2011 already??

Actually, more than 2 months into it! Amazing how quickly time flies. We rang in the New Year at Jim and Erin Keel's house (which they sold, and are moving to FL in April!), which mainly comprised of couples. Seems to be the norm for the past few months...the majority of our social activities have been around meeting other couples. Unfortunately, my single friends don't feel comfortable just hanging out with us, so that seems to rarely happen :(. Working a 6-day week (although only 9-1 on Saturdays) means that we have to plan our weekends weeks in advance, to make the best of the little time that we have.

And I genuinely dislike my job. From a scale from 1-10, I'd give it no more than a 2. It's a lot more stress than a 25-hours-a-week job should be. Fortunately, I now have health insurance (where I only have to pay 50% of the premium!), so it's enough to keep me there till October 1st at the very latest. I applied for a wonderful gerontology-outreach job in Beverly, MA but did not even get an interview. Disheartening, but any state/federal job would be much better than the unstable environment of a for-profit school. The students have far too much power since it's really a business, rather than a school. So, instead of actually teaching these students (ages 16-25 or so), teachers are forced to cow-tow to them and make them happy, so that their evaluations reflect favorably upon us.

So I'm taking both the foreign service exam and the UN Exam. Both are very difficult exams, but it would at least be using my International Relations Master's degree. Which I finally paid off, today. So, I still haven't finished the thesis, but my target end date is June 15th, for the defense. The binding will be on August 1st, so this means that I have 6 weeks for major revisions. I am currently down with a bad cold, so I can't concentrate enough to even do a few hours of work. But the next few days, I should be home around 4pm, so I can work until nearly midnight. And I'm on-call for the crisis center until 12am every Wednesday morning, so Tuesday nights should just be for errands, since the thesis does not get my undivided attention, no matter what I do. So far, I have had 3 calls and 2 out of 3 have made me cry. The first night of calls yielded nightmares, but the next night was okay. I haven't been sleeping well lately, but there really are too many things on my plate.

But I thank God for a great boyfriend, family, and friends who are very, very supportive. It's a little sad that I'm more than halfway through my lease and I haven't gotten a real opportunity to explore Boston. With the 2 jobs and the thesis hovering over me (and trying to save all my pennies to pay off loans and any big events that should be happening in the next 16 months or so ;) ), I can't justify spending any extra money or time on anything. During the week, I'm a workaholic zombie, and I crash on the couch most Friday nights before 10pm, watching a movie.

But I've become, admittedly, a pretty good cook. I didn't add that to my 30 list, but I probably should have. I really have a pretty good pallet for food, wine, and even the pairings of food and wine. Although Aaron and I are both on a very tight budget, we've managed to enjoy several meals at home while trying various different wine.

And I'll be 27 in less than SIX DAYS. Which means 36 months and 6 days to get more knocked off the list. On call for another 2 hours and 20 minutes. Overall, life is still good :)