Saturday, February 28, 2009

GRE

I'm going to apply to a doctoral program in Student Affairs. I already have a master's degree with a 4.0 GPA. So I have a question: why in the world do I have to take the GRE again? The GRE is supposed to be a predictor of how well you'll do in graduate school. I've already done well in graduate school! I took this test way back in 1998. So I've forgotten how to work all those MATH problems! The verbal section contains words I NEVER used while in graduate school, and I wrote a lot of papers! I started studying about a week ago. Even bought a study book and a program for my iPhone so I could study on the go. While I see the need for this test for someone looking to get into a master's program, I cannot for the life of me understand why it's needed AGAIN for someone pursuing a doctoral degree in the same field of study. Don't get it. Is this a 'verbose' enough rebuttal? :)

Here's a little practice for you:
Find the word that means the opposite to the one shown.

Foment:
a. Quash
b. Mitigate
c. Bolster
d. Assuage
e. Aggrandize

Isn't this fun?
Ick!

Saturday, February 14, 2009

Hair Follicle Follies.

Just one hour ago I found myself standing on the "hair" aisle of a local Walmart looking for a magic tonic to make my hair grow. That first sentence is a double whammy. First, I hardly ever go into Walmart - but in Westminster after 10:00 PM, there's not a whole lot open. Second, why in the world would I be looking for some sort of magic paste to make my hair grow faster?
The bad haircut oddessy began back in October. I was tired of the same old hum-drum frumpy hair style. It was long and thick and wavy and frizzy. Ick. But I need to be able to do my hair in about 5 minutes - any more time than that and I'll start to lose my patience. I've never been a great hair stylist - or make-up artist. I'm kind of plain jane when it comes to decorating myself. Another Granny influence, which I'm totally fine with. I am who I am. BUT, I do have some sort of concern about myself. I need for my hair to at least be presentable!
I decide that the easiest and cheapest thing to do is to visit my local Great Clips. I point to the picture on the wall of a young man actually, and tell my stylist that I'd like a hair cut just like his. She's perplexed as to why I'd want to cut my long, thick locks off. Especially if I want them to look like a guy's hair. So she says no. Basically. She procedes to suggest something else which makes me screw up my face in contemplation and then I guess I agree with her because I think that she's schooled in this hair cutting and scupting thing so I should trust her.
Boy was I ever wrong. I got a terrible haircut. NOT like the one in the picture that I genuinely liked. And a mere 3 weeks later, I finally figure out what has gone so wrong with the haircut. It's uneven! By about 3 inches on on the right side!
So I go back. And I tell them I'm unhappy with the cut and again point to the one in the picture. My new stylist thanks me profusely for coming back, cuts my hair all over again, and doesn't charge me. I think things have turned out well. Until my hair dries and I'm at home looking at it in the mirror. Now it's shorter all over, even on both sides, but I have these huge wing like flaps over my ears that hang down and look absolutely silly. Even my boss in the ER tells me that she's not crazy about the sides. It's obviously a very bad haircut once again. And shorter.
Fast forward to the move to Maryland. About a month later I decide to once again address the bad hair. I go to the local mall up here and again get a shorter haircut. She trims the big wings over my ears, but still leaves them there. In December I go back to Georgia, but to Warner Robins. I finally find a stylist who will cut the hair flaps off my ears, but she still leaves this bit of hair in front of my ears. And again, she shortens the top and back and sides. Every stylist wants to readjust the layers put in by the last stylist. They want to make my hair cut their own work of art and leave no trace of what the last girl left behind. So it gets shorter.
I wait two months. What I have is tolerable, but I still want the hair around my ears cut off - because it's not long enough to tuck behind my ear which is what I've done ever since my hair grew out. I think I'll have her cut around my ears, take up the back an inch to avoid the mullet look, and that'll be enough.
This is NOT what happened. I did finally get the hair trimmed off around my ears but I had to reiterate no less than 3 times that I definitely wanted that hair cut off before she'd do it. No flap or remnant of a flap remains. I did get the back shortened an inch. But AGAIN, the stylist felt the need to shorten it up on top lest it look too "heavy" and now I look like I'm about to go into the military.
So, this brings me to the hair growth products in the Walmart.
I decide not to buy anything because it's expensive BUT I did come home and take a hot shower and scrub my head with shampoo. I figure if I loosen up the hair follicles with hot water and rub the hell out of them, it might encourage the hair inside to grow out. And now I'm going to do a google search on how to make my hair grow faster. Oh, and something else. I'm going to figure out how to cut my own hair!

Thursday, February 12, 2009

Can't wait for Hershey.

