Free Time, Time to Be Free

Hello, OU-C Tutors!

It's amazing how the Thank-Gods-It's-Friday motto takes on so much more meaning when one is a full-time employee. It didn't mean much to me during my years as a student because, well, you never have a day off as a student. But in the "real world" of employment, I am able to clock out, walk out the door, get in my car, drive the blessedly short distance to my apartment, and be safe in the fact that none of my work has followed me home.

Unfortunately, I feel like I have less "free time" than I did as a student. I suppose it's because a student's hours are so blurred around the edges. "I have a paper due at 6, but I can run to the post office at 1:30 and then pick up some milk from the grocery store before coming straight home again to work on my paper." So yes, while there was always an assignment hanging perpetually over my head, I could take a break to do what needed done.

Not so with full-time employment. Ever notice how work hours also seem to be the hours that the rest of the world operates? When can I make a car appointment? When can I go to the post office? Thank goodness Kroger at least is open 24 hours. I do very much appreciate being employed, especially in the economy of the world at this time, but boy, I sure do miss "student hours."

Perhaps I need to buckle down and take fuller advantage of what free time I do have. With 8-10 hours of work per day, plus 8 hours of sleep, that leaves me, what, about 6 hours? Don't ask me—I was never a math tutor. (Derivative. Doo doo doo-doo doo.) Even as I type this, though, I'm a bit amazed that I have that much time, and rather ashamed that I'm not making better use of it.

In at attempt to fix this, I have a few goals for myself.

- aikido—make it to aikido every Friday (I've missed a few Fridays, but in general I have been doing pretty well at driving back to Chillicothe for my class, especially since it coincides with my weekend visit home)

- jujitsu—well, I'd hoped to have the stamina to drive back to Chillicothe every Tuesday evening, get my butt kicked in jujitsu, then either drive back home right away or sleep at mom's and wake up veeery early to return to Springboro for work Wednesday morning. Alas, I have not yet made it to one jujitsu class. Perhaps in my months' absence from the class, I've grown a little afraid of it? A definite possibility. I'm an overweight 31-year-old woman, the [i]only[/i] woman in the class (other than sensei), and I want to pay money for people to throw me around, knock me to the ground, pin me down, and fight me tooth and nail as I try to do the same to them? Yes... it is a little intimidating. But it is also damn fun. I do miss it... and perhaps realizing this, I should try harder to go at least every other week while the weather cooperates with a 2-hour drive. We shall see.

- judo—I've been unable to find a local jujitsu class (I might have to look in surrounding areas—surely there are some to be found in Dayton, but I was hoping to find one in Franklin or Springboro), but I [i]have[/i] found a local judo class, which bears a lot of similarity with jujitsu (judo focuses more on throws, jujitsu focuses more on the groundwork, but both will leave me limping the next day). So to help my emotional and physical health (I always feel so much happier when I'm involved in a regular physical event), I am going to start taking judo lessons from a dojo less than 4 miles from my apartment. I'm both scared and happy :)

- cello—yes, you heard it! I have long been in love with the cello, but I was never able to find lessons in Chillicothe. Ok, so I didn't really look all that hard, but while living in Chillicothe, I didn't have the money to spare for cello lessons, either. I found some private cello lessons in Springboro. Only about $17/week for 30 minutes. I don't mind parting with $68/month if it is for something that I have wanted to do for literally the past 13 years.

All of the above require money—though thankfully, not much of it (I am still on a VERY tight budget as I try to pay some debts off!)—and my leaving the comfort of my apartment to go to a studio or dojo to work with strangers. But what about things to do at home?

- write—I need to write at least a page per night. Progress won't come unless I make it come.

- art—whether drawing, painting, or photography, I need to get back into this. This will also be relieved by my cello lessons and with my martial art classes, but the part of me that wants to create pictures has been ignored for far too long.

- Netflix—damn straight. I love me some Netflix. I don't have cable, but I've been working through some of the television series I've wanted to see. (Those unaccounted-for 6 hours per day? Yeah, well, a lot of them go to Netflix... but that's too much. I was never a long-term t.v. watcher, so I fear falling into that habit if I don't stop it now.)

