.: This Girl's Daybreak :.

Well, one thing I wanted to do while I'm on vacation is to try my hand at baking a bit. I'm trying to learn to cook, and I thought that baking would be easier for me. I'm not completely inept; I've made cakes from a mix before, and cookies once. But still, I wanted to try a bit more. Plus, it's coming up on Christmas, and we always bake a lot for the holidays.

My first attempt was actually a new recipe. I've always liked spice cookies, but we don't make them often. One reason for that is that the recipes we have for gingersnaps/gingerbread all set up hard and crunchy, and I think we all prefer softer cookies. So, off to Google I went. I found a recipe for soft gingersnaps, and Mom agreed that it sounded good, so we tried it out. And it came out really well. Very tasty, and the cookies stayed soft. I'm kind of excited about it, so I wanted to post the recipe.

( Soft gingersnaps )

I definitely think I'll be making this one again in the future. They were super easy, and really yummy. <3

Well, the end of the semester is upon us. As always, I'll be glad to be done. I'm ready for a break!

Things are actually slightly less stressful this time around. Out of four classes, only two have finals. My writing class doesn't do tests, so all I have to do there is turn in a final portfolio assignment. It's written, all that's left is to revise it. If I even do; as per usual, the feedback from my classmates wasn't useful. Just several 'good job' type comments. Which, I mean, I hope I did do a good job, but it doesn't tell me anything to change, y'know? So I may just hand it in as-is. Haven't decided yet.

My Econ class just didn't have a final; the last test was the last thing, and it was just a regular unit test. I've already taken it, so I'm done with this one. <3

The two that do have finals, my Finance class and my Business Law class, both don't unlock until Saturday. So, I'll probably take those on Monday. I don't like taking tests on the weekend, if I can help it. I kinda wish I could just do it now, and get it over with. Granted, it's not that much longer, but still. Hell, maybe I wlll take them over the weekend. Just to be done, you know? Eh, we'll see.

Besides taking my finals, I've also got to train M next week. He's the one who's been elected to cover my shifts when I'm out, and I need to show him the ropes. Granted, it's nothing hard, and I'm sure he'll manage just fine. Still, it's always best to have them come in for a couple of nights and go over everything, just to be safe. And it has to be now, because I'm taking my vacation on the following week. Really looking forward to that. <3 It's always nice to have time off.

Let's see, what else...Oh, Christmas shopping. I still need to finish up. I am such a procrastinator. =P Every year, I tell myself I'll start early, but I never seem to manage it. Ugh. I have everything for Rich. I'm almost done for Mom; I still need to order one more thing, and then another thing I ordered isn't here yet. And I haven't even started on Dad yet. ^^;; I do have ideas, I just haven't gotten off my lazy butt to order them yet. I need to do that soon. Plus, I need to make up a list to give to Mom of gift ideas for me. I'll be checking out the annual RightStuf holiday sale for that, probably.

Well, my car is in the shop, now. We thought it was going to be drivable, but when Mom tried to take it out the other day, she said it started jerking and acting pretty weird. So, rather than driving it to a bunch of shops for estimates, we just took it to a local dealership. They don't sell Fords, but they can fix them. No word yet on how that'll go.

But, one bit of good news. Mom called me last night and said that she'd talked to the insurance people, and they said our policy would cover us getting a rental car to use while mine's in the shop. But we had to go to the rental place today at 11:00. Now, this wouldn't be so bad, normally. But for a couple of things. First, they said that if I wanted to drive the car, I had to go, so they could put me in the paperwork. (And no, just giving them my license wouldn't work.) So, I had to get up at 10:30 today, which is really freaking early for me. Oh, and then I had to come to work at 2:00. =P I'd hoped that I'd have time to go back to sleep for a bit before work, but it didn't work out that way. We did get to go to Cracker Barrel for breakfast, afterward, though. That was nice.

So, I'm running on maybe three hours of sleep right now. I'm probably going to fall asleep as soon as I'm horizontal. But, we got a nice car. It's a little four door Hyundai sedan. I've never driven a Hyundai before, but it handles pretty nicely. It's even got a satellite radio in it, which is awesome. It's a huge improvement on the Mustang, that's for damn sure.

So now I have this car to take to work, and Mom and Dad can have the Mustang if they want to go out in the evenings. I'm glad for that.

Ugh. I swear, I'm not real smart sometimes.

See, I have this nasty habit of napping a lot during the weekend. Now, this might not sound that bad at first, but think about it. I get up at my usual time, then end up sleeping off and on for a lot of the day. Then, finally, in the later hours, I actually wake up and feel able to be productive and stuff. But by then, I only have a few hours before I need to go to bed.