Just checking in loyal followers. Nothing really to write about at the moment except that to wind down tonight I've been surfing the New Kids on the Block website community where I actually managed to sign up and find friends to go to the Hershey concert with. You see, after I went to the October concert in Atlanta, I've been dying to go to another one and was afraid that was it...but then they announced the NKOTB cruise in May. That was way too expensive but apparently due to the crazy demand, the guys decided to do a mini Spring tour! Awesome I thought, I'll just go to another show. And then my HUSBAND decided that I should pay for the 5* ticket and actually meet the guys. For a whole week I said, seriously honey, are you going to let me spend all that cash and then go by myself to drool over 5 other men? But the morning the tickets went on sale, he was right there saying go for it! So I did. And I'm going to the Hershey show to see another great concert from probably the first row AND I get to meet them! Rock on! I'm so pumped. I'm also trying to use this as motivation to lose some extra pounds. Gotta look good for the New Kids! :)

Sunday, February 8, 2009

Day in D.C.


Today was a beautiful day so we decided to drive into Washington D.C. We walked along the mall, toured the Museum of Natural History and walked over to the White House. Sarah asked if that was where Rock Obama lived. She still can't pronounce Barack! This is the fourth or fifth time I've been to D.C., but I have to say, now that I have such a strong interest in the political workings of our nation, it was really neat to see the White House, even from behind the iron fence with a secret service agent looking over our shoulders. The center of democracy. The power and prestige of the president. Pretty cool. Next time we visit, we'll do the American History museum and maybe the Postal Museum. And maybe the Holocaust Museum. There's so much to see and do there it would really take days. Gotta get my Georgia folks up here; they'd love all this.

Monday, February 2, 2009

Early morning inside my head.

Sleep is over-rated I'm thinking as I type this. It's nearly one in the morning and I'm wide awake when I should be catching some zzzzz's in preparation for the rat race of work in a few hours. But oh no. Not so fast my brain says. There's simply too much to ponder. Too much to worry about. Too many details unfiled. Too many opportunities out there if I could just think of them! I'm reading a book right now called Stuck. It's author posits that some of us are "stuck" in our lives. Stuck in the past. Stuck in the present. Stuck in the what if's of the future. I don't know what the heck is going on with me.
For one, I've been trying unsuccessfully to fight off a sore throat for the last two days and I'm not winning the battle. Second, I keep thinking there's something I'm not doing, only I don't know what that is. Third, I'm not motivated to do anything right now! This is why I'm writing. When I can do nothing else, I can write about the frustration with nothingness.
Sometimes I think I am stuck in the past. Stuck in my crappy childhood, angry at all the ways it went wrong, still trying to switch things around in my head. Sometimes I think I'm stuck on the future, always trying to figure out how to be a better person, live a better life, find more happiness, have whatever it is that I'm looking for. In the present though, seems to be a hard place for me to stall.
I was at most in the present when I was working in the Emergency Room last year. There, the moment was the place to be. The urgency of each passing second. The problems that needed to be solved, right then. The people that were sick or dying, right then. The running around that needed to be done - STAT - the actual running that I did do. There was no before, there was no after. No one thought much of the past except for the few minutes a patient was on an ambulance and what treatment he had received. No one thought more of the future except whether or not he'd make it until tomorrow. It was all about the here and now.
I learned a lot in that ER. I learned about humility. About humanness. About behavior. About friendships. About trust. About love. Even though there were some painful steps in my life that led me to that place, I know that is where I belonged for that year. Part of me is still there. Still hearing the song of the monitors, the cries of hurt people, the wailing of relatives who have lost someone they love.
My grandmother would have been proud of the work I did there. She'd have thought it was time well spent. I think my whole family is a generation of helpers. We'd give the shirt off our backs to anyone who needed it. She was the one who instilled that in us, in me. I wasn't there when any of my grandparents died. I missed it. I'd been giving myself a hard time about it until a few months ago when I was there for someone else's grandmother. She was all alone and dying right there in my ER and I was right there too, holding her hand, telling her it was okay to go.
A lot of people I know watch a show called ER on television. It's apparently a great drama. I've never seen an episode. Don't need to. I've got enough memories of my own ER filled with drama to last me a lifetime. And I miss that place.
For tonight I'll try to focus on what's in front of me. The invisible list in my head. The lump that's in my throat. The little 4 year old that's sleeping a few feet away. I'll try to somehow unstick myself from this funk.

Sunday, February 1, 2009

Go check out your library. It's free!

You know, there's something I think every citizen should have. A library card. In these economic times, going to the library and checking out some books on things that interest you presents an opportunity for free entertainment or learning. We've been twice now in 2 weeks to the local library here and checked out books and DVDs for the family. Didn't cost a single cent. My husband wanted to read the latest book published by his favorite author. It would have cost us about $20 in the store, but he checked it out at the library for free! I think libraries are often overlooked on the "things we can do" list that most families have, but your local library can be a great resource. It's a place to go when you're bored out of your skin at home. It's great for looking up things that you'd like to learn more about (there's a lot in books that you can't find by just googling a topic). Rather than buying your kids a mountain of DVDs, you can check them out for a week or two at a time and then switch them out for different ones later. And you can support your library by donating books and movies that you're not going to read or watch anymore. Most librarires have great children's programs as well. The one in Westminster has a tarantula named Chile Rose that Sarah loves to visit! So check it out. You never know what you'll find in your library!