What was the point of this post? Who knows. Do I ever have a point? ;) I suppose I wanted to give you guys a look into my post-OUC life (it does exist!) and perhaps I wanted to encourage you to budget your time as well. Don't let life pass you by unexplored. As a student, you probably don't have time/money to do all you want now—but do the things you can do for now, and plan on doing the rest for later. Just make sure you DO do them later! (I've been putting off the cello for years, but I registered today for my first private lesson!)

It's never too late to start anew. It's never naive to explore the world with open eyes. And it's never a bad time to say hello to one's former co-workers. Best of luck to you in your studies and future explorations!

Hold on while I try to think of a title...

Hello :) Hmm... I really don't know what to write about, but I feel bad that I haven't blogged for a few weeks. I just had to put on my hoodie, not because I'm cold but because I'm a bit self-conscious about my bruises from ju-jitsu class. I re-bruised a bruise from last week that was fading to yellow-green, but now it's a lovely mauve color with a background of yellow-green. I have a doozy forming on my elbow; it's deep purple and hasn't fully formed yet, so it's deep. Once it comes to the surface, it'll either be dark or big... or both. While grappling in ju-jitsu, we're supposed to grab each other's gis for take-downs or throws, but occasionally we accidently grab sleeve and skin rather than fabric alone. I think that's what happened to me last night. Oh well. Injuries of all kinds come with the territory.

I've gained a few pounds this past week thanks to Easter over-indulgence. Ugh. Hate it. I was doing well with at least maintaining my current weight if not losing, but with the gain I am now shifting my focus back to losing. Adding karate to my weekly martial art classes might help, too. And bike riding. I've really been wanting to get back into bike riding.

Four more weeks of grad school. I'm sort of overwhelmed with stuff that needs done, especially since a healthy case of senioritis has set in. My motivation waxes and wanes. I want to be done, but in order to be done, I have to do stuff. I don't wanna do stuff. I want to ride my bike, and read what I want, and take walks, and draw, and garden.

The finish line is in sight... but I am questioning the reserves of strength that will get me there.

Blog Jar: "My dream job..."

I've had so many different dream jobs---I mean, I've dreamed of them but not actually had them.

When I was about 12, I wanted to be a Marine Biologist.

By 12 1/2, I wanted to be a photographer with National Geographic so that I could travel the world. (I still love photography and I still want to travel the world.)

By 16 I wanted to be a novelist.

By 18, I didn't know what the hell I wanted to be.

I'll be 30 in three months, and while I never accomplished these dream jobs, different aspects of them still are with me. I adore photography and am saving up for a digital SLR, with which I hope to do some psuedo-professional art (I sold my first photograph a little more than a year ago!). Though I've not been overseas, I still have gotten a decent amount of travelling done in this country. I love to write and hope to one day get something published. ...the ocean scares me, though, so I don't know what started that Marine Biologist kick.

I am more than halfway through my master's degree, which will allow me to get a job that I feel will be good for me. This job will allow me to be my own boss, put my OCD organizing skills to use, and to work in an isolated and cold room for hours on end.

This, my friends, is the life of an archivist.

I've been volunteering for OSU and working several hours per week in their archives. I adore it.

So my most recent dream job is something that I'll actually (hopefully) be doing soon.


(And I'll moonlight as a photographer and novelist, of course.)

Blog Jar: "My Dream Vacation"

This is easy. GREECE!

But I'm more picky than that. I do not want to go during the summer when it is hot, when the tourists outnumber the natives. Brandi no like heat. Brandi no like lots of people.

I would like to go to Greece in late autumn, or even in the dead of winter. Southern Greece would still be fairly mild, and northern Greece would have sheets of snow and ice. Oh, how I would love to see the black sands of Santorini as the cool waters of the Mediterranean lapped at my bare feet... How I would love to walk around Demeter's "birthplace" of Eleusis... How I would adore going to Athens and meet my friend Martha...

I can't wait for the day when I can put a Greek stamp in my passport and can put into practice my pathetic Greek vocabulary. Just thinking about it fills me with wanderlust!

Following My Own Advice... Outlines!

I am the type of student who works well under pressure, who waits until the pressure of the ticking clock becomes nearly unendurable before I truly set to work to finish a paper.

As a writer, I let the blinking cursor on the screen lead me to whatever weave of the tale comes next.

Aaaaand these things lead to problems. Sometimes I stress myself out over a paper that I waited too long on. And with my writing? I've barely made progress in a story I've had in my head for several years now.

