cool, not cool
tuesday, november 2, 2010


so there are some cool, and some not so cool, things happening these days. i'll try to go through them in order so it's not a huge lump of not cool. i'm tired of all the not cool i talk about all the time (which is one of the reasons my journaling has fallen by the wayside); i'm pretty sure i've lost half of my two readers from all the not cool posted these days. so let's start off with something cool, or at least semi-cool.

semi-cool: saxy seems to be averaging 5 days per paycheck. while this doesn't exactly equal the 3 days a week he was promised, it does equal a $500 paycheck when he gets paid. i think the last time he earned anywhere near $1000/month was before he lost the driving job. it won't save thanksgiving, but it is saving utilities and taking care of other little things for the time being.

cool: this thursday, saxy gets to work for/with celebrity chef carmen gonzález. she's not been high up on my radar, but she's from puerto rico and was a top chef masters finalist (among other things; her awards are really impressive). i told him to watch her real close. it's definitely not an opportunity to waste. not that i expect him to learn A LOT in one day of working with her, but you never know what he'll get out of it.

not cool: the school is changing the classes and units needed for his major. one the one hand, 25 less units means graduating a couple of terms early which means less overall debt; on the other, it's making a mess of his plans. three classes have been rolled into one, but he's only taken two of them. he has extra units that can be put into electives from another couple of classes that were also combined, but that means he may not be able to take one of the electives he had planned. so, yea, wrecking havoc. i told him he should stick to the original plan if financial aid will let him, especially if he plans to go on to the bachelor's (which will focus on running a business). but he can't register at the moment because they have to sort out what the hell he's doing. now, when colleges i went to changed things like this, anyone started on the old plan was kept on the old plan unless they took an extended break from classes (summer break didn't count). at the arts institute, he's being treated more like he's in transition with the major, but it's creating more problems than it's worth, it think.

cool: saxy can drop the online english class from hell without penalty, thank freakin' god. mr. philosophy teacher in disguise who cares not that he has a student with text-based learning issues can go sit on a dragon's tooth and spin. :P

semi-cool: saxy says they won't need people for the holidays (though he did tell them if they did need someone, he'd prefer to work thanksgiving since thanksgiving is likely not to happen at our house and we are going to try to do something, even a small something, for christmas). on the one hand, yay! he's home for the holidays (i was fairly certain they'd use the on call people to fill in for ft people taking the days off). on the other hand, no time and a half. also, not so cool, they WILL need him new year's eve, so no anniversary night for us. also, transportation might be...scary at best. also, not sure if that will be paid time and half. :P

not cool: see above about thanksgiving.

not cool: (yea, two in a row, but this one probably doesn't mean anything to anyone but me.) i won't be able to participate in holidailies this year. no laptop for daily updating, and, well, see the above about how much not cool stuff has been going on. a whole season of me whining would be REALLY uncool.

not cool: (okay, three in a row; so, shoot me. :P ) i still don't have a clue about what to do for next year's whysper layout, and should seriously be working on it by now. i may have to go very simple, like i did when i first started this journal back in 2000. can anyone draw me a dragoncat? course, i'm also missing the font i like for the title, though that might be on the 98. then again, they say change is good.... (btw, i actually seriously considered using a prefabbed set from someone else, but i just can't bring myself to do it. might use one of MY prefabbed sets, but i just can't use someone else's.)

cool: so far, i've made a net loss of just over 18 pounds this year (will aim for 26 next year) and have processed over 774,000 words. a.c. had one request for a full, and some of the rejections have been what we writers call "good" rejections. i don't see it getting picked up this year, but i do think it has a chance. it's tough when you're on the market-go-round; you kinda have to hold onto every little bit of encouragement (even "good" rejections, which may sound odd, but, really, there is such a thing! lol). because of the success of some of my goals (weight loss, words, reading), i'm already looking at next year's goals (none of which will involve finances, at this point), though some adjustments may be made depending on how this month and next go.

cool: no sick yet! it would be so nice if it stayed that way, but it's cool nothing's hit the house yet.

cool: it's been a very rough year, but we've made it through. we still have a roof over our heads and food in the cupboard. we've even managed to explore some cool new foods and new cultures through food. working around the bad luck and tough times hasn't been fun, but we've done it. and we have plans to help things get better (for example: tax return = car, period!). all we can do is hope it works out the way we need it to.

cool: saxy thinks we might be able to manage something for christmas. already setting aside things and buying ingredients for the cookies. can only do them for us this year, and i'm not even sure we'll be able to send out cards, but something is better than nothing. all of which means i probably have to put the tree up this year....

and all things considered, i guess that's pretty cool too.