Falling and falling faster

It has been about a month since I had a consistent amount of sleep. I've been averaging 4-6 hours of sleep a night. I'm beginning to wonder if I should just pull a Brooke and retrain my body to accept six hours of sleep. I'd be only wasting 1/4 of my life sleeping instead of 1/3!

Dangerous Liaisons opens on Friday. The opening got pushed back from Thursday, which gives me more time to futz with details.

My corset is due next Monday. O.O I managed to get it stitched together yesterday. It only took 8 hours!


Rick is coming to see me on Friday! That will be the end of the 8th week away from him. I'm so excited! It's for our 5 year anniversary. O.o Seriously. That's a little scary to think about. I'm planning some fun surprises for him that I think he'll enjoy, like a treasure hunt and a massage! I thought about going paintballing with him but Grant talked me out of it. Phew!

I seriously feel like I might die from exhaustion. I can't seem to keep up with the show, the corset, homework and sleep. It's awful. However, I will be done in 4 weeks. I'll be back in Wyoming where I tend to sleep 8 hours a night and it's very restorative.

It also doesn't help that I've reduced my food consumption to one meal a day. It happened gradually and I sometimes eat two meals, but normally just one. I just don't get hungry very often. I'm too busy.

My new motto: "Am I done yet?!?"

It's getting that time of term...

The turning point of the turn where everything starts to make me think of Rick and I get super lonely.

It is also the point of midterms and shows. The one acts opened on Tuesday and will close tonight. The musical opens on Wednesday and will close next Saturday. Then weekend after is tech for Dangerous Liaisons.

Lately I have been averaging about 4 hours a night of sleep and one meal a day, usually at dinner time.

I'm pretty sure I have lost weight again, which is definitely in the wrong direction.

I can't wait to be done with school.

Winter 2011 Week 3

I feel a countdown coming on! Oh my!

I have 60 days until the end of term, March 18th.

My that doesn't seem like a lot! Just two months.

My To-Do List:

• Build my corset
• Write the history paper for the corset
• Write the process paper for the corset
• Build a power point for the corset
• All due in roughly 42 days
• Gather props for Liaisons
• Due February 19th
• Memorize Songs and Monologues for Gawain
• Due January 20th
• To be performed February 7th
• Write 12 play papers 
• Due March 18th
• Finish the CS class
• Finish the math class
• Finish the properties morgues
• Due March 18th

Oh goodness! So much to do!

Hating your future self

I feel like procrastination is a big problem in the student world.

I am a third year student. I will be a senior starting next term. I have been on the Dean's List for all but two terms (stupid Philosophy), I am super organized and need to be in order to continue my profession. I'm in the Honor's Program and a specialized degree plan, and still I feel like college is kicking my butt, despite my apparent "adeptness" to education.

Why is that?

I am took a class last term called "Trans-formative Experiences" which evaluates the role of experiences in education. It's pretty interesting. One of the things we talked about was how procrastination is part of an adrenaline rush that students use to keep the "education game" interesting.

Some students feel like leaving things to the last minute is the most direct, time-efficient way to get assignments done with. They feel like the pressure is on and they end up producing fantastic papers that if they took real time to write, they would not have gotten such a good grade on. I do see where that is irritating: if you have a lot of time to do an assignment and start early, you could keep revising draft after draft, stressing over the project and tweaking it until it was "just perfect". Then where would you  be? Apparently, many think they would be at a B paper instead of an A paper, which many receive even if they have plugged away at the paper only the night before it was due.

What about you? Where do you stand on procrastination? Do you feel like it is a problem and that you are always racing against the clock to finish something?

Personally, I feel like I relate to something mentioned in that class. I feel like I hate my future self a lot of the time. I leave off projects in favor of sleep, or sometimes I will even invent cleaning and housework that just has to be done before I can start work on that project.

The Weekend Plan

I am home at my apartment this weekend.

The Plan:

• Work on a big Roman Architecture Notebook that is due Monday. 
• Study for Theatre History Midterm.
• Study for Art History Midterm.
• (Did I mention I am taking 3 history classes?)
• Make at least 2 meals for this week.
• Take care of the chores on my chore board, which is only something like the upstairs bathroom and the hard surfaced floors. Haha. 

The trick is that I still want to have a restful weekend.

How I am helping this plan take effect:

• I am trying to gather as much research as I can from home by accessing online databases and requesting books from the library so I just have to pick them up.
• I have all of the supplies I need for the project to take off.
• For studying, I have a pretty basic plan just to make notecards and use those.
• I have spent a bit of extra time cleaning so that I don't get too stressed with the mess that surrounds me. That mess is currently non-existent!

My Reward for fulfilling my plan:

A stress-free week maybe? Maybe I will make something delicious for a treat. XD

The Best of Both Worlds: lots of books, minimilist style

As I was saying in my Stuff is Evil post, meet THE BEST OF BOTH WORLDS:

              One of the ways that I am minimizing that I am really looking forward to is:

An Amazon Kindle! OR A Nook!

I know, it may not make complete sense. I mean, $259 for a book reading device?

Here's how I justify it though.

