Friday Odds and Ends

• I made it through my first week of school and I believe it's going to be a lot less stressful than last semester. There will be a lot more papers due, but I'm excited! I don't mean to be such a nerd, but the papers are going to be really interesting (especially my Sports Journalism papers) and I really want to throw myself into seeking out interesting stories, improve on my interviewing skills, and put my entire heart into the writing. I always have this fire in my belly when I begin a semester, but let life take over and don't really put my heart and soul into my schoolwork. I want to change that. I want to keep that fire in my belly throughout the entire 17 weeks. And I want to turn out some of the best stories I've ever written.
  
  
• I have a long break between my classes, Tuesdays - Thursdays, which I planned on just staying at school for. Tuesday, I stayed and holy cow, it was long! I managed to catch up e-mails, blogs, and vlogs but I was bored silly! It's about a 3-hour break on Tuesdays and Thursdays and a 4-hour break on Wednesdays, so I'm probably going to start coming home during that time. I only live about 15 minutes from school, and may start staying there when homework gets heavy, but for now, I'll be coming home and using that time to decompress before class. (Have I mentioned how happy I am about my schedule this semester?!)
  
  
• I'm taking a class called Social Media this semester, as I mentioned, and it's probably going to be one of the most interesting classes I've ever taken. I really love everything about social media and would love to find a job that incorporates that. For people who use Twitter, what types of social media kings/queens should I be following?! I know some of you are so much more involved with this type of stuff than I am, and I'd love to learn more about them!
  
  
• I'm trying to come to terms with taking a step back from blogging. It tore me up last semester, but I think the best thing for me to do is to blog when I can. Lately, I've been trying to write my posts on the weekends and schedule them throughout the week. I'm going to try my best to keep up with your blogs (especially the ones in my "Must Reads" folder in Google Reader), but I'm not promising anything. And I'm trying to be OK with that. I'm so consumed with this blog community and making sure all of you know how awesome I think you are, but sometimes life gets in the way.
  
  
• In awesome news, my grandma just finished up her chemotherapy earlier this month and had a PET scan on Tuesday to check to see if cancer had come back. The good news is that her scan came back mostly clean. The bad news is that they found a tiny spot near her colon that they believe is nothing, but want her to get a colonoscopy just to make sure. I'm happy, though. My grandma has said that if the cancer comes back, she's not going through chemo again. It really takes everything out of her and makes her so sick and weak. She'll be 70 in a few years. Her body, her decision. So now I'm just praying her cancer doesn't come back, because it's scary to think of a world without my grandma.
  
  
• On the other end of the spectrum, my uncle is in the hospital. He was having chest pains, numbness, weakness, and a high heart rate on Wednesday night and was taken by ambulance to the hospital. Throughout the night, they couldn't get his heart rate down. I'm writing this blog on Thursday night and as of right now, they're not sure what is causing his high heart rate or chest pains or anything. It's extremely scary and I'm hoping we can find out what's going on tomorrow.
  
  
• I have to buy 7 books this semester, and managed to find 3 of them at my library! This has never happened in any semester, so I'm super thrilled, especially considering my Spanish textbooks will be around $150. They do have my Spanish textbook at the library, but it's checked out. Still, it saved me at least $40-$50 for those three.
  
  
• My mom had another x-ray on her elbow, which showed the fracture is healing. She still can't use her elbow and can't go back to her second job until October at the earliest. He also noticed a subtle clicking when she turned her wrist, which could mean her bone had shifted a little and was rubbing against the other bone in her forearm, which in turn means possible surgery down the road. For now, he's not too worried about it and thinks it could heal on its own. In all her other areas, she's healing very nicely! Her scar where her stitches were is barely recognizable, although the area is still pretty tender. She's also dealing with some anxiety/fear so I'm trying my best to give her the support she needs. I just want to fast forward to November and have this just be totally over!
  
  
• I really have no weekend plans. Get my planner caught up, do some homework, and just relax. I know this is going to be one of my last easy weekends for a while so I'm going to try to enjoy it!