travels

For the summer I’ll be writing in a different blog that will keep track of my travels around Europe! Find it here:

http://tulipsandwindmills.wordpress.com/

catching up

Wow.. it’s been awhile.  A good, long while. So many things have changed, reversed, shifted since I last wrote. Good things and bad things. Mostly good though (I’m a lucky girl). I won’t even try to get into the details at this point. Not only is that a daunting task and it’s 2am so I’m tired, but I don’t think I could remember everything if I tried. Still, here are some highlights (in no particular order)…

• Dad and sister moved back to Texas
• Dad got engaged!
• Became single, met someone new shortly thereafter
• Got a kitty who ran away and came back a week later
• Bought myself a new computer
• Failed a class
• Realized grades aren’t everything
• Decided ok maybe they are kind of important – brought my grades up
• Finally figured out what I want to do with my life (I think)

That’s all I can think of at the moment. More soon. Maybe even pictures!

modern-day sexism

A word of advice: if you are a female and are in need of a service of some kind (car repair, internet hookup, CELL PHONE), make sure you have a guy with you. Until recently, I was fully convinced that in our day and age, women had a relatively equal place in society as men. Though we still don’t make quite as much money as men on average, we are at the very least making some kind of progress. A female can obtain a respectable college degree, land a well-paying, high-power job, and basically live her life as she pleases with noticeably more ease than she could have, say, 30 years ago. We’ve come a long way, and I appreciate that.

However, it seems to me that possessing the ability to climb the proverbial career ladder does not imply that women are held in the same general regard as are men. The more I think about it, the more I realize that men really are not graciously allowing us to pass them by on the ladder of success. Rather, they are obligated by law (thanks to many years and thousands of women who fought for their rights) to do so. I think that for the most part, they are grudgingly and reluctantly making room on their rung so that we can move up. I think that this fact is directly associated with the generally negative attitude toward women. Women (like racial minorities, homosexuals, etc.) have stepped on the toes of the 40-60 year old white man, and in return, we are treated with partiality stemming from bitterness.

I realize this is quite a generalization, and I know this doesn’t apply to all men. But I, as a young female, have encountered more than one situation in my life that supports this idea. Case in point: my Sprint plan. Let me set the stage for you..

Several years ago, my mom set up a Sprint account for herself, my sister Julianne, and me. We used that account for a few years without a problem, upgraded a couple times, got what we needed. When we moved here to Colorado, my dad’s new job gave him a plan from AT&T, on which he got himself and my other sister Brooke new phones. At this point, we were paying for two separate plans for two separate companies. Needless to say, this was very expensive. It made much more sense to cancel me and Julianne’s Sprint plan and add two lines to my dad’s AT&T plan. For a while though, we just avoided that because (as I’m sure everyone’s dealt with at some point) cancellation fees of $150 make it almost not worth it. Then our circumstances changed and the holder of our Sprint account was no longer alive, allowing us to supposedly cancel our account with no fees. So, Julianne made a phone call letting Spring know our situation, they said they’d cancel the account and send an email confirmation in 3-5 days. Works for me. 3-5 days passes, no email, so Julianne calls again. 3-5 more days they say. Oook… what can you do? 5 days later, still nothing. She calls again, and then again, and then again. By that time, she had called 4 or 5 times, each time being promised the account would be cancelled in 3-5 days. We had also faxed them our information, twice, just to be sure they had it all there. So today at lunch, my dad asks us about our account. We explain to him the events of the past few weeks, and of course he gets upset because he is the one paying for it. I tell him we’ve done everything in our power to get the stupid thing canceled, and that we don’t know what else to do. So my dad the former-lawyer calls them up right then and there. He pushes a few numbers, connects to a customer service rep, uses his stern-but-not-quite-yelling lawyer voice, and 10 MINUTES LATER THE ACCOUNT IS CANCELLED! What the hell?! Is it because he had information that we did not? No. Did he ask for a supervisor and threaten to call the Better Business Bureau and get someone fired? No (Though he did suggest that to us as an idea for future reference). Does he have the authoritative voice of a man? YES. Never again will I scoff at a young girl who is not getting what she wants with a salesperson and whips our her cell phone and says “Daddy? I need your help.” It works. Men get what they want because they are men. They are looked at as more powerful, forward, outspoken, and prone to taking action if he doesn’t get his way. Even if that were true – which it is so, so not – there is still no reason for women, young women in particular, to be discriminated against because they’re assumed to be pushovers.

And you know what? That’s not the only occasion. I can think of 3 other instances (involving a car mechanic, a realtor, and a police officer) just off the top of my head where I’ve been cheated or taken advantage of, and I GUARANTEE the same thing would not have happened to a man. DRIVES ME CRAZY.

what to do?

