Nan Pengyou

Hello readers! I'm well aware it's been over a month since I've posted and I apologize. I've really just been working every single day, and have had nothing exciting to blog about. I will give you a personal update though!

The title of this post (pronounced "nahn pahngyo") means "boyfriend" in Chinese. It's the only Chinese word that I know, which I can also spell. I decided to use it as my title since the great enigma that is China has taken my boyfriend away for 11 days. It is true, he is off with his second love, where he is known as Zhan Keqi (sounds like "John Kuhchi," like Jankowski). He's doing some research for his Senior IS on China political something or other jargon. I swear I'm interested, and I really am! It just goes over my head ;) Last night was hard, being the first night he was gone, and we usually talk on the phone. Since then, we've Skyped, and I'm doing much better. I'm starting to accept that it's what he wants to spend the rest of his life studying/working with, and I am really proud of him.I plan to go visit him as soon as I get back. I'm really excited to see him and have our late Christmas <3

Adam's favorite part about China, which he calls the "shit slit."

Adam is in Beijing!

 So, I'm still in the process of applying for grad school. My first application was due on the 15th, for the University of Toledo. I feel like the CSDCAS part (blanket CSD app) of my application was/will be processed late because of transcript problems, but we can only hope for the best. While researching my other schools, I found out that Eastern Michigan University has a faculty member who's main focus is literacy and spelling, which is exactly what I want to encourage in the field of Speech-Language Pathology! I got so excited, and realized that EMU may be the perfect grad school for me. I'm hoping that for my new years trip to visit Adam, we can take a day trip to the campus to visit. You guys don't know how excited I am.

As I mentioned before, I've been working almost every day for the past two weeks. I love my hospital job and the hours I get. I'm starting to loathe my VS job. The management isn't really agreeable or easy to work with, and scheduling is always a hassle. I'm starting to consider quitting. I only really still work there for the discount and because I like most of my fellow associates. I really do enjoy the knowledge of the brand and products that I can share with the customer, but honestly, I'm taking a grad level course next semester and I don't know if I'll be able to take it all. I've been very back and forth about quitting, and yesterday was almost my breaking point. It's not really anything to get into, but it could be a big turning point in my "adult life."

I did enjoy the fashion show, though!

Is the end of the world on Friday? If so, I'll be working a 12 hour day, then drinking with my friends! If I wake up hungover on Saturday, at least it will have been a successful celebration of life (and I will probably still feel like I'm dying anyway). Though, if the world does end, it will suck that my boyfriend is in China.

I imagine "The Day After Tomorrow"

I just downloaded Snapchat. I think I'm going to like it.

Per usual, I appreciate your reads, and I'm going to challenge you! Give me ideas of things to write about in that little comment box below! I think that would be fun!! If you don't think so, then OH WELL!!

GRAD SCHOOL PROBLEMS

I'm trying to write my personal statements, and to really decide which schools I want to apply to. I AM HAVING SO MUCH TROUBLE. I just want to run around, yell, or just plop down facing upward on a bed and bawl my eyes out.

I'm looking at my list of schools (none of which I have visited for grad school (besides CSU, since I go there), and I'm just wondering why I'm applying there. My main reasons for choosing to apply to a school are these:

• Will they maybe accept my below average GPA?
• Do I like the area in which the school resides?
• Is it near where Adam might go?
• Is it near home so I can live there for free?

Some of these schools put one or more of these criteria against each other. I visited one of the schools for undergrad, and wasn't quite impressed with it, but it's close to home, so I might apply. One of the schools is not close to home, but Adam is applying near there, so I might apply. I know you're not supposed to really apply based on where your boyfriend is going, but I don't want to be very far. I don't want to live at home forever, but I really don't have the money to move out on my own yet, and I am comfortable with my two jobs.

I am so so so torn on which criteria to focus on. I don't want to spend so much money on applications for schools that I'm not confident about, or don't want to go to. I'm kind of having a personal crisis here, and it's not good for my self esteem.

Graduate School Application Process, Again!!