• Rick and I are planning on living on a boat, instead of owning a house. 
• Not much room on a boat.
• I like to collect the books that are my favorites so I can pick it up and read it whenever it catches my fancy.
• The kindle 2 stores up to 1500 books,  and so can the Nook, but the Nook is also capable of expanding the memory to as much as a minisd memory card disk will allow--up to 16gb. The Nook itself has 2 gb so that makes it 18gb of storage space. If I did the math right, then I could hold up to 13,500 books in one Nook! That sounds about perfect for my book collecting hobby...
• The Kindle 2 also has international wireless, so I can get a new book anytime I want. The Nook requires an internet hookup outside of the US, I believe.
• (The downside of that is I can get a book anytime I want and I am a bit of an impulse buyer.)
• The device is 1/3 of an inch, about the thickness of a pencil. 
• The downside there is that Rick thinks I will break it.
• The Nook is a little thicker than the Kindle, so that might be better. :)
• I might.
• I currently have over 30lbs of books sitting on my bookshelf.
• Seriously though! A device that stores 1500+ books that is the thickness of a magazine! That is amazing and totally worth $259!
• Another downside, I have to wait until I save up the money to get it because I can't afford it yet. I am so excited!

I am really leaning toward the Nook because that expandable memory is just so enticing! 

I recently spoke with a Barnes and Noble representative who told me that they are expanding their selection of ebook textbooks so they can be purchased for the Nook! How amazing! Instead of lagging around ten pounds of books, you get to carry around an 11 oz device, provided they have the eformat of your book available! 

That information sort of makes me sad that I will be graduating in four terms!

A Three Month Food Challenge!

Ok. Time to take control of my food situation.

I am issuing myself a challenge. A very painful, but necessary challenge. A three month long, hopefully will change my life challenge!

Beginning Winter term, January

•  The Challenge!
• I will not:
• eat out
• get coffee from the oh-so-convenient-located-in-the-center-of-campus coffee shop
• I will:
  
•  brown bag my lunches and daily snacks
• Eat healthy!
• Explore ways to streamline my meals and still have time to do everything else that needs done!

• Documenting!
• I will record my results on a weekly/daily basis depending on my homework situation. 
• I will include
• my menu 
• my shopping list
• the cost of shopping
• the actual carrying out of this challenge. 
• what went well, when I messed up, what I ate that day

• In preparation for this challenge:
• I need to prepare a monthly menu
• Basically, a four week rotation of breakfast, lunch, dinner and snacks that is different enough to keep me sane
• I need to determine what I consider healthy food, i.e., nutritious, but affordable.
• I will research other blogs and see what they are doing as well and post useful things I find to here.

• Reasons for this challenge:
• I feel awful most of the time! 
• I am so sleepy all of the time!
• I spend way too much money on food.
• I eat a whole bunch of processed crap that I know is responsible for the above two points.
• I want to prepare for the future in a way that makes sense and is beneficial for me!
• I don't eat on a consistent basis when I am stressed out and I don't think that is healthy.
• I need a simple diet that is good for me and good for my budget!
• Things to know:
• I currently have a $100/month budget for food.
• My average day consists of school from 9am to 10:30pm
• I probably will do bi-monthly shopping
• I love natural foods and am open to a lot of things...except sardines. 
• Feel free to comment! 
• If you know a student who is struggling with their diet, maybe they can do this challenge with me! 
• If you have any tips, let me hear them!

To move, or not to move

I am really in favor of moving in with Alysse once I figure out the car situation. However, budget-wise, it may not be possible. Here is my list of expenses:

Rent: $287/month
Car Insurance: $140/month
Gas: $80/month
Food: $100/month
Phone: $45/month
Savings: $150/month
Misc.: $100/month (electricity, etc.)

Pros:
Close to campus
College environment
Fantastic roommate
Don't have to drive to school
Kitchen all to myself
No commuting

Cons
Expensive compared to only paying for my car at my grandparents
Has the potential to ruin my relationship with Alysse

Ok, so I don't have very many cons, but still. At the moment, I am just staying here while I feel out what is happening with my car. I really think that moving in would be helpful, though I am not sure how I could manage financially.

Food and Stress

Oh man. I cried today for about twenty minutes. In front of Michael, my professor and director for next term. It was awful. I am quite stressed out right now because of my work load and the fact that it is very hard to have a social life, do homework, attend rehearsal and class and eat right. Oh and I have a boyfriend I would like to see but that is really hard to think about because I don't get to see him for two weeks.

I think that my diet is especially affecting my life badly right now. I think I am consuming too much sugar and empty calories. I am hoping that my mom will help me pare down my diet a bit. Like, what is the recommended servings of whatnot and what are some simple, cheap, interchangeable foods I can get that will nourish me?

Juggling

Life right now just seems to be a juggling competition.

I have been trying to pare down my commitments to only the things that I absolutely need. This means that I am not working right now. Which means that although I have help from loans, I still need to budget out things. I have run into some car trouble as well, so already unexpected expenses have come up.

Between homework and rehearsals, time restraints are rather large.

In fact, I just realized I am going in an hour early to finish a homework assignment before class. So I have to go to bed. :(