Which is where I am right now. See, I usually go to bed around 7:00AM. It's now 8:30, and I'm still not tired. I'm already up past my bedtime, and I don't know how easy it'll be to get to sleep at this point. But even if I can sleep, I'll have to get up at my usual time tomorrow, so we can do our weekly shopping trip. So, I'll be short a couple hours of sleep, and I'll be tired all day. Which will lead me to want to take a nap when I get home from shopping. Which will start this whole stupid cycle over again. And I work on Monday, so that's really not a good thing. Argh.

And I swear, this happens most weekends, it feels like. I know better. I really do! But I keep doing it. What the heck, self? =/

So this news broke a few days ago, but I'm just now sitting down to write about it. Apparently ITT Tech is shutting down. Like, completely. This is a good post at ontd_political about it. I've always heard awful things about for-profit universities. So, I guess this isn't really surprising.

But it's still a little unsettling to me, because I considered going there. Last year, I posted about how I wanted to go back to school, and how I was having trouble finding and picking an online program. ITT Tech was one of the schools I looked at. They looked impressive, and my Dad actually knows a guy who got a degree there, and he's got a good state-level job. So Mom thought they'd be a fine choice.

I just had a bad feeling, I guess. I'd read articles and comments online talking about bad practices and such. But you know how the internet is; reviews tend to skew negative, because people often won't bother to write a post if they're happy. Still. I was worried. And when I went to apply (I was going to apply to several places, then choose based on which places accepted me.), they wouldn't let you do an online application. You had to call and talk to someone. This is from a school that sells itself largely on its online degree programs. >_> I side-eyed that pretty hard. So I decided to skip it. It just didn't feel right.

I'd say I dodged a bullet. Reading about how the current students are kind of floundering, how maybe some of them can get forgiveness for their loans, but most will have to completely start their degrees over...it's just kind of scary. I distinctly remember, back when I was enrolling, wondering if I was being paranoid about the for-profit thing. Some of their technical degrees looked tempting, and I thought a technical school might teach the material better. But I was worried, so I opted for a different degree, from a public university, instead. And it's a damn good thing I did. Clearly, I was not just being paranoid!

...I guess there isn't much point to this post. I'm just a little startled, and feeling lucky, I guess.

Well, we have come to the end of the Business Law textbook drama. =D

My professor posted an announcement to the class today, saying that she and her adviser have decided to just go forward with the course, using the 10th edition of the textbook, rather than the 11th edition that she originally called for. The book I received in error is a 10th edition, so it looks like I won't have to send it back, after all. Which is great. That's one less bit of stress to worry about. I can just keep this book, and get started on the homework.

Speaking of the homework, I get the feeling that this professor is pretty cool. She stated again that we have an assignment due on Monday, but that if anyone was unable to get the correct book on time, they should email her and she would work something out. No one will be penalized due to this confusion, she says. Granted, I have my book so this doesn't apply to me, but still. It just makes me think well of her, that she's been so on top of fixing things, and making sure we knew we wouldn't be punished for something that wasn't our fault. (Such a sharp contrast to my lazy-ass Econ teacher, who can't be bothered to post anything and doesn't even want to answer our questions. =P)

So, I'm happy with how this turned out. =)

Oh, for heaven's sake. I'm getting really frustrated at the KCTCS bookstore. Okay, so I mentioned before how when I first ordered my textbooks, one of them was backordered, and I worried if I'd get it on time. Then, it ended up shipping later that week, and I received it on Monday. That should have been the end of this little piece of drama.

But, no. See, I get on Blackboard and read the syllabus for that class, and it lists our textbook. But the textbook listed isn't the one I received. =/ It's a different edition. The syllabus says we need the 11th edition; they sent me the 10th edition. So I check the ISBN for the book. The professor mentioned it in an announcement, so I look it up. And sure enough, it's different than the one on my book. But here's the odd thing. When I plug the class info into the bookstore's website, the book it lists as the required text...the same book I ordered...has the ISBN the professor mentioned. So I have no idea how I ended up with a different book. Maybe some clueless employee grabbed the wrong book off the shelf. Maybe they've got it in their computer wrong. I have no idea.

So, I emailed my professor, explaining that I ordered the book the bookstore said was required, but that it didn't match what she listed in her syllabus. And I asked if this book would be okay, or if I needed to return it. She answered me today, saying that yeah, it was the wrong book, and that I'd need a copy of the correct one. (Which is what I expected, but I had a little, naive hope that one edition wouldn't be drastically different from the next.) She also sent out an announcement to the class, saying there was a mix up with the bookstore, and that she and her assistant would get on it. And she said that we didn't have to worry about the homework. The first assignment isn't due until next Monday, and she would push that date back if they couldn't get things straightened out. But she emphasized that we wouldn't be penalized over this book issue. So, that makes me think well of her, right off.

