School and such

I started school just about two weeks ago and it seems to be going fine so far. Here’s what my classes look like this semester:

International Finance
MWF, 9:10-10:10
My prof looks like Will Ferrel. I swear. He has the hair and the facial features. This seems like a very interesting class, but is supposed to get more challenging. That means I should be ordering the textbook soon.

Social and Legal Environment of Business
MWF, 10:20-11:20
A core business course dealing with learning about law, business cases and such. The new book at the bookstore cost a whopping $215, but I managed to get it online for all of $86 after shipping and it came in a few days. How’s that for savings?

Investments
MWF, 11:30-12:30
Thought this class was going to be really interesting. It turned out to be a little less than what I was hoping, but not as bad as others have suggested… so far.

Stat II
MW, 1:10-2:40
In reality, he has been letting us out around 2:00 each day, so it’s more like a half hour class than an hour and a half class… and with luck because he is a nice man, but his accent is very thick and hard to understand.

Latin American Film and Fiction
MW, 2:40
Even though I wanted to improve my Spanish reading abilities, I’m seriously less than thrilled and hating this class right now. We’ve progressed on to full-sized novels in this class and she picked some hefty ones: Cien anos de soledad, Como agua para chocolate, and La casa de los espiritus. The first and the last novels I mentioned are about 400+ pages, all in Spanish, and the second one I mentioned is shorter. The paragraphs are often long and continue for pages and pages, though, so needless to say it is hard to get through. I wish I was back in the class I had last semester with the same teacher when we were only reading short stories!

J&J Case Competition
I am adding this on, even though it is technically an extracurricular thing that I am doing and not a class. The team from our school that placed 3rd in the grand competition last year suggested that it would take a considerable amount of time per week to work on and develop our case. Personally, I don’t get my classwork and other work done during the week (especially considering the amount of Spanish homework I have for this weekend… don’t get me started on that!! *rage*) so I doubt I’m going to have a million hours to devote to this. I am still going to give it a try and meet with my team when possible, though, and our case has to be ready to present on March 1st. Unfortunately, this is falling right after a big weekend (the Greek fraternity/sorority rush weekend), on a day that I have five classes, and the day before the Flogging Molly show in NYC that I might be going to, so there are some very busy days coming up for me.

Tomorrow I am going to dinner at Emeril’s Chop House in the Sands Casino with Steve and a few other people. It’s restaurant week in the nearby town of Bethlehem and Emeril’s restaurant is participating by offering a 3 course dinner menu for $30. There are other restaurants offering similar menus, but I thought it would be cool to go to Emeril’s. When I was a kid, I was a big fan of his. A friend of my dad’s brought me be back a menu and a toque hat from the Emeril’s New Orleans restaurant, and I still have them on my bookshelf along with cookbooks and such.

Saturday there is something fun planned, too, but I am not able to say what because it is a secret for someone- lol.

This is the end, my only friend, the end…

I think it might be the end of the road for Burned-Bridges. This August will mark it’s 9th anniversary. I just updated a few little things on some of the pages, and I’m looking at the site now simply not knowing what to do with it. I’ve always loved hosting people and making websites, but maybe it is time to focus on something different?

Ideally, I would like to keep a website up – if only for my own personal amusement and that of a few others – and have maybe two hostees and call it a day. I guess my days of having 32625 hosted websites are apparently gone because I can’t find reliable or interested people anymore to share my space with. What happened to the days of the “hey- I’m deleting all of my site because I don’t have the time anymore, but thank you anyway!” courtesy emails? *shrugs* Just saying, and this is not directed towards anyone in particular! Various people have done this at various points in time over the last 9 years. /rant

What I need to do is switch to a smaller, more affordable hosting plan. $60/year for 200gb of space is pretty kick-ass, but it is absolutely useless if I don’t use it, and I haven’t used more than 1gb of it for the past however-the-hell-many years. I checked out some hosting plans offered by fellow web designers with reseller accounts, but I’m skeptical. With so many people purchasing and discarding domains, who’s to say that my files won’t “disappear” overnight when the person decides not to pay their reseller hosting fees? *cringes* The idea of splitting the cost with someone also came to mind, but I would have to find someone first. I tried that one year with one of my friends when we started a business venture and then… well, I’m not sure what happened to the business venture or her for that matter. Things seemed to fall apart for no clear-cut reason and I haven’t spoken with her in about a year.

One thing is for sure: It wouldn’t feel the same to post daily blogs via Facebook notes, or in the pathetic excuse for a blog that Myspace has enabled on all of their profiles. It just wouldn’t. It’s too easy for people to do and doesn’t allow for a lot of creativity. (Which is why I guess people are drawn to it and that’s a shame.) Sure, you can customize the Myspace profiles now with templates and drag-and-drop content with a few mouse clicks, but has anyone tried working with the new Myspace profile designer thing when it comes to putting your own HTML and CSS in there? I tried last summer and gave up because it was ridiculous. It was actually much easier to use CSS and HTML then wrestle with that thing, which is why I stuck with the first Myspace layout style on my profiles and still make my own layouts. If anything, I would go back to blogging daily on Livejournal, where I still have my 7+ year old account with a lot of history, before I regularly blogged on my Myspace profile blog.

