Stretched Too Thin

is how I am feeling recently. Needless to say I've been quite absent in the blogging world, but not for lack of trying. I simply have absolutely no time. I'm at school monday-thursday, I work thursday nights and all day friday and saturday. Typically I have sundays off and I use that time to do all my homework, clean the house, etc.

But that's not all. I recently agreed to help out one of my coworkers with an independent film project. He's a dj and was asked to do the music and sound effects recording in order to get the film ready for upcoming festivals. Since I'm a media arts major and have a bit of experience with sound effects recording he asked if I would help him out. It's been fun work, but it's also been long, tedious, and complicated. I spent all of saturday night after work doing it, and then much of sunday and sunday night, and today I'm going to have to spend several more hours working on it. It's not for nothing, though, I will be getting IMDB credit as well as a small portion of sales if the movie is picked up.

And then there are the trips to prescott. These are frequent, though not as frequent as I'd like since they're my only chance to see my boyfriend, my parents, and many of my closest friends. They're always fun but they always mean cramming with homework as soon as I get back and spending a minimum of 6 hours out of my weekend driving.

Lastly theres the whole trying to be social and act like a college student thing. With my minimal free time, I pretty much try to fill every second with something enjoyable or relaxing, such as zoning out in my bed watching silly tv shows or hanging out with stewart or going to parties and activities and such. Unfortunately, when I do have time to do these things I get bogged down thinking of all the stuff I'm going to have to do later, so it's not nearly as enjoyable as it should be.

I hardly ever have time to do things like keep my blog current or keep my house completely clean or even go grocery shopping or cook my own food. It's nuts.

I really wish things could go back to simplicity- I miss not having anyone depend on me to do things. People asking me to cover their shifts, project partners needing to meet during my few precious free hours... it's all just too much. The days fly by because I'm constantly busy but I feel like I'm always slipping behind, I can never quite catch up with all my obligations and work. I haven't responded to any emails since like the beginning of the semester, I haven't even really had time to fully read them. I want to feel like my work is done, like I can just relax, but I seriously don't have time to. Ughhhhhhhhhhhhhhhh.

The end of the semester can't come soon enough, and honestly neither can graduation. I really hate having to go to work and go to school. It's just not a good way to live. In my finance class, we learned that a full time student who works more than 15 hours a week significantly raises their chances of getting bad grades and is much less likely to graduate. I work 21 hours a week and I can certainly see why that might be the case. It's freaking difficult.

Anyways, vent sesh over. Just had to get that off my chest, and now you understand why this blog has been so lame recently.

If I find any free time, I will try to devote it to posting more, because I miss it so.

<3
Em

E-Readers

E-readers, guys. Nooks, Kindles, whatever. What's your opinion on them? I personally agree with the sentiments of the cartoon above. And it's not like I never gave them a shot or anything, my mom let me use her brand new nook while I was in Greece, and man was it a pain in the ass. They say ereaders don't glare in the sunlight, but this one sure did. and it took FOREVER to charge, so I'd be in the middle of a reading a really good book out on the beach or next to the pool and suddenly it would die so I'd have to wait 5 million years before I could start reading again. And then I had nothing to do while sitting at said beach/pool. which sucked, a lot. 

also, it's just not as fun to technologically turn pages. And you can't underline things or write notes in the margins or dog ear the corners, which i always do. I get the appeal, I do! but it really wasn't my thing. especially since i hope to have a large library someday, and it kind of loses it's spectacle and awesomeness if all your books are digital files on a tiny little device. also, what if you lose it, or the internet goes under, or some other crazy thing happens where you cant access your digital files? we'd all be effed for a lot of reasons but mostly it would really suck that you wouldnt have any of your books anymore. i believe some things- magazines, important photos, and favorite movies included- deserve to have a physical, hard copy. And I'm not giving up the feel of real paper, the sight of printed ink, and the weight of an actual book in my hands any time soon.

Also, those commercials for the e-readers really piss me off. You know, where they try to make books look lame and like a huge hassle and e-readers look awesome and wonderful. You know who's going to buy an e-reader? someone who loves books. So don't try to sell your product by dissing on what your market loves. Annoying.

That's my rant for the day. am I old guys? am i now venturing into the "back in my day" territory? because this is the second post in three days about how that new-fangled technology is grinding my gears and I wish things could be simple, like they used to be.

hm. something to think about.

anyways, see you lovemuffins tomorrow, have a happy humpday!

<3

Em

Texting

This made me giggle :)

But seriously, don't you just hate it when you text someone and then they take 200 million years to text back? it doesn't even have to be someone you're romantically involved with, although that can make it more annoying.  It's especially sucky when they text you back quickly the first time and then take forever on a subsequent text.

