Well, it's been a long-ass time.

Yes, yes indeed.

General stuff:

- I've been home from college now for about a week and a half. I slipped quite happily back into lazy home life, except it's not as lazy as it used to be, for I am doing so much housework my head is spinning.

- Being away from awful college food is great, and I am definitely appreciating the availability of fruits and vegetables now that I'm home. Bon appetit!

- I decided not to go to community college. Instead, I am transferring to Lyndon State College and will continue my studies there. I hope I will be happier. As much as I love environmental vegan hippies...Green Mountain College was too much for me.

- Maybe I'll finally get a driver's license! We'll find out on June 7th. I hope that happens, because I really like to just get up and go places.

- The grocery store where I worked (P&C in White River) has been shut down, which means I am out of a job. The good news is that a Co-op is moving in, which means I may not be out of a job. Good thing, too. I need the money because...

- I need to pay about $9000 out of pocket to go to school this year. Thank you, American government, for dicking around. Now no one can go to college because we're all too fucking poor.

I believe that's all.
I intended for this to be a friendly post but it instead turned into a rant. Oh well. ~

Summer.

Tomorrow afternoon, my freshman year of college is officially over and I come home for summer.

Best part of summer?

being free

to go wherever i want, do whatever i want, and think whatever i want.

CAN'T WAIT.

Redecorating!

So, since I'm going to be living at home for a couple of years to attend a different school, I figure it's time to spruce up my bedroom and bathroom. Unfortunately I don't have pictures of either, since I'm at college right now...but suffice it to say, they're awful. My bedroom's main redeeming quality is the floor. It's nice and wood and shiny and relatively new. The rest of my bedroom has GOT to go. While it has a nice homey feel to it, in the end I'm not a fan of the old peachy-pinkish floral wallpaper or the big broken sliding doors that lead into my next issue...
...The bathroom.
I am fortunate enough to have my own bathroom, but nothing about it is really nice. The medicine cabinet doors are falling off, the floor is kinda gross, the tub is useless...*sigh.* There's essentially zero storage space in my bathroom. Now that I think on it, that's also a problem in my bedroom.

So, it's time to dive into the DIY websites and see what I can do for not a whole lot of money...because, well, "not a whole lot" is exactly how much money I have. I have the money for paint and stuff, which I'll be buying, and the money to buy supplies to make stuff with. Other than that, I am...how do they say that?...on my own.

The mountain.

I got back to Green Mountain yesterday. Five weeks from yesterday, I'll be coming home for a couple years to go to community college and get my degree in criminal justice, which is my true love. Psychology never was. I'm just glad I realized this now as opposed to wayyyy later. I know my grandparents will be pretty unhappy with my decision. In fact, my mother informed my grandmother of this last night, and my grandmother replied, "I don't know why she can't just go to a REAL college." Siiigh. I suppose my grandparents will never really understand this kind of thing. College was way different back in their day, and they never seemed to like the fact that I lead my own life as opposed to what they'd like me to do.

Four weeks from tomorrow, classes end and finals start. Is it weird if I'm excited for that? Finals and stuff?

!

Just noticed my peas growing a little bit :) It's startinggg!

Easter in all its glory.

Every Easter, my family eats at my maternal grandparents' house, usually joined by members of the extended family. This year, we were joined only by my mother's brother Bruce and his wife Denise. No big deal - if it were proper to pick favourite relatives, they'd be way up there. Easter festivities did not last long, though, because my uncle Bruce accidentally stabbed himself carving the ham and had to go to the emergency room. Three stitches and a shiny GOOD JOB! sticker later (he's going on 60, haha)...he's okay. Which is good. But Easter was a total fail. We had to leave my grandparents' early, my plans for later in the day fell through, and I had to go to Wal Mart...yeah. Fail.

On the upside, I ate my last ground beef and ham today. I just need to get off turkey and chicken and then I'll be all set. I'll need to find new sources of iron and protein, and will probably write up a food list for that reason. I'll probably even keep a food log to make sure I'm getting nutrients -- I am vitamin deficient and should probably be doing this anyway.

I forgot to post about this when it happened, but a couple days ago I got these totally cute/creepy owl statues. My neighbour gave them to me when she learned of my love for owls. They're definitely getting centre stage when I redo my room.


D'awww.

Today I...

...made my final steak...


...planted some seeds...


...and irritated Keegan...


Great success!

Kicking habits.

I am preparing to kick a soda habit.

Ages ago, I used to drink loads of soda. I switched to diet to save sugar and calories and such. But now, I kind of want to switch to no soda at all.
I have seven cans of green apple Jones Soda left, and a few cans of diet Sierra Mist in my dorm fridge. After that, I'm going to try my hardest not to drink it at all. I won't beat myself up over a can here and there, but daily is a no-no.

I am also preparing to kick a meat habit.