If you know me, and my life, you would be aware that I have a bachelor's degree in Communication Sciences and Disorders. If you also know me, you know that I need to go to graduate school to get any sort of job in the field of speech therapy. Since I was an average student in college who decided to balance a social life, clubs, and academics, I earned mostly B's and C's in my classes. I'm happy with those grades; I passed IS, and I graduated. Graduate school is not happy with those grades; no schools accepted me last year.

Fast forward! 6 months later (exactly), I am being proactive! I'm re-taking the classes that I didn't do so hot in (and kicking ass), and I'm volunteering with the speech therapy services at the hospital where I work. I'm attempting to get some really good letters of recommendation, and at the same time, I'm writing a really AWESOME personal statement that will make tears flow from those admissions people's eyes!

Fast forward! 5 days after I had already started this post, I got apathetic about writing this, as well as with my applications. I need to edit my personal statement because I'm not happy with it, and I am apparently selling myself short. I need to finish it and send it to my people who need to write my letters of recommendation. I need to send my GRE scores to a few schools, and my transcripts to all of them. This is going to be tiring. What I would really like to do is take an entire day that I'm off (this Friday sounds good), and do all of that crap. Pay for the GRE, for transcripts, and finish my stupid personal statement and send it to my people.

I went through all of this once, and I think I just got tired of it and don't want to do it again. I wish the process were so much easier, where most or all of it was online and I didn't need to send hard copies of things to admissions guys. I need to clean my room and my desk and get more organized. Then I'll finally be able to concentrate. I did come down with this weird throat/nose sickness this week. I come home, or I stay home, and I just want to stay in bed, miserable. It's been a total downer.

My first application is due in a month. I'm freaking out a little because I don't want to miss the deadline. It's the application for The University of Toledo (where my friend Marshall resides, shout out to YOU!!!). I wouldn't mind going there because there are people there and near there whom I really care about. The crappy part is that they ask for a personal statement all about why I chose that program blah de blah. So now I get to write a second one just for UT. I hope it's worth it.

Well, enough bitching about graduate school. Many of us have to go through this tough stuff, so it's not like I'm the only one. I'm tired, my throat hurts, and I miss my boyfriend. I'm going to bed. I love you all, good night.

My final bitchy moment:

HOW COULD HE HAVE NOT WON SEXIEST MAN ALIVE?!?! I mean, come on!!!!

Personal Update

This post is a personal update, if you couldn't tell from the title. *aside: my computer has started making noises like it's propelling into space again. I want a new one now!* I'm currently drinking coffee, in my sweatpants, at 10:10 pm, pretending I'm in Starbucks, or the Lowry Cafe. I do prefer coffee shops over my bedroom, but hey, when you're in the midst of a hurricane and coffee shops are closed, what's a girl to do?

I feel like I'm coming down with my mom's cold (which I think sounds like consumption; tuberculosis to those from this century), so I took a benadryl and am drinking that hot beverage. This past week has been tiring! Besides my normal working and classes, Bron was on her way home and stopped in town for the week! I was very excited to be reunited with my roomie, so we hung out most days (along with Katie and Joe, a little Reed House reunion), and I woke up tired most mornings. Needless to say, I understand why adults don't hang out too much. They get worn out!

This past weekend was family weekend, so the four of us went down to Wooster to be with our "families." It was a lot of fun to go to a football game and be a part of the band again, even if it was like 40 degrees and a little damp. Saturday was the Halloween Get Hep dance, and Adam came with me! We dressed up as a nurse and a hospital patient. I think our costumes were a hit! I was really excited that he came with me. Even if he didn't have that much fun, it's the thought that counts. He even slow danced with me!

A couple weeks ago, I accompanied Adam and his parents on a little birthday trip to LAS VEGAS!! This was my first time being west of the Mississippi (river, that is), and my first time flying in about 15 years. On the flight there, I passed out during the landing. I think it was caused by the pain in my ear, since it was almost unbearable. On the flight back I had no problems whatsoever! Random fainting! Vegas was not what I expected it to be. When I think of Vegas, I think of glamor and fancy things. What it really is, is drunk people and girls dressed skankily, everyone smoking cigarettes, and illegals working on the streets for some tips. It is an experience! The weird part was being able to smoke indoors, and carry around open containers of alcohol outside. Just plain weird. But I guess it's some people's paradise. I ended up losing $200 to stupid slots, and stopped my spending there. We went to a night club, saw Elton John live, saw a topless show, and rode a gondola in the Venetian. It was a really fun trip, and I wouldn't mind going back again!