When a student comes in with the need to brainstorm for ideas, I always tell that person that an outline is a good idea. An outline is the skeleton of your paper--all it does is support the frame and tell you where all the pieces go. What you fill in from there is the flesh that will finally create the whole body of your paper.

But then I think, "Wow, why don't I follow my own advice?" How hippocritical of me to lecture about outlines when I don't make them either?

So I've decided to start creating outlines. At least for my creative writing. I'm starting with a general one, then I'll add detail until I have a mini-outline created for each separate chapter. And you know what? A lot of pieces fell into place with the plot that I've been struggling with for the past three years.

I'm really excited for summer break. Though I'll still be working at one place or another--I hope!--I won't be taking any classes until fall. That will leave me with three months to play with these outlines and start doing some creative writing again. I even brought along a binder to work today, one which had been buried in a box and contains all the old notes for my story. It was such a treat--sometimes a cringe-worthy one--to read some of my old scribbles. Re-reading old notes also cast long-forgotten ideas back into the forefront of my mind.

After an overlong respite, my muse is starting to stir again. (I think that might account for my having, what, three posts now in as many days?) And all because I decided to work with an outline.

Sometimes stubbornness does not pay off.

(But sometimes it does!)

Spring Break!

Oh, thank goodness for Spring Break.

Have any of you ever experienced these phases in new terms?:

1. All right! A new quarter/semester! I'm going to kick butt!
2. I'll do the paper later.
3. Ugh. It's only week 3?!
4. Let me DIE.
5. *walks around in zombie-like stupor for an indeterminable span of time--could be days, could be months--for time no longer has meaning*
6. Okay... I think I've found my groove.

This year has also been my first experience with semesters. A strange beast. As my OU-C classes begin a new quarter next week, my KSU classes... are still on-going. Thankfully some of them end next week due to being accelerated 10-week courses, but my Genealogy class continues on into the distance, ending somewhere beyond where the sky meets the horizon and where the tumbleweed fails to tumble.

By the smiling of the gods upon me and the aligning of the planets, spring break for OUC and KSU fall... ON THE SAME WEEK! OH EM GEE!! Break from both schools at once!!! But then realization dawns that I have a final exam and a 15-page paper due next week, so that sort of sucks the "break" out of "Spring Break."

At least I have managed my taxes, though. Usually I have them done by February, but this year the fog lay heavily upon my cognitive abilities. I would come home from class in Columbus, sitting down at last at 11:00 p.m., looking at my tax forms, and invariably this would happen:

"Okay... enter the amount from box one on line one. *deer in headlights* What's a box? What's a line? OMG! What's "one"?!!!! AAAAAAAAAAAAARRRRRGGGGHHH!!"

So yeah, I postponed doing them until my first day of Spring Break. (And let this be a reminder to all of you to get your taxes done!) And 1040EZs are GREAT! I love being poor, single, and child-free! Well, at least single and child-free. I'm not such a fan of being poor.

Have a great spring break, all. Sorry I couldn't make it for bowling. I was in physical pain all day :(

Therapy

I'm pretty sure I'm not the only one who has found this quarter stressful. It seems like every direction I turn, I run into another struggling individual pouring out their woes. As of late, I've served as a kind ear for many, but it's not so easy for me to open up about my emotional torments. I'm pretty good at bottling it all up until I overflow: a habit I'm destined to manage in the new year. And I think I know where to start. Dishes.

Leona and I had a discussion the other day about cleaning and our most loathsome household duties. She detests laundry; I hate dishes. I'll let dishes go for as long as I can stand it. But, Leona claims washing dishes is "therapeutic." That really resonated with me this weekend. What do I do for therapy? And why do I hate dishes so much?

I don't know what it is about dishes. I started washing them at home as a chore when I was probably seven or eight. I remember my mother pulling a kitchen chair up to the sink so I could reach. I probably begged her to do them at first, like Gracie begs me to help out now. Boy, I wish I had bitten my tongue. Maybe I wouldn't resent washing them so now. I think my aversion to the task is that, when I was younger, I cut my hands on knives and broken glasses hidden by the soapy suds on a couple of occasions.