A couple weeks ago the family and myself had dinner with Karen, her family, and the Wises (during which we had the most fabulous mojitos known to man). Shortly after meeting Mrs. Wise, she proceeded to spend about 25 minutes trying to convince me to become a nurse. At first I just humored her by playing along: “Oh yeah, no problem. Let me just go ahead and change major – again – months before my junior year.” But then I got to thinking (red flag number one). If I graduate with a bachelor’s in Psychology like I currently intend to do, I cannot work in the Psychology field without first getting at least a Master’s. I knew this when I chose Psych in the first place. Not a problem. The thing is though, even with a PhD and my own private practice, a typical annual salary is usually anywhere between $50,000 and $70,000. On a good day. With only a Master’s it’s even less. Now nursing jobs on the other hand require far less schooling and for a better pay. With an associate’s (ADN) or bachelor’s (BSN) degree alone, both of which qualify you as a registered nurse (RN), average yearly salary is around $52,000. If you go on to get a master’s (MSN), with which you can become a Nurse Practitioner (NP), a Nurse Anesthetist (CRNA), and others, salaries reach between $70,000 and $110,000.

Needless to say, the shortage of nurses makes it a lot easier to make good money while spending less time getting there. Not that money is everything, but it certainly makes life easier. And if I can go to the same amount of school for the same cost and get paid more in the end, I’ll do it.

The problem is, I’m already halfway through with my Psych degree. Plus, I am dead-set on going to Maastricht next summer, which means I have a very strict degree plan already mapped out. That said, if I were really serious about going the nursing route, I can do one of two things.

A) I can change my major to nursing immediately. However, that would mean spending an extra year or so catching up on the pre-requisites I need before I can go to Baylor’s nursing school in Dallas. It also means I’d lose a lot of my scholarship for Maastricht because of some of the stipulations on that funding. Without that money, I probably couldn’t afford to go, which is not an option.

B) I can prepare for what is called an Accelerated BSN Program, which allows individuals who already have a Bachelor’s in something other than nursing to earn a BSN in only a year of rigorous coursework. The problem here is that I’d most likely have to spend an extra semester at Baylor taking pre-reqs for the Accelerated Program, thus again losing Maastricht scholarship money. Not to mention the Accelerated BSN is a whole additional year on top of my Psych degree, which would be time consuming and expensive. There’s a small chance that I could rework my current schedule to fit in all my pre-reqs, but I haven’t looked into it enough yet. But if I could do that, then I could graduate from Baylor a semester early, spend a year in the Accelerated Program, another couple years getting a CRNA, and then be able to pay off all my loans in a few years.

Goodness! I don’t know what to do..

the good life

Soo let me just say, California was UH-MAY-ZING. So much fun. We left town around 4am Sunday morning and arrived at San Clemente State Beach around 4:30pm that afternoon. On the way we stopped at In-N-Out for burgers, which was absolutely an essential part of the trip. When we got to the campsite, we set the tent up pretty quickly (because we’re pros like that) and walked around a while. We ate pizza for dinner at the cutest open-air pizza place right by the pier. The next day was kind of cloudy so we hung out on the beach for a couple hours and then went shopping downtown. The day after that we woke up bright and early to go to Disneyland! I’d never been before, but I’m kind of glad I went as a 20 year old because it was really sentimental and nostalgic for all of us. The pictures show how much fun we had. The last full day we had was perfect – 85 and sunny all day long. We brought our big shelter thingy out to the beach and sat around for like 8 hours just watching the waves, getting some sun, and occasionally falling asleep in the shade. I wonder if that’s how Californians feel every day? Anyway, we woke up early again on Thursday morning, packed up, and headed out by 9. The rides there and back were almost as fun as the trip itself! There were numerous Incubus/Beatles/Creedence sing-a-longs (as well as the occasional JT dance party), an intense 2 hour-long game of “truth or truth”, and many moments of complete delirium during which EVERYthing was somehow hilarious – particularly after being awake for 20+ hours on the ride up there. That, friends, is how life should be. Spontaneous, hilarious, and a damn good time.

to do list

Tonight (well, technically tomorrow) at 3am, Katie, Sammie and I leave for San Diego! We’ve got a campsite right on the beach where we’ll stay for 4 nights. No boys, no agenda, no responsibilities – except to spend a day at Disneyland, which is hardly a responsibility. But in order to enjoy my time there, I have to make sure I get everything done before I leave. That includes:

• do a ton of laundry
• pack for the trip
• talk to Red Robin about working when i get back
• buy food for Roxy
• triple check my bank account (Disneyland is expensive!)
• dinner date with family friends
• go to bed earlyyy!

Nothing too overwhelming. I don’t know what I’ll do though if they don’t have room for me at Red Robin. I mean I’ve worked there every other summer that I’ve lived here, but who knows? Oh well. I’ll definitely be putting some pictures up after I get back from California!

In other news, I looove love love my Blackberry Pearl. I got it in the mail yesterday, and haven’t been able to put it down since. I’m too cheap to have email and internet on it – even though I realize that’s kind of the main purpose of a Blackberry – but it’s great for texting and managing a calendar, two things I do constantly. Normally, when I have something to do, I handwrite a list on a post-it, write it in a planner, and put a notification on my phone. Hopefully now I can just do it on my Pearl.

