For some reason, I stopped receiving emails whenever someone comments on a post at my site which is really frustrating because I normally don’t log into my wordpress account unless I’m going to blog or check my stats. I also normally don’t visit my website just to see who’s commented and rely heavily on receiving those emails when people leave comments; hopefully, I can figure out why I’m not getting those emails. I also decided to check my Gmail spam box and noticed that emails from Alan and other people are getting sent to the spam box when that’s never happened before. UGH!

that next semester, I will purchase an Apple Macbook. In the last few days, I’ve been swamped with class work because of Thanksgiving break in a few weeks and then only having two weeks of classes after that before Christmas break begins and let me tell you, it’s hard to sit at the computer for a long period of time when I don’t have the TV near by. If my class work doesn’t require the computer, I’ll sit on the couch with the TV on as background noise…it helps me concentrate more than having a silent room. I figured that if I got a laptop that it would be that much better because I’d be able to do work on the computer and still be able to concentrate. I decided on an Apple because well, they are just so cool! Not only will a laptop be beneficial in regards to class work at home, it’ll allow me to go outside of the house like to the library and have everything with me; it also prevents me from having to buy new office furniture since I can just carry the damn thing around. I really can’t wait.

I’m not a political person, at all; it’s something I just don’t understand and have never been interested in. I voted for the first time in 2004 when I was 18 and I voted for Bush, I did so because well…generally, most teenagers will vote the way their parents did because it’s the only thing they know unless they are in the miniority and are actually interested in learning more about the actual policies and such. I, for the most part, did it for the novelty to say HEY I VOTED!

This year - I didn’t vote for a variety of reasons; 1) I didn’t want to go through the hassle of getting registered to vote on campus being an “out of state” student even though I’m sure it wouldn’t have been that hard, 2) I didn’t want to go through the hassle of getting an absentee ballot from South Carolina, 3) I didn’t want to vote JUST to vote…if I voted, I wanted it to mean something to me and in the end, I just didn’t care enough to go out and do anything about it - man, I must be such a horrible American /sarcasm.

Don’t get me wrong, I want to see this country turn around. I want jobs to come back and our economy to become stablized. I want this and that just as much as anyone else, but I didn’t feel the need to vote this year especially in an election where it was a GIVEN from the very beginning pretty much that Obama would win and that he did. Am I disappointed or upset about it? No, I’m indifferent. If I would have voted, I would have voted for McCain and I have my reasons why, but I’m not upset in the least bit that Obama won; as long as he can do his job and get this country in order that’s all that matters in the end.

Enrollment opened at 12:30pm today for the spring semester and I jumped right on my computer at that time to enroll in my classes. I lucked out and was able to get every class at the times I wanted except for one, Psychology of Adolescence. I’m hoping that between now and when enrollment closes that someone will change their mind and drop the course so that I can pick it up, but in case they don’t there is another section of it being held as an independent study or online course. The professor that teaches the online course is my current child psychology professor so I sent him an email asking him about it since I have yet to take an online course at KU. I’ve taken online courses in the past and they worked out well, so I wouldn’t mind signing up for this one  if need be.

My class schedule for next semester which starts on January 15th is as follows:

Monday, Wednesday, Friday
- PSYC 300: Statistics in Psychological Research, 11am - 11:50am
- HWC 205: Western Civilization II, 12:00pm - 12:50pm

Tuesday, Thursday
- PSYC 350: Abnormal Psychology, 11am - 12:15pm
- REL 350: Islam, 1pm - 2:15pm

Independent Study (Online Course)
- PSYC 626: Psychology of Adolescence

If the regular lecture of PSYC 626 opens up, I will have that class on Tuesday, Thursday from 4pm - 5:15pm otherwise, it’ll stay as is above.

For the first time since I’ve been back in Kansas I actually had a weekend that was packed full of stuff to do. On Saturday, I went to the homecoming football game against Texas Tech with my brother’s girlfriend, Lauren, who invited me to go since she had three extra tickets and no one to go with. Despite, the game being shitty and losing by 40 points, we had fun and I was glad I got to go (by the end of the game, the stadium on the opposite side in picture 2 was completely empty). I really wanted to go to the KU v.s. K-State game but unfortunately, the game is already sold out - I should have guessed that would happen and bought tickets ahead of time, oh well there is always next football season!