Our gondola singer! She had a beautiful voice!

Riding on the gondola!

Well, that's about it for my personal update. My hospital job is going very well, and my Victoria's Secret job is finally picking up again (the new manager thought I didn't know how to run the cash register, or do floor sets. What did she think I was doing the past 2 years?!)

Until next post, I'll be riding out hurricane Sandy!

Katie’s Summer Ambitions 2010

       I was going through my old files and I found this list:

   Be able to touch my toes

       Learn to play guitar

       Be more athletic

       Drink more water

       Go camping on Kelley’s Island

       Get a tan

       Read a lot of books

       Keep up on my Spanish

       Find something to write about for Jr. IS

       Go lindy hopping

       Hang out in Cleveland

I think I have achieved like 5 of those things. You can try to figure out which 5. It won't be hard :) 

Writing

Every now and then (today included) I get this really big urge to write. Like physically hold a pen in my hand and just write. With the age of technology, I'm finding it harder to do that easily. I've decided that I want to get a journal that I can carry around with me in my school and work bags so I can write down all of my ideas. I don't usually have profound thoughts, but I just really like writing. Sometimes I even write out song lyrics because I like the feeling of the pen moving over the paper. I prefer to write notes over typing them. During my whole Independent Study process, I took handwritten notes on all of the articles that I used in my literature review (over 40). When I was younger, I wrote short stories all of the time, and I was on the Power of the Pen writing team in middle school (I made it to Regionals during my second year!).

I've found that writing things down helps me remember, which is why I like to take physical notes. For example, when I was at Starbucks today (when I had the urge to write), I wrote down notes for this blog post, and most of them are coming right back to me.

At one point in time, to satiate my urges to write, I signed up for a kind of freelance internet article writing site. Problem is, it's mostly "How To" articles about random things out of left field that you would never want to know how to do, and you only get to the good projects once you've written a crap ton of those crappy "how to" ones. I've since strayed from the site, but I've considered going back every now and then. I'm constantly looking for little things to write, and sometimes this blog helps me, but I'm never quite satisfied.

Not only do I like to write, but I LOVE to edit. I consider myself a grammar nerd, though I've lost a lot of it. I always offer to edit my friends' papers, must be hard copies and using a pink pen. I can't edit on computers. Now that I'm out of college, I don't really have anything to edit. I had a random thought a few weeks ago about if my career in speech therapy never works out, how I wouldn't mind being an editor of some sort. I really would like to get back into the good grammar person that I was, so I might take on the form of a nerd and pursue some books on editing and good writing. But I think the SLP job is a really good fit for me. The science and logistics of language just amaze me, and writing and reading sometimes cross into the job description of therapists. I think I'm set.

Do you want to know how big of a dork I am? I REALLY like pens (I know, it looks kind of like penis). I have SO MANY. When I was school shopping this semester, I seriously stared at all of the pens in the pen section for about a half hour, trying to decide which ones I wanted. They have to come in a pack with at least some fun colors, they MUST write very smoothly, and they have to be comfy! I think I have a problem.

*Side note* Tumblr is down. Everyone is about to freak the shit out. *End side note*

Here ends my post on writing. If you ever have anything that you want me to edit, please let me know. I'm bored and would love to do it. If you have any suggestions on something I can write, or a freelance company I could hook up with, also let me know!

Until next time!

Our 7th grade Power of the Pen team (Jason, Katie, and myself), and our two coaches. I had really good hairstyles.

A Personal List

I frequently find myself thinking of things that I want to get better at. I've decided to compile a list of these things that, sadly, I may have hit my peak of ability and/or knowledge.

1. Lindy Hop
2. Spanish
3. Grades
4. Singing
5. Crafty things
6. Saving a lot of money
7. Solo jazz

I'll probably add more later. This is all that's been on my mind lately though.