I also get annoyed when it happens through email. Yes, me=a million years old. I still use email. For instance, I emailed my boss on Sunday (the day after the schedule was made) to tell him I couldn't work on Tuesday at 10 am, because I have school. which I have given him the schedule to. So I don't know why I was scheduled to work on Tuesday at 10 in the first place. Anyways, I emailed him telling him I couldn't be in, and offering to work that night... no response by tonight, monday night. So I emailed him again, asking if he had received my previous email, apologizing for the inconvenience, and giving my availability schedule again. Still no response. Soooooo..... here I am, left wondering if he's going to be totally surprised and upset that I'm not at work tomrrow at ten am, or if he got my first email and just hasnt felt it necessary to email me back. OH THE DRAMA AND TENSION.

lol.

It's also retarded when someone texts you something like "how are you", and you respond and ask them how they are, and they respond with a one word answer. It's like, hey. YOU texted ME, so what's with the not engaging in the conversation? Is that really your whole purpose for texting me? you just wanted to see how I was? Because then you feel like you're annoying them by texting them back, when you weren't even the one who wanted to text in the first place. But I'm sorry, "how are you" "good, how are you?" "good." is not a conversation worthy of wasting time and texts.

Anyways, this whole new digital age has made our lives soooo much easier, but also so much more complicated. For instance, there's no more suspense and romance left in courting, because you can just text the person you like all day long until you're tired of them. No more waiting for the phone to ring for a date or having to, you know, figure out what a person is like based on conversation. it's all on facebook now. it's weird, and i'm not sure I like it. I'm pretty sure I'd be ok going back to the days when boys had to make an effort to talk to girls and we got to dress up pretty and receive flowers and make good first impressions on real live dates. Maybe it's more awkward and embarrassing, but it sounds nicer and more real, and more fun.

this was a totally random post, spurred by that one funny photo i found on (you guessed it!) pinterest. so I'm going to go before I get way to deep about very shallow things like email and texting.

see you all tomorrow, have a wonderful night :)

<3
Em

Getting Over Rude People

For the most part I encounter really wonderful, pleasant people in my life and I feel very lucky to be around them. Those who I don't think I'll get along with I just don't bother interacting with and things seem to work out just fine. Every once in a while though, I'm either put in a situation when I have to deal with someone who is rude or catty or someone I don't even know acts rudely towards me or another person for no good reason. I always try to be really nice and polite so these situations really upset and irk me, leaving me flustered and thinking about it for the next few hours. and i HATE that, because it makes me feel so crappy! and it's not even something that I personally have done, it's this other person who is projecting some sort of nastiness or negativity into the world.

The other day when I went to lunch with my grandma, aunt, and uncle, we talked a little bit about the Enneagram. The enneagram is really, really, interesting and I encourage you to look into it more, but for the sake of being short and sweet I'm just going to tell you that it's basically a diagram of 9 different personality types, each of which has specific traits, goals, and ways to stray from a healthy lifestyle. I am a type 9 personality, which is described as people who are "accepting, trusting, and stable. They are usually creative, optimistic, and supportive, but can also be too willing to go along with others to keep the peace. They want everything to go smoothly and be without conflict, but they can also tend to be complacent, simplifying problems and minimizing anything upsetting. They typically have problems with inertia and stubbornness. At their Best: indomitable and all-embracing, they are able to bring people together and heal conflicts." My aunt is also a 9, and she told me about how 9s often have the problem of taking in too much of everyone elses energy and losing sight of their own. I think that might be why these negative people bother me so much and why even hours after, I'm still thinking about the things they said or did.

I just don't understand why some people can be so rude or cruel, not even necessarily to me but to anyone. I've never even understood people who don't say "thank you" when you hold a door open for them or don't smile back when you, a stranger, smile at them out of random kindness. Obviously these instances aren't the ones that leave me mulling over rudeness like I am now, but they still bewilder me. My parent's raised me to be kind, compassionate, and polite, and to return smiles and hellos and pleases and thank-yous. I suppose I'm lucky because so many people out there take simple kindness for granted, but I can't imagine raising my own children any other way. 

When I sit there (like I am now) thinking about the way the person was rude or abrasive, I just keep asking myself questions like, "why would they act that way?", "what did I do to make them want to do that?", "why can't they approach the situation in a more mature way?", "what have I done wrong to make them not like me/be rude to me?" and that is so not necessary and just sends me in a big circle of questioning and feeling guilty and sad and I didn't even do anything in the first place. It's so stupid. I should be able to just brush it off and get on with me day. So, that's what I'm going to try an work on. Letting those rude comments, notes, and remarks roll off my back and realize that it's not me, it's them. I just feel lucky that I have my wonderful family, boyfriend, and friends who are always supportive and kind.

On that note, I can't wait to go home to my wonderful family in one week from yesterday :) Sorry about the long, ranty, and kind of grumpy post... just had to get it out of my system! I will be back tomorrow with lots of fun stuff including my review of Looking for Alaska and Stewie and my second date. Have a lovely friday blogger friends. Also, if you feel like it, post in the comments what you do when someone is rude or catty to you. Do you get flustered about it like I do? or are you better at brushing those things off haha.

Lots of love