Writing Again

I’ve decided I need to start writing again.   The big thing that prompted it was my mom’s lesson last week for Young Women’s.  It was on journals and she asked to borrower the one I’d had printed so she could show the Laurels.   I realized later that I want to continue to have the memories like the ones in that journal. I also wanted to have more journals to print later. The only way those two things happen is if I write,and write often.  So that’s what I’m going to do.

And now, to recap the last 4 1/2 months of the year.  In late December I got my LSAT score. It wasn’t where I wanted, but high enough to likely get in somewhere.  In any case, I put together my applications and had several submitted at the beginning of January.  At that point I only had one of my two letters of recommendation in my LSAC file.  So my University of Utah and DePaul applications were complete then.  I was waitlisted at DePaul and eventually denied at Utah.  I also submitted applications to University of Minnesota, Northern Illinois University and Florida Coastal School of Law.  By mid-February, my second letter of recommendation was in my file and it went out to UMN, NIU, and FCSL.  I also applied to University of Dayton, which I was also accepted to.  Within a week of my file being complete, I was accepted to FCSL.  So at that point, I knew I was headed to Law School.  And then the first week of March, I found out I was accepted to NIU.  I still haven’t heard from UMN.  Apparently it’s still under review, which is okay with me as I won’t be attending there.   When I first heard back from NIU, I wasn’t positive I was attending there as I was still waiting to hear from a few others and wanted to make sure their financial packages wouldn’t be better than NIU’s.  But realistically, NIU is the place for me. 

Then, the weekend after Easter my mom and I went down to DeKalb to go apartment hunting and we found the perfect apartment.  It’s a two bedroom right near campus.  I seriously love it.  I can’t wait to move in.  I pick up my keys on July 23rd and move in on the 31st.  Right now, I have all major furniture pieces except a desk.  I also need to figure out how many end tables my parents are giving up and how many I have to get.  Other than that, I’m good to go.  I am buying a tv for my living room.  I also need to get a couple pole lamps, as the living room and bedrooms don’t have overhead lighting.  But mostly I’m all ready to go.  I need to set up the appointments for cable/internet set up.   I also need to get the truck reserved for moving day.  Really, I have lots of phone calls I need to make this week to get things set up and ready to go.  I should make myself a to do list, given that I’m using Outlook again. 

That’s another thing. Back at Christmas time, Jason and I went in together to get a version of MS Office that included Outlook and a program called OneNote.  I finally got around to installing it last week and decided I like MS Office 2007 after all.  I’m using Outlook now and started playing around with OneNote.  OneNote is a note taking/organization program that’s only available in the Ultimate and Student versions of Office.  If you ever get a chance to play with it, it’s a GREAT program.  It sets up notebooks and then you set up sections in each notebook and set up pages within each section. That’s the simple version anyway. When you take notes, you’re not bound by lines like you are in Word. You can start typing anywhere and then later move that block anywhere.   It allows me to take notes my way with no fuss.  Also will help me stay organized.  It also can interact with the other Office programs, including creating tasks and appointments in Outlook from your notes. 

Back to law school topics.  Orientation at NIU is August 9th – 13th (yes, that’s right. Orientation is five days long).  Actual classes start on August 16th.  Originally I was going to have my last day of work be July 2nd.  But I realized I wasn’t going to make it that long.  I decided to have my last day be May 28th.  My dad then convinced me to work those four days after Memorial Day for the health benefits, so that’s what I’m doing.  My original plan was to put in notice on Friday May 21st. However, on the 14th, my previous supervisor was doing my review for April and was talking about more training for the week of the 21st.  Of course, I realized that was kind of pointless, which made me think of putting in my notice a few days early.  So I put in notice on Monday May 17th.

Speaking of work, if you recall, I transferred to Borrower Services back in November.  In January, I moved over to the other building and one of the other teams.  Well, it was decided in early May to play with the team structures again.  As a result, I have a new supervisor and another desk move.  So by the time I leave Borrower Supervisors, I will have had three supervisors and three lead workers in 7 months.  And they wonder why they have such high turnover.  It’d be nice to have some continuity in supervisors, especially in a call center. 

In other news, Krystal is back living here after being in Milwaukee. We’ve been doing stuff since she got back, mostly going out to dinner or to dinner and a movie.  It’s nice having a girlfriend around to do stuff with.  We’ve seen Valentine’s Day, The Last Song, and Letters to Juliet since she got back in February.  We’re headed to see Prince of Persia this coming weekend.  Speaking of this coming weekend, I have the house to myself for the weekend.  My parents are leaving about noon on Thursday for Stephen’s graduation and to bring all his stuff home.  My mom will get back Monday night and Dad and Stephen will get home sometime REALLY early on Tuesday.  Which means in the interim, I have the house all to myself.  The big thing I’m going to do on Saturday is catch up on all the Bones eps I’ve missed.  I’m behind like six episodes, mostly because of baseball and doing other things.  I’ve also gotten into the show Castle.  What a fun show if you’ve never seen it.  This next season will be it’s third.  It was a mid season replacement its first year and then had a terrific second year so it’ll be back next fall.  Of course, keeping up with Castle, White Collar, and Bones won’t be the easiest thing in the world but I’ll manage somehow.

At this point, I’m beyond ready to start the next stage of my life.  I’m ready to be back in school and for the first time in my own place.

"Life is measured not by the number of breaths we take, but by the moments that take our breath away."