Simple Woman's Rainy Day Book

FOR TODAY

Tuesday, September 22, 2009

Outside my window...

Students are students are studying in the Craft Room. In groups of 4, 3, 2 and by themselves. The room is full and all the tables have students at them. It's nice to see life in the Student Center again.
I am thinking...

About how nice it would be to be at home or in a coffee shop reading a book on this raining morning. The weather is changing and it's cooler so it'd be nice to get all bundled up with a good book.
I am thankful for...

Being inside and not on the road. San Antonio drivers are bad to begin with but even worse when it rains. I'm always afraid of getting in accidents when the weather gets like this.
From the learning rooms...(if this applies)

Students are studying. We have mandatory study hall for our Athletes and most of them just pretend to study but some might actually study since we have seen their grades improve since we started.
From the kitchen...

Or the cafeteria...we see students coming out with food, lots of energy drinks and hot chocolate. The coffee here is pretty weak but energy drinks are very popular. I just want to scream at the students "they're horrible for you!"
I am wearing...

A brown long sleeve dress and closed toe shoes. It's wet outside so I didn't want to have anything dragging on the ground but I also didn't want my toes to get cold. I'm also wearing an entirely too thin khaki jacket that is not keeping me warm at all.
I am creating...

A mess on my desk. I have paperwork that is completed it just needs to be filed. I also have business cards spilling everywhere and too many bottles of hand sanitizer.
I am going...

To pick up academic regalia eventually today, when it stops raining for tomorrows PTK inductions. Academic Regalia is heavy and may not all fit in my little little car.
I am reading...

"A Framework for Evaluating the Success of Early Academic Outreach Programs" and "The Texas Education Code" when I get bored with one I move back over to the other, cause both are long and wordy and don't hold my attention for long. For fun at home I'm reading "The Romantic Movement" and "Status Anxiety" by Alain de Botton both are wonderful.
I am hoping...

To go Karaoke-ing tonight after class cause I kinda want to sing to relieve some of this stress. I'm also hoping class goes by quickly tonight and it doesn't rain while I'm driving to and from Karaoke.
I am hearing...

Sonya's music through her earphones- I think it's R&B. I hear students studying- which means they probably aren't studying but chatting instead. I also hear ping-pong balls bouncing outside my door because we moved the ping-pong tables closer.
Around the house/office...

Carla is speaking to whoever will listen and it's hard to tell if she needs a response or not, Carrie and Trish are talking about budget while Sonya, Aaron and myself are in our own worlds.
One of my favorite things...

Is feeling accomplished enough at my desk to take a quick break to write a blog post. I've done almost half of my Tuesday To-Do List so I feel confident to take intermittent breaks.
A few plans for the rest of the week:

PTK Induction Wednesday Night, Thursday Night Music Club and Outdoor movies Friday Night- the weekend studying. I'll probably throw a little guitar playing in there somewhere and possibly sleep and food.
Here is picture for thought I am sharing...(add your picture here)

This is a picture of my sister and two of her husbands friends. Last Friday night after having dinner with her husband. Two of her husband's friends invited her out for a couple of drinks. Her husband didn't mind and let her go out with them (not that she needed permission but you get the idea). I thought it was incredibly cool that he didn't insist on going with her. I ended up going with her, but he just stayed home that night. They're still technically newlyweds and yet they seem so comfortable and set in their ways that they can go out with friends independently and don't always have to be together. I really like that.

xkcd.com

I'm kinda addicted to xkcd.com right now and this comment totally reminded me of my brother-in-law

Back to school...

Every fall while in undergrad I loved that second Sunday in August. I loved taking 1604 past Randolph, then I-10 East past Woman Hollering Creek and Marion where the Ware pare live. I loved taking the back road down HW 90 to get to campus 3 ½ minutes faster than taking the 46 exit. I loved moving back into the dorms at TLU and getting everything set up. I loved trekking to Hein for that first meal of the semester and I loved walking to chapel and the auditorium for opening convocations. That first step onto TLU for the fall semester always held such excitement and potential for greatness.

Monday I drove to UTSA- took the frustrating 40 minute drive (due to traffic) down I-10West from Downtown. I turned onto UTSA Blvd past Costco, past Valero and staked out the parking spaces in the main lot. I walked the mile from the parking lot to the Starbucks through the concrete cement unattractive corridors and hot outside of the non-green UTSA campus. From Starbucks I walked another ¼ mile to my classroom probably a mile and a half from where I actually parked. There was no joy, no potential for greatness, just the unattractive and non-green campus of UTSA. I didn’t get that great “welcome home” feeling like I’d received at TLU.