I emailed her back, asking if I should go ahead and talk to the bookstore about returning this, or if I should wait until things get straightened out. I'll wait for her reply, and then go from there, I guess. I just hope the bookstore doesn't give me any grief about returning it. See, the book came wrapped in plastic wrap, and I opened it. (Because silly me, I assumed the book they sent me would be the one I ordered!) Normally the reason for shrink-wrapping books is if there's software, or access codes, enclosed. This book had neither. Still, it was wrapped. If they complain, I'll complain right back, though. They're the ones who messed up, not me. Still, I'd rather not have to deal with that.

Ugh, I am already stressed about starting new classes, and this is not helping...

Well, things are looking up a bit.

I was upset before because one of my textbooks had been backordered, and I was worried I wouldn't get it by the time classes start on Monday. Well, I got an email this morning saying that it had shipped, with an estimated delivery date of Monday. So I'm relieved; I should have it in time. Really, it's not the shipping I was worried about; I was just afraid it would take a long time for them to get more copies in stock at all. Thankfully, they were prompt about restocking! And it (like my others) is coming from Kentucky, so that usually isn't a long wait for it to come in the mail.

Oh, speaking of my other textbooks, I got them on Wednesday. The one from MSU, too. I guess they just didn't send out an email saying my order had shipped. So I was glad to see those packages. I haven't really looked through them yet; the classes aren't posted on Blackboard or Canvas yet, so I figure I'll just wait a bit.

One more bit of good news. Dad found out that Paul McCartney is playing a concert in St. Louis on Saturday, and he got us tickets! This will be a lot of fun, I'm sure. Dad and I have seen him twice, but Mom never has. We asked Rich, but he's been so worn out from work lately that he didn't feel like going out. So it won't be quite all of us, but nearly. I'd imagine we'll stop somewhere and eat while we're down there, so that'll be nice, too.

The concert is in Busch Stadium; I've never been to a concert in a stadium before. And apparently this is the 50th anniversary of the time the Beatles played in Busch Stadium, back in the day. So that's cool.

Well, it sucks that classes are starting next week, but this is a good way to end summer break! <3

Well, Murphy's out in full force today.

I just got home from work. Yeah. Just now. Look at that time stamp. Nearly nine in the morning....my shift ended at 1:30!

( Dude...Why? )

God, what a mess. At least I'll get overtime for this...

So, apparently, my pharmacy and/or my doctors office really suck.

A couple of weeks ago, I ran out of my medicine. I used my app to schedule a refill at my pharmacy. This was on a Thursday. The app says I can't pick them up any earlier than Tuesday. That's overly long, but okay. So I wait. Then, on Monday, I get voicemails from both the pharmacy and the doctor's office, saying I can't get refills until I go in for an office visit. Cue grumbling. This is annoying; an office visit that consists of nothing more than my walking in and saying 'Hey, I need a refill' and the doctor saying, "Okay, here you go' is a waste of time and money. But, whatever.

So, I schedule an appointment, but I can't get in until nearly two weeks later. While on the phone with my doctor's office, I ask if they can give me enough of my pills to last me until this appointment. Otherwise, I'm just going to have to do without for all that time. Lady half-heartedly says she'll leave a note for the doctor. Will you call me and let me know, I ask. No solid answer. And I never did get a call.

Today was the day of my appointment, so I get up a bit early and go in. Nurse checks my blood pressure, and unsurprisingly, it's high. I tell her I've been without my meds, and she starts fussing at me, saying why didn't I get a refill, etc. So I fuss back, that I did ask. I did everything I could do; it's not my fault I couldn't get in any earlier, and it's not my fault the lady on the phone was a complete flake. Grr.

Then! She's tinkering around with their computer system, and she tells me two things that made me very annoyed. First, apparently there was NO requirement for me to have an office visit before they'd refill my meds. They wanted me to come in before my next round of refills, but that's it. But that is NOT what I heard from both my pharmacy AND this doctor's office. Fucking hell. And! If that wasn't bad enough, she says that someone DID call in a short refill for me. But no one bothered to fucking tell me! Argh! So, basically, I've been off my meds for two weeks or more for no reason, other than someone else's blatant stupidity.

I'm changing my pharmacy after this, that's for damn sure. I don't know how much of it was their fault, and how much was the doctor's office's fault, but at this point I don't care. I've been annoyed at my pharmacy for a while now; they robocall incessantly when you've got refills coming up, and each time the damn robot calls, it leaves a message. I swear, I cleaned out my voicemail box a little while ago, and I had nearly twenty messages that were just the stupid robocalls. That's been annoying for a long time, but it wasn't enough to make it worth the trouble of transferring everything. Well, now it is. With this bullshit happening, plus that, I've had it. I'm switching to the pharmacy Mom uses; they're not in town, but she likes them.

Ugh. This day is not off to a good start...