When I grew up and got married for the first time, I was the only spouse diligent enough to wash the dishes. I remember my ex-husband washed the dishes ONCE in our seven years together. It was after I'd spent three full days and nights at the hospital with my mother. The ex washed the dishes before I came home for a nap and a shower just so that I could make him a steak dinner while I was home. And things haven't changed. Now that I'm remarried, my current husband still avoids washing the dishes. The last time he did it? Mother's Day 2008. I swear. I can remember, because he said he'd do the dishes since it was Mother's Day. I guess that's the one day a year I get to take a break. However, he changes the litter box and takes the trash to the dumpster. I guess I can't argue too much.

The point of my dishes rant is coming soon. The other day, I had a particularly stressful phone conversation with my mother. I was angry, I was hurt, and I had all kinds of raging energy. I set Gracie up with her video game in the living room and said, "Honey, Mommy's going to do the dishes now, because I'm in just the right kind of mood." I took my laptop to the kitchen, started blaring some White Stripes and ran the hot, sudsy dish water. The dishes were piled high. I think every glass, bowl, plate, and pan we own were dirty. That just made me even madder. So, I took to the daunting task of washing the dishes.

I had finished the silverware, then the glasses, all the while staring into the foam and thinking about all of the things that I've been carrying around. I thought about how terrible things have been in my family since my mother and father divorced; I thought about the person I used to be and the person I want to be; I thought about friends I've gained and lost. And as I thought, the tears started flowing. All of the emotions I'd been harboring inside came flowing out into the sink, and I thought, "This IS therapeutic! Leona was right!" It took me a good two hours to finish the kitchen, and by the time I was finished, the tears had started and stopped quite a few times. It was a purging that I needed. Not only did I cleanse my heart of ill feelings, I cleansed my dishes with them!

I like the idea of turning my worst nightmare into something nourishing. That's a start for the new year. :)

Funny of the Day

Today, while on my way in to the Learning Center, I witnessed an advertisement for Burger King's newest rage: The Angry Whopper.



Is it now Burger Kings' intention to incite rage among its consumers?! Now that's customer service!

Yay, Diversity!

I love diversity. I encourage as much of it around me as possible. Most of my life experience, as well as my experience with diverse individuals, comes from my time at the paper. Working in journalism puts you in a position where you must be unbiased and fair to everyone reading what you print, no matter what your personal feelings are or how well you can relate to your constituents.

I've worked with both powerful men and women, from all nationalities. But even though tolerance for diversity was necessary in my job, I was still catering to a primarily white, low-to-middle-class community. Most of our subscribers fit into those categories. However, when you print the news, you know that the information you produce is typically sent out into a vacuum, and you don't get feedback unless you did something wrong. While I was producing news for a certain audience, I had to be constantly aware of offending someone outside of the targeted community.

I plan to use this experience with diversity in my job here at the Writing Center. Hopefully, I can be more tuned in to my tutees' needs and personal convictions without allowing my own to come into play.

Happy to Be Here

I'm certainly excited to be working at OUC's Writing Center.

So, here's some background info on me. I'm happily married to an Adult Services Librarian and have a gorgeous soon-to-be five-year-old daughter. We live in Waverly with our three cats. I previously worked as the editor of "The Pike County News Watchman" for five years. I returned to OUC last Winter to finish a degree I put off for six years. It's about time, is all I can say.

I've finally decided what to actually do with my English degree, which is teach. Therefore, I'll make my attempt at grad school before long. I'd like to attend OSU, since they offer a five-quarter Masters program in English Education. I've just always known that teaching is my niche, and I can't waste it. However, I've been determined to avoid majoring in education. I'd rather specialize in my field, and then learn all of the administrative/paper work/how-to-teach mumbo jumbo.

So, this new opportunity is particularly exciting for me. My goal is to immerse myself in this wonderful language we call English, while teaching others how to use it. At my job as editor, I worked mainly fixing others' writing errors, without having the opportunity to sit them down and correct their issues one at a time. Since we were constantly on deadlines, this was just the most efficient way to get the work done. However, I know that those poor writers weren't getting any better by me fixing their errors. Working here at the Writing Center, I'll be able to actually feel like I'm making a difference in my peers' education. I truly believe knowledge is power, and I want other people to have this revelation, as well. I plan to bestow it upon everyone I possibly can!

I also welcome this opportunity to learn and grow my own skills. I know everyone has room for improvement, and I'm ready to improve! I hope this experience gives me more ambition to produce my own works, as well. I've never really thought of myself as a writer, per say, but I think it's in me, somewhere, somehow. Maybe this experience will help draw it out of me!