What's important

Recently, I haven't been able to have as much fun as I'd like. With the start of school again this month, not to mention the fact that it's my final semester of grad school, life has already started to become hectic. So much homework! There are long chapters to read, pointless discussion boards to keep track of, comprehensive exams to prepare for... On top of that, jobs to juggle and advancement opportunities to pursue... ahhh being a grown-up is really not easy. It's really not easy...

Just keep chewing

I haven't written here in a very long time! So much has happened, and I'm sure so much will continue to happen...

I guess the first thing that really comes to mind is that...

...drumroll...

I've started attending grad school! ( ´ ▽ ` )ﾉ

My first semester began last week. It's been a long while, you know, since I've been a student; I graduated in 2012 and promptly forgot how to do things like study, read for class, pay attention to course announcements... So I've been taking some time to readjust to the life of a student.

There are a few reasons that it's different from the last time I was a student.

1. I'm also working part-time in addition to studying, but that's okay because
2. My job is paying my tuition, plus
3. All my classes this semester are online!

It sounds like it should be easy, right? I'm sure this sort of thing would be considered easy for most people, who have way more on their plate. For some reason, though, I'm finding this all to be very just a bit stressful. I'm only taking 3 classes this semester (which is considered full-time for grad school), but the readings for each class are a little crazy. This first week, I barely managed to scrape through the 4 huge (and dull) chapters of just one of my classes, and I still have to catch up with the readings of one of the other classes. I read whenever I get the chance--between work hours, before I go to bed, in the car--but it's just a lot. I dunno. Maybe I'm just a wimp.

My job has been pretty stressful, too. I work in an educational setting (not a teacher, though), so this past week, which marks the beginning of classes at many college campuses, has been incredibly hectic. TBH, I feel like it has a lot to do with poor management higher up: they took on far more than they could reasonably handle this semester, and now the brunt of the work falls on the shoulders of lowly minions at my level. I really shouldn't complain at all, seeing as how they are paying for my tuition (which I'm grateful for, even if that sentiment doesn't come across through my words here), but I just can't help but feel bad when I see my co-worker getting yelled at and told to go home early by higher-ups because she didn't do an adequate job. And all that on her birthday, too... I just feel bad.

*shudder* Actually, now that I mention this co-worker, I think I have enough stored up experiences to write up a lengthy post about some of her bizarre interactions with me, but I guess that's for another time.

Well, we just have to work through it. That's how life works. If you bite off more than you can chew, you can either spit it out or keep on chewing. As I grow older, I feel more and more surprised by how resigned / accepting ( / mellow ?) I've started to become towards annoying or difficult stuff in life. Yes, for better or for worse, I think I will always retain some of my troll-ish, whiny, stubborn self (wow I sound like an awful and unlikable person), but the more you age, the less inclined you feel to put up any sort of resistance. Does that sound like giving up? Whining less and just going with the flow~ I don't know if that's what it means to "grow up. :(

It's a sleepy evening at home...

We ate some kind of noodle soup today. There were white noodles, snow peas, lima beans, green onions, cilantro, mushrooms, etc... all flavored with sesame oil and salt and other things. Now the dishes have been washed, table cleaned up, and everyone is lying down and relaxing.

I'm playing solitaire now on mama's computer. It's pretty hard. I prefer Spider solitaire.

Red, black, red, black... It hurts my brain, okay.

I have been editing my sister's friend's dissertation lately, and we are almost done :) Just one more chapter and I think it will be finished! It's pretty interesting, but just a lot of pages.

At my job, I have been making e-books using InDesign. It's kind of hard because everything about epublishing is new to me, and the version of InDesign I'm using doesn't take care of everything... like the book cover, validation, etc. So I have to do those manually. It's okay, though. It's good to learn.

Well, I don't have much to write about. I haven't even been able to keep up with my baking/cooking posts... Work is just really tiring, and I don't have so much motivation to bake these days. I don't know why. I bought a pie crust the other week but it's just sitting, packaged, on a counter. One of these days, hopefully.

Also, I'm getting my braces off next month! Hehehe. Finally!

derishus&nutrishus: Profiteroles

For February, I baked Profiteroles (cream puffs)!

Mama hosted a party for her friends and cooked lots of very delicious food: spaghetti, fresh salad, egg quiche, and more! For dessert, we ate the cream puffs and fresh strawberries. It was fun!

Making the cream puffs was actually a lot of work. I followed a recipe from our Kitchen Bible cookbook but I still had to ask my sister for help with piping the dough.

derishus&nutrishus: Spitzbuben and Oreo Cheesecake

I'm not a very useful person. I don't think I have ADHD, but I do have difficulty sticking to a hobby or skill and becoming good at it. Last year, to try to develop some type of skill worth having, I decided to make it a goal to cook or bake something tasty at least once a month. I've never had any special series of posts in my blog, before, so this will be the first! It's called derishus&nutrishus. Someday, you will be able to click this and browse all the tasty foods I have made. :) And maybe by then, I will have magically transformed into a master supreme overlord chef.

Last year, I did bake something in December, but I didn't really write about it here because of lazy. So I will combine December and January's baking posts together!

This month, I made Spitzbuben (berry jam sandwich cookies)!

Spitzbuben. Waiting.

2013!

Happy New Year!

-

Graduation! Cheesecake!! iPad!!!

It has been a while since my last entry. Why? Well, I have been very busy with my last semester of college. This semester, I had to take 17 credits in order to finish my undergraduate degree by the end of the year. I took two online classes, two modernist literature classes, and a really cool and interesting class that I can't really name -- it's too small of a class that anyone who Google searches it would end up finding this blog... And I'd rather avoid that. It was a really fun class, though, compared to all of my other ones.

Overall, my classes this semester gave me sooo much combined work that I was somehow writing at least one or two essays nearly every week. By the end of this semester, I had written at least five 6-page papers and more than ten 2-3-page papers. I guess I shouldn't be complaining since I'm studying English... that's like a math major complaining about having so many problems to solve. Butchu gotta complain, mang.

Anyway, the point is that I'm really really really

REEEEEAAAALLLLLY RRRRRRRREEEEEEEEEEEAAAAAAAALLLLLLLLLLLLLYYYYYY HHHHHAAAAAAPPPPPPYYYYY TTHHHAAAAATTTT IIIIII''''''MMM DDDOOOONNNNEEEEE WWWIIIITTTTHHHH SSSSCCCHHOOOOOOooOoOoOoOooOOLLLL!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!