Now’s the time when I should actually get started on that list.. even though I’m sitting outside on the front porch in my pajamas where it’s 65 degrees and gorgeous right now. Must. Not. Procrastinate…

fabulosity

I can’t believe I haven’t talked about the Sex and the City movie yet! I may or may not have mentioned it in passing in a previous post, but it was certainly not given the credit it was due. Katie, Sammie, Annie, and I bought tickets weeks before the movie premiered – just to be sure. The movie came out on the 30th, so we got all dolled up and showed up at the theater at 6:30 for the 7:40 showing. To my surprise, there was a huge crowd of girls also dressed up, already waiting at the velvet rope. I guess I wasn’t expecting there to be so many like-minded females with the same desire to look as fabulous as Carrie/Charlotte/Samantha/Miranda that night. But hey! The more people to share in your “almost-40 but single and fabulous in New York City” fantasy, the better, right?

Women come to New York for the two L’s: Labels and Love.

- Carrie Bradshaw

Anyway, the movie itself was exactly what I was hoping for. Disagree if you like, but I loved/love the series, and I think the movie gave fans of the series what they wanted: an extension of the show, slightly “Hollywood-ized”, but still funny, candid, emotional, and entertaining. Truth be told, I actually cried. On more than one occasion! Granted, I’m a bit of a sap, but I think those who fell in love with the show, and could identify with and understand the characters, probably feel the same way that I do. The ending was endearing and predictably perfect, without being boring.

Bottom line: If you watched and enjoyed the series, or if you’re a sucker for a cute, funny, and fabulous chick flick, (or if you’re a guy who is looking for an easy 99:1 girl to guy ratio) go see this movie!

oh, the formalities of life

Today I bought a new Blackberry Pearl to replace my Katana. I say I bought it.. actually it was my dad who spent an hour on the phone with AT&T trying to reactivate one of the lines on his plan, and add a fourth line, and buy two new phones all in one call. You’d think that a company as essential to American life as a phone company would be able to accommodate its customers with ease.. like perhaps offering the same price for a phone whether it’s bought online, over the phone, or in a store. But no, the consumer must research all their options and talk to at least 6 different people in order to get done what they need done. But then really, what did I expect? It’s a corporation, out for our money and not for our happiness. And it’s not as if you could just tell a salesperson “Take care of it for me, would you?” because you know they’re looking to fill their pockets with their share of commission, not look out for your best interest. At the end of the day though, I got nice, new Blackberry (thank you dad) for my birthday. I hope it doesn’t turn out to be one of those unnecessary luxuries (ahem, iPhone) with all kinds of extras that I don’t need. But my dad has a Curve and loves it, so we’ll see. Now I just have to cancel my Sprint plan.. which normally would be a pain in the backside, but my particular circumstances allow me to cancel without paying, thank God.

hiking, camping, and bbq’s

So William went back to Texas yesterday. I miss him already! But the next couple months will probably go by so quickly. Summers seem to do that for some reason. I had so much fun while he was here though! We hiked Hanging Lake (which was SO beautiful), saw a JUCO game, had a delicious Memorial Day BBQ, played lots of frisbee, and went camping up on the Colorado National Monument. We also ate wings at Rooster’s TWICE! Here are some pictures from the past couple weeks:

Hanging Lake

Memorial Day BBQ

Camping

I love summer. The next week will consist of me going to bed late, waking up late, spending the day sitting around at home watching Guy’s Big Bite and Flipping Out, and maybe ending the day with a movie with the fam or Sex and the City on dvd with the girls. Next Sunday Katie, Sami, and I leave for San Diego! We’re camping on the beach for three nights and going to Disneyland for one of the days. And then after that I’ll come home and start working at Red Robin again That’s really the only reason I’m ok with sitting around all day haha. More to come soon!

it’s about time

So I finally made it to Colorado! I feel like the past couple weeks have gone by soo quickly, probably because of how busy I’ve been. But now that I’m finally here, I can actually relax and ENJOY my summer.

Moving out of the duplex was a nightmare. If I could avoid it, I’d never move again. Or at least I’d hire a mover. It’s got to be worth the extra few hundred bucks. The actual, physical moving part wasn’t even the worst of it. Lacey, William and I all worked together so it got done pretty quickly. But packing up all my stuff took SO LONG. I still cannot believe how much stuff I have. It felt like my belongings doubled in number with every box I packed. William and I even had to stop in Waco on our way here to move one last load of kitchen things because I ran out of time before I had to leave for Chelsea’s wedding. Anyway, I’m kind of excited about moving into our new place next semester, only because UNpacking is so, so much easier than packing.

Chelsea and Cole’s wedding was beautiful and actually a lot of fun!

Unfortunately, I didn’t get any pictures of the actual ceremony because I was up on the stage haha. It might’ve been a little awkward to whip out a camera in the middle of their vows.

After the wedding, William and I drove to his house in Elgin (after first getting lost in downtown San Antonio for 30 minutes of course) and stayed a couple nights before heading to Colorado on Monday morning at 8:30am. We would’ve made really good time, except we had to make the aforementioned pit stop in Waco to move my stuff, so we didn’t actually get going until around 3pm. The drive was gorgeous as always..

We got into Grand Junction on Tuesday evening, where we had dinner at Rooster’s (YUM). Since then, we’ve been doing a lot of sitting around, eating, playing Guitar Hero, and basically enjoying not having any responsibilities for at least the next week or so!