While SAC started school last week and most of UTSA did as well, I was one of the lucky ones whose class did not start till this week. UTSA started on Wednesday last week and my classes are Monday-Tuesday- score me! Anyways so I took the summer off from grad school and loved it. It was so nice to have my Monday and Tuesday nights back and I didn’t miss the boring reading or paper writing or anything. So needless to say I was kinda not looking forward to going back to school. The two classes I was taking also sounded really boring Multicultural Issues in Higher Education and Program Planning and Evaluation. “Multicultural? I totally took a class just like that last year” and “I’m a freakin’ activities coordinator, why the hell do I need Program Planning?”. These were my attitudes. Luckily I was super pleasantly surprised. My Multicultural class should be much better than the last one and actually have to do with Student Affairs in Higher Ed- yay! And my Program Planning class has all my friends in it and my favorite Professor in my department, so it too should at least be entertaining. The syllabuses look totally doable, even though this year my work load has tripled for the fall and I will be traveling every weekend in October, and not as time consuming as last year. I’m super excited about my classes and getting to see my friends every week.

I’m excited about school but wish UTSA was prettier, friendlier and smaller.

Dating by the stars...part 2

I’ve never dated a Virgo but after reading about their personality maybe I should. Virgos are supposed to be modest, reliable, practical, analytical, worriers, critical and conservative. Why haven’t I dated one of these before? Interesting. I’ll have to keep my eyes open for Virgos cause it seems like I could totally get along with that type of personality.

Libras are interesting. I’ve only dated one Libra before and he totally matched the easygoing, idealistic, charming, flirtatious, indecisive and gullible characteristics one associates with Libras. What initially attracted me to this sign was the easygoing charm he had. I later found easygoing to be laziness and his charm fleeting. He’s an okay guy and I’m sure perfect for someone but for a strong and driven Aries he just was not the one.

Scorpios are one sexy sign in my opinion. These men are forceful, direct, exciting, passionate, obsessive, emotional, and a little secretive. I’ve dated a couple Scorpios and they were great. They were all highly passionate and driven people. I saw a lot of similar traits between us and I think we were both attracted to the fact that we were both hard workers. But in the end that became the problem we were such work-o-holics that we forgot to make time for one another. But we’re still kinda friends even now.

I off and on date a Sagittarius. A freewheeling, fun-loving, easy-going, lazy, irresponsible, careless and reckless. Need I say more? For an A-typical Aries like myself that just does not mesh. This guy is great on the 3 days a year this Aries likes to let her hair down, but the rest of the time they can just be annoying. They don’t have schedules they don’t think practically and are content to just let things happen. I can’t imagine myself ever getting serious with a Sagittarius.

I have had several long-term relationships with Capricorns and was even engaged to one for a period of time when I was in college. Capricorns are great guys they’re patient, kind, practical, ambitious, a little pessimistic, disciplined and sometimes hold grudges. But the two I dated are/were (depending on my mood) just great, great guys. They were both very patient and when dealing with a moody Aries it is definitely needed. And they all had some ambition even if it leads them into bad fields. They are hard workers and can look at things practically. The reason these relationships fell apart was totally me- their patience sometimes seemed like they were just waiting forever- like they weren’t moving forward but in actuality they were just waiting for me to move the relationship forward.

I’ve also had two long-ish relationships with Aquarius’s and had the same problem with both. Their personalities are great and with both we started out as friends first. They are friendly, honest, loyal, unpredictable, creative, intellectual and sometimes unemotional. As friends these guys were great and we could talk for hours and hours on the phone I remember losing lots of sleep in high school talking to these boys. Unfortunately they did not live up to the “loyal” trait of their sign and both strayed causing our relationships to end. This leads me to tend to stay away from Aquarius’s now.

The last Fire and Water sign pairing of Pisces with Aries has also been disastrous. Fire and water don’t mix so I should have known better. All the Pisces I’ve known, male and female, have been a lot alike. They are secretive, blunt, critical, lost, loners, dreamers, intuitive and sympathetic. I’ve only dated on Pisces but having a once best friend a Pisces has also probably turned me off them for a while. They hate being judged but are totally judgmental. They were constantly trying to change me even though the Aries is the most stubborn sign. They are also completely unappreciative. The original mystery that attracts and Aries to a Pisces is totally lost when the Pisces refuses to stand up for the Aries like they’ll do for the Pisces.

The last sign I’ve dated is another Aries. They are just the male version of me and a whole lot of fun. We both had so much energy and passion for things that it was almost unbearable to spend time with anyone else. We hated to be apart and had to keep ourselves seriously distracted to keep from going crazy. I would definitely date another Aries because they are just too much fun and just a totally great match.

Overall I don’t date solely based on someone’s sign. But I definitely see the coincidences based on them and the similarities between them.