I love meat. Love ittttt. I'll be the first to admit it, and it's probably not good. Beef is my favourite. Steak is the most wonderful thing ever. But after watching Food Inc and reading about some stuff...yeah...not so much. So, tonight, I'm going to make a killer shepherd's pie. And after I finish it, no more ground beef. And after the next steak I have, no more steak. I don't really do pig meat anyway -- ham, pork, bacon...never really appealed to me. I like piggies too much. Chicken will be kind of a hard one, because I really like chicken salad and grilled chicken. Turkey will be hard too, because turkey burgers are made by the gods, I swear. But if I can kick the beef habit first, everything else won't seem so difficult.
I don't entirely expect to stick to it, but damnit, I'm gonna try.

Seeds!

I bought some seeds today! I'm pretty excited to start growing them. I got peas, carrots, lettuce, broccoli, and tomatoes. The tomatoes are the coolest thing - they're all different colors: red, orange, yellow, green, purple, and pink.

I've never grown a garden before. I used to help my grandmother with hers, but that's definitely not the same. I have a talent for killing plants whenever I come near them. I bought bamboo plants once, forgot to water them, and they were dead within a week. Just a couple weeks ago, my roommate and I got some free plants from the college. We forgot to water those too, and they're dead now. I hope I can keep this garden growing.

I like the idea of knowing where my food comes from. I figure planting a small garden is a good start to gaining that knowledge. The truth is I don't have the money to go shop at the Co-op and buy organic and local. It just isn't likely to happen.

If this is successful, I'd like to expand next year and maybe plant some cucumbers and kale and stuff. But for now, I'll just stick to what I've got and hope it works out. If not, no big deal -- I paid just a little bit over $2 for all the seeds.

FUUUU

I just realized I have no idea what I want to do with my life. I don't like anything. Or maybe I just like everything and can't pick.

I don't want some boring desk job so I can make some boring money and return to my boring house. I especially don't want to be seen as stupid if I elect to go to community college or something. I'm just coming to the realization that I'm home-oriented. I'm also coming to the realization that psychology is entirely about research and experiments. That's not what I signed up for, or what I thought I signed up for.

At this point, I want to just chill at home. Forever. And then get my own house and live in it. Forever. And then money will fall from the sky into my waiting lap, and life will be good. But we know that isn't possible, so I'll have to come up with something else.

aaaahhhhh

Growing!

I'm pretty excited for April break in a few days. Aside from the obvious reasons -- family, friends, food -- I'm excited to be able to grow vegetables.

I love vegetables. The problem is that they're so expensive to buy. So I figured, why not grow them? I'll be a lot more comfortable knowing where my food actually comes from and I'm sure it'll taste that much better knowing that I worked so hard to grow it.

I'm pretty hyped to go home and buy soil, pots, seeds, and all the things I'll need. I'm not entirely sure what to grow yet. I know I'll do the mainstays -- tomatoes, cucumbers, peas, beans, carrots maybe... I don't know what else though. We shall see! It'll be a good time. :)

Life.

Life sometimes becomes pretty complex.

I'm worried about my mother. It's been a well-known fact for a while that she has cancer. She was feeling better for a while but now she just seems to be going downhill all over again. Her job's on the line and they're not going to want to keeps someone who's too sick to come in. So now not only am I worried about her cancer, I'm worried that my family won't have enough money to sustain itself. Add to this the fact that I'm an hour and a half away at college and can't help them at all and urgh. It's just frustrating. I should be there to help, but instead I'm sitting here being worried and stressed.

So I'm just going to knit.

Spring cleaning!

I have been neglecting getting this blog going in favour of Tumblr. Whoops.

Anyway...

I enjoy spring cleaning. It gives me this whole feeling of starting anew. I can throw out a bunch of crap that I no longer need/want and I can maybe bring in some stuff that I actually do need/want. There's something so nice about clearing out a room and scrubbing it down and then inevitably messing it up again.

There are, however, a few problems with cleaning out this room. First of all, I'm not the only one that lives here -- I can't exactly clean my roommate's half of the room. I mean, I'm sure she wouldn't mind, but that's creepy. Secondly, this room is so so so small. There will never be enough room for all of my stuff. There wasn't enough room when I moved in here, and as I've acquired new things throughout the year, there certainly isn't enough room now. Third, there's something mildly depressing about cleaning a room that kind of looks like a prison (white cinderblock walls are not welcoming). So all in all, the spring cleaning effort is kind of futile, because this room will always look like a prison and I will always have too much stuff for the space I've been granted.

I hope to get a few things done by April 1st, such as finish knitting Annie's sweater and turn some old unwanted shirts into new glorious things...I'm thinking a nice rainbow braided rug or maybe some sort of weird thrown-together quilt. I'm in the process of cutting up smutty magazines right now to make into decoupage. I also have to use up the rest of my hemp string and beads so I can have an excuse to buy more. I'm looking for a few new crafts to pick up, because I need some things to do during the summer. Once I actually get all organized I'll take pictures, but I don't want you all to know how slobby I am. Oh, life.

Speaking of summer, it's upon us very very quickly now...spring just officially started today. I get out of here May 10th. That's summer to me.