Anyway, thinking about the future of things is depressing me, so I found this idea from Kristine @ Obscured-Reflections.net to cheer me up. Some of mine are actually similar or the same as hers.

Post 10 things that make me happy

My beau- I had some really bad luck with guys this time last year, but the bullshit is over. I met Steve around March of last year and was fortunate to get to know him better as the months went on. He always puts me in a good mood and cheers me up when I’m feeling sad. I’ve grown to love him lots. ♥ ♥ ♥

Cooking and baking- There have been times where I have come home from work/school/events/etc. and felt dead-tired, but still managed to make something delicious. Cooking and baking both relax me, allowing me to focus my attention on something else besides what went on during the day, and provide a somewhat creative outlet.

Going out- I don’t care where: the mall, Wal-Mart, the casino, a restaurant, etc. I love getting out of the house and doing stuff, even if I don’t have more than a dollar in my pocket. Some people get depressed when they can only “window shop”, but not me. In my mind, it is certainly better than sitting on my ass at home and moping.

Kittens and other baby animals- Come on, how can you not smile when you see a little fuzzy kitten, puppy, or penguin…? They make me feel all giggly and light-hearted.

Xbox Live with friends- It’s more fun to play in the same room with friends, but linked in a party online also works. Find me and add me if you have a Live account!

Finding clothes that fit and look perfect- There is nothing more of an ego booster than going to a store and finding that “perfect outfit” or clothing item; those kind of garments that fit like they were made for me even though they weren’t. Well-fitting jeans always make me feel great, or a dress that looks amazing and super-flattering when put on.

Beautiful fall days- The kind crisp day when wearing a cable knit sweater and jeans with no coat would be appropriate, and it’s possible to take a walk outside without wearing a scarf and mitten combo set and freezing to death. Those days before the temperature drops, the sidewalks get icy, and the white snowy shit makes the ground icky.

Music- I have different music “moods” that come over me. One day I’ll be really psyched to listen to some black and death metal, another day I’ll be craving some jazz or oldies music. There’s music to match every mood and every situation.

Good friends- Sometimes having a few great friends is better than having a bunch of phony friends. I learned that lesson very well this past year, that’s for sure.

Being busy and/or accomplishing things- I hate not having something to do or being cooped up in one place for a long time. Most of the time, I need to be active doing something or busy in some way to be happy. Down-time is only nice for so long until I start to get antsy.

First post-op checkup

I went for my first post-op checkup today and it went pretty well. There was a little problem getting the blood drawn because of the blood thinners I was put on last week to prevent blood clots after the surgery, but it turned out ok. My mom is doing well, too. She has to visit twice a week for the next few weeks so they can make adjustments on her medications, but I only have to visit every 6 months just for a checkup (blood pressure, weight, blood and urine labs…) After the hospital, we stopped to get something to eat and went to the mall to take care of some bills. I walked around with my dad a little bit and got a few candles at Yankee Candle since they were having a sale. (Lord and Taylor was having a kick-ass sale, too, and I’m tempted to go back for some 50% cashmere sweater deals. Hmmmmm…)

I woke up around 5:00am and we got to the hospital around 7:20am, so I am awfully tired right now and might go take a nap. I hate sleeping during the day, though; it totally throws off my sleep cycle.

Happy b-day to me

Today is my 21st birthday :D

Home at last

I got out of the hospital on the 31st after spending two nights and three days there, post-op. A majority of the nurses I had were absolutely horrible, so by the third day I couldn’t wait to get home where I knew I would be treated better. The transplant team of doctors and surgeons were very good, though, and came to see me every morning- so that was the most thorough part of my hospital stay.

To remove my left kidney, I had a laproscopic surgery and they made three incisions: two on my left side that are each about an inch long, and one right below my navel that is about two inches long. They look pretty bad, but were secured with surgical glue so there will not be as big of a scar as there would be if stitches or staples had been used. The first night at the hospital was horrible, and the second one wasn’t much better. I’m just absolutely relieved that there wasn’t a third night. A few of my friends and a few family members came to see me while I was in the hospital and brought me some gifts, which was nice…

I watched the ball drop and spent New Years Eve at home with Steve, my dad, and my uncle. My uncle actually just left after spending a week with us at our house to help my dad out with taking care of me, my mom, and the dog.

I’m still weak and really achey, but I’m trying to space out the pain meds to once a day before bed time. One tablet makes me fall asleep within a half hour, and I want to be up and active for the day so I don’t get even more stiffness in my back, neck, and shoulders from lying around.

With that said, I’m going to go watch some TV and relax. Just wanted to let everyone know that I’m doing alright- even if I only get mostly spam comments and readers nowadays.