So... a lot has happened since I last updated. And I mean A LOT. So much in fact, that I am almost surprised at how much has happened within that length of time.

To sum it all up, I bought a house, I was accepted into graduate school, I quit my pool cleaning job at the community center, I became employed as an insurance agent from home, and I started working at Samurai Noodle again (just the restaurant portion) I've tried writing so many journal entries about many of these topics, but I always thought I was going to jinx myself and something was gonna go wrong if I sound hopeful in my journal entries... and of course I wouldn't be able to bring myself to visit my dA page if something did in fact go wrong with any of those things. Blah... call me crazy. Neurotic.

The house was a huge stress magnet... because we bought a government possessed home from HUD. They're crazy about time frames and the loan/inspection/offer/etc almost fell through on a couple of different occasions. There's still some loose ends to tie up, but it's all easy to remedy down the road. I'm certainly grateful for both the hard work and effort from my real estate agent and loan officer during the process. I will totally send them a nice card and cookies next week. It's an awesome tri level home, way more space than we're used to (3 BATHROOMS/BEDROOMS!!!)  Everyone who helped us move were just amazed at the amount of stuff we had managed to fit into the apartment... we are champions, that's why all this time we were hoarders and nobody knew it. I'm actually pretty amazed with how much kitchen stuff we have... At any rate, it's all comfortably spread out across a fairly sizable house without the feeling of being too in the open. Aside from the vaulted ceilings. Did I mention I have vaulted ceilings? That's what's gonna be tough with the heating, lol!

Speaking of heating... I had to replace the furnace. It cost me a whoppin' $1800 for the unit and the installation. Reasonable... very reasonable. Almost too reasonable. Sadly it is not producing heat after only a day. Will need to have that looked at -.-

Dad installed french doors for the back sliding glass since someone hucked a rock through it months before we bought it... and since it's a HUD home, they didn't have to fix it upon us moving in. *rolls eyes* Whatever, value of the property went up with just adding those doors and a new furnace. I also went with my mom out to the hardware store and got some nice paint for the kitchen since I'm going with a sort of "baby's first Tuscan kitchen" set up. Don't have the money to replace the cabinets or the counter tops, so I'm working with just some decent paint and texturing. Excited to do that on Friday >_< Hoping to also get some booth seating in there for Alex and I since we love to eat out (hur hur hur) at restaurants all the time. I'm hoping it'll curb our spending at restaurants if we could get the same feel at home.

Grad school... hoo-boy. I submitted all of my application materials (my test scores, vitae, recommendation letters, transcripts, observation hours, goal statements, ETC) landed the interview... The interview. PHEW! That was rough! It contained a writing portion, a group interview, and then a one-on-one with the board. I was actually super happy with the talking parts, the writing part... I kind of struggled with. It was one of those question I feel like I answered already in my goal statement and was confused as to whether or not I should just repeat myself. I mean, they had my application materials and everything so I was already nervous about repetition. You can only say you want to help diversely populated and underserved schools in so many ways... and I always want the sincerity to be there because I freaking mean it. So, I was nervous and constantly checking my e-mail every day around admissions decision time... I started thinking I had failed to get in until I got the e-mail this afternoon.

Given all these blessings that have been bestowed upon me, I have to take pause and wonder to what extent was luck involved? Did I have any privileges that helped me get to where I am (aside from being white... and I don't care how hard white people try to argue the contrary with me, white people have had it made for ages... not gonna get into a rant about that) I'm quite literally trying to crawl my way out of the lower class and onto the fairly comfortable middle class perch playing the game as it's been spun to me since elementary school. I think this is one of those things that's come up with this OWS movement. How possible is it to get to where I'm at at the age of 25? I've pumped hours into propelling forward, worked myself through points in which I've been burned out... and then I wonder, is it supposed to feel that way? I am happy that there is an OWS movement... but I suppose what's been bothering me is I just want to say that I've been poor, broken, and been knocked down... and somehow here I am at this point, moderately successful with the absurdly excessive amount of work I've put in. This is precisely the problem. Stubborn entitlement that comes with the suffering from an excessive amount of hard work = completely acceptable. Perhaps I am one of the fittest of the "survival of the fittest" idea. But it's wrong, it's wrong to think that way when you are a human being. A human is societal, it needs the group, and without the strength of the community there is no structure or support for individual success. Many people need to succeed like me and it should be made possible to do so. I feel like that's the broad message of the movement, or really, the end goal (a way of life) that nobody's bothered to build a framework around. I believe people have been misconstruing the idea of socialism, and pushing back against what is pretty much human nature. To operate in a collective that can also nurture a healthy sense of individualism (since we are abstract thinking creatures and have our own ideas, tastes, strengths, weaknesses, etc) All about balance.

Enough about that...

Still participating in a fair share of side projects and extracurricular activities (if that's what you can call Marvel vs Capcom 3.... ROCKET ROCKET ROCKET SKATES!) Excited for the X-Mas cantata this season even though I've missed some rehearsals (busy busy) but the music's fairly easy while still sounding nice. Picked up some new animation software (FlipBook Pro Lite) which allows you to digitally animate stuff more traditionally. I would love to have a cintiq tablet... it would really make it easier than dealing with a standard tablet when it comes to this stuff. Oh well, another day... maybe that can be what I get myself when I get my master's. I'm split between that and a table saw (looking to make a Fightstick... because I'm a huge loser)

I guess I have some low production numbers at First Rate... pretty typical since I haven't prospected much at car dealerships. The motivation has completely dried up (plus I hate interacting with car salesman)... and I almost want to quit the job sooner rather than in Spring. I have a hard time being honest about how I feel regarding this job with my boss. I guess I'm waiting for the other 3 people to get trained... that's when I'll leave I suppose. I gave it a fair shot for the last 6 months, and it's just not for me.

I wish it was warm -.-