school seriously. So I'm pretty proud that I've kept that up while working a fulltime job.

In other news, I was offered a job at the store the boyfriend works at. I'm kind of excited because it is a store that has pretty good ethics and treats its employees pretty well even if the pay isn't great. I know most of my coworkers already so that part should be easy. Right now my big concern is juggling my training with work and now having the boy fulltime during the week. I had been hoping for the month of May off from anything but wrapping up work, but it looks like that won't happen.

The boyfriend and I spent the day at a local fair, drinking margaritas, and running into people we haven't seen in ages. As we were walking out the door I was wishing I'd already gotten my tax rebate check, because I'm buying a compact digital camera with it. My refund will go straight into savings, but I'll be doing the economy some good with the rebate check.

Now I'm chilling at home while the boyfriend is mountain biking with his outdoors class. I think we'll be having a quiet evening in when he gets home. Right now I'm going to enjoy a nice, cold beer.

testing the waters

has it really been 4.5 months since i wrote in this thing? jeesh. go figure. so, i finished my first semester of grad school (4.0 gpa thankyouverymuch) and the second semester is officially underway. in fact, i'm procrastinating on homework right now! i'm also in my last semester at my current job and i'm already counting down the days. i'm digging deep to get a new attitude but it is proving difficult.

i've been reading a lot of blogs on simplifying my life and spending habits lately, and it has really got me thinking. i'll be leaving a nice salary in august and reenter the world of scraping together money for the bills every month. i opened a savings account a few weeks ago and plan to direct deposit part of my paycheck into it every month. but i know i need to do more. or, really, i need to do less. less buying clothes i don't need. less eating out.

at the same time, i am really striving to live a more green life. the composting is second nature, as is recycling every bit i can. the difference in the amount of trash i put out in the alley is amazing. i've also started really paying attention to how much packaging my products use. in my diet i am eating as close to the source as possible. cutting out convenience foods has really been a lot easier than i thought, too.

i don't mean to give the impression that this has all been easy. my schedule makes it difficult to prepare meals 2 nights a week and that translates into scrambling for lunch 2 mornings a week. food planning is difficult for me because i eat according to cravings often and those are hard to predict.

well, the homework won't do itself so i suppose i should dive back in.