Band playing at the open of the game

KU v.s. Texas Tech

On Sunday, I got up bright and early and headed up to Lansing - a 30 minute drive from me - to see Barry. It was a good visit but then again, I can’t recall when a visit had ever been considered bad or horrible. He gets 1 visit a week, either on Saturday or Sunday (it alternates by week), from 8:30am-4:30pm; I go every other weekend and my day has been on Sunday, so I’ll get there around 8:30 and stay until 4:30 and usually his mom will show up around 12-1pm since she doesn’t like to get up early. That’s fine with me because it gives me the chance to visit with him alone and talk about anything that needs to be talked about that can’t be said in front of his mom. The only thing that sucked about visit this past weekend was the fact that they had outside visiting closed because it was windy and cold outside which meant everyone was inside which made for a very noisy time, but all that matters is that I got to see him and vice versa.

He’s currently working on some legal things with his case and if everything goes as planned and his mom can find the document he needs, there could be a small possibly of him coming home in 2-3 years instead of the 8 he has left. Of course, this is all hypothetical at this point since no one really knows if said document that is needed that could change things for the better actually exist which is why his mom has to call the attorneys office and start asking for it. I pray that things will turn out for the better, but I’m not getting my hopes up - he still has eight years left as far as I’m concerned.

The other good news is that I have a job interview tomorrow at 4pm at the Arts Center for a part time administrative assistant position. I emailed my resume on Friday of last week and got a call on Monday to setup an interview time. I’m really excited about it because I’ve wanted to get out of the retail industry for some time now and if I get this job that will take care of my financial stresses and get me out of retail. Not only that but I found out they have an Open Studio class for people who have experience in developing and printing photography that can sign up for $25 for 2 hours to use the darkroom - even if I don’t get the job, I’m still excited that I found out about this because I’ve been looking all over for a place to develop and print my photographs so I’ll definitely take advantage of this once I find out more information on it. I could spend hours in the darkroom!

At this point in time, I can say that things are going well. I’m doing good in my classes, not really stressed out about any of them and I look forward to enrolling for my spring classes on Friday. Really, I have nothing to worry about at this moment and if anything the only thing dragging me down is this damn cold weather - I should seriously think about investing in an electric blanket because I hate turning the heat on because then I get TOO hot. I’ll update tomorrow about my interview!

I was busy all weekend that I haven’t had much time to blog about anything; no worries though because that means I’ll have plenty to write about in my next blog which will be in a bit once I settle down with dinner and get my thoughts together. Things are going well at this point in time and that’s the only thing that matters to me. Hopefully, my job situation will be fixed soon but I’ll talk more about that in my next blog; if things go as planned I won’t have to write orovo reviews anymore!

One of the goals I had in mind when I moved was to get fit and healthy; I haven’t exactly started on this goal because I’ve been dealing with all this other “stuff” and haven’t actually sat down and told myself, okay Ashley we’re going to focus on YOU! But the idea is still sitting in the back of my head - I’m just not exactly sure where to start. I already decided I would make an appointment at the Wellness Center on campus and talk with a nutritionist who could point me in the right direction as far as eating goes and I decided that when I start working again I will join a gym to get the exercise aspect of getting fit and healthy met; I just haven’t actually done any of it yet.

I was also thinking about starting my own health/fitness blog as a subsection to my domain, I figured that if I had something like a blog where I could keep track of my progress and write about what I was feeling in regards to food, exercise, health and fitness that it would help me stay on track…we’ll see. I know that I am not going to go the route of taking the best diet pills on the market, in fact taking diet pills has never been an option for me - I’ve never tried them and I’ve never wanted too. I just need to get my ducks in a row because I start so that when I do start, I don’t automatically fail; I guess that’s part of the reason why I’ve been “putting it off” so to speak because I want to be able to do the healthy eating AND exercise at the same time and right now, I can’t do either because of my money budget, hopefully soon that will change!