Week 11 - So Far From Heaven

But the journey is all the fun!!

I've been working hard trying to get school work done and I plan to complete the paper (hopefully the final draft) this weekend to hand in on Monday. Then April 8th I have my first written exam covering themes from 15 different books concerning Colonial America and the American Revolution. To me, this is the fun test.

However, some interesting news has come up at work. Apparently, under the terms I was hired, I would have 120 days from the time of my graduation before completing my student hire program and having to move to a permanent position. However, there is no permanent position offered at the Library, so instead, I would just be let go. No one knew this until a month or so ago and just notified my co-worker and I about this on Thursday. So they advised me to put off graduation until the end of the summer so that I would be able to finish the term. Needless to say, it's been a crazy couple of days.

So now I'm debating. If I were to finish in time to graduate in May, the 120 day limit would leave me only one month shy of completing the term, but I would have my degree and immediately start applying for jobs. On the other hand, if I were to postpone graduation I would finish my degree requirements by early may, but would not actually graduate until July 31. I'm not really sure how to put that in a resume I've completed my requirements or if it would hurt my chances of getting another job or not (any advice on this from ANYONE would be extremely helpful!). It would also give me an extra month at my job to keep looking for others and, well, have a paycheck in general.

I'm going back and forth a little, but right now I want to try and get it done in time for May graduation. If it doesn't work out, I'll just fall back on the later graduation.

Now for the real question: what is all of this doing to my quest for a more healthy life? Will I escape the perils of stressfull academia and emerge victorious on the side of righteous chiseldry and clear arteries? Will I stop making up words to make this sound more epic and exciting?

To the last one: Yes. Yes I will.

To the others: I have attempted to take the advice of some of y'all last week. I was really excited to get the advice (and the encouragement always helps, too!). I went to work out early at the gym on Tuesday morning. I got there at 5:20am. They are supposed to open at 5:00am. But for some reason, that morning someone hit the snooze too many times or didn't set their alarm at all because the building was definitely closed when I got there and didn't open for the 10-15 minutes I waited around. There were lots of people outside trying to get in. This messed up my schedule for getting ready and going to work. Since then I've been having a hard time making myself wake up again because I don't want to be stuck in the same situation. I still think it's a good idea and I will still try to start next week off on the same note.

I ran the weekend before on Saturday (because it was an absolutely BEAUTIFUL day!) and then did nothing else until today, Friday, when I ran 2 miles with my co-worker, Carla, which was a lot of fun. She showed me a little half-mile track at a park just a few miles away. That was really cool. I can't wait to explore that place more. I might need to bring some other fun activities out to play with one day. Or when it gets warmer, just grab a beach towel and book. I bet it's a wonderful feeling to read a book for fun while soaking up some rays. It's been so long, I have a hard time imagining it.

It must also be a good feeling to look good in a bathing suit. How comfortable would that be. The irony is that my paper I've been working on for my professors has been a material culture paper on the history of bathing suits. It's made me jealous from day one! Ahh well. Here's a picture of one really hot bathing suit I came across that I wish I could wear today:




Check out those hot leggings! Heck yeah! They were called the Westchester Water Witches, but were actually a group of women divers in 1880. Men weren't allowed on their area of the beach, but a guy from a magazine was able to catch a glimpse and make a sketch for the National Police Gazette. Unfortunately, The National Police Gazette is not such a reputable magazine, as the name would imply. It was a magazine that men would buy for a tease. This was something that was brought to my attention during my meeting the other week and unfortunately leaves me scrambling trying to find more reputable sources that say the same thing. However, other articles condemned women for wearing other bathing suits that were less scandalous than the ones above. Anyways, enough history before I bore everyone to death. On to other sources....

So exercise hasn't been fantastic, but it hasn't fallen completely by the wayside. I've definitely missed it and love running every chance I get.

The diet has been fairly good. There have only been a couple of transgressions this week. One occurred when I ran out of food. I know I told everyone on facebook I ate a can of tomatoes. I was exaggerating and being a drama queen because I wanted Subway, but couldn't afford it at the moment, so I ended up making spaghetti with veggi maranara sauce and ground turkey meat. Started off as a well-meaning meal, but I'm not that fond of spaghetti, so to make it a little more enticing, I put the noodles and meat in the bowl and then covered them with spaghetti sauce and topped it all with an overly generous portion of fat free mozerella cheese then stuck it in the oven. Baked Spaghetti....so much better than the other kind, but so many carbs.....delcious, well-missed carbs.

The only other bad diet decision I made was my Friday lunch. It was a comfort food sort of deal after finding out this conundrum at work. My co-worker of whose name I will not speak, and I went to the Flying Biscuit at which I got the special, eggs scrambled with link sausage, goat cheese, sundried tomatoes, and green peppers with a side of cheesy grits and a biscuit. And I ate it. All of it. In my belly right now as I type this. And it is soooo happy. However, I'm not happy with myself for making that bad decision, but my friend and I made a deal to go running if we were going to indulge in our sins, which we have followed through on.

Now for some good things! Tonight I grabbed some POLENTA to finally try. I blogged about seeing this at the grocery store a while ago, but never tried it! I finally bought it and will keep you posted on how it goes! Also grabbed some 70 calorie swiss miss pudding (better deal than Jello this week at Publix). It's really exciting for some reason. AND, apparently the Cracker Barrel brand of cheese (the love of my life) has a reduced fat cheese in small packages you (or I) can bring to lunch! 130 calories and 4 grams of fat. I'll take it!

Ok, back to work on the paper. The updates might be a little crazy in timing in the next month and a half, but I will do my best to keep everyone posted!