Winding down 2007, welcoming 2008

Well the hustle and bustle of the holidays is basically over. I really enjoyed shopping for everyone this year and was so excited to watch my family open their stuff on Christmas morning. I think our Christmas went pretty well. It was hard because Gram passed away less than two months ago. I felt sad Christmas Eve because that was always Grandma and Papa holiday time. Now that they're both gone, Christmas Eve is just another day to me. I got stuck working Christmas day with the close shift. I wished so much I would have worked Christmas Eve instead. At least I got time and a half to stand and play cards while building a gingerbread house.

Christmas was also difficult this year since Tony was so far away floating around on a boat with a couple hundred marines and sailors. He had to have been feeling sad that day. Of course I miss him and wish he could have been home for Christmas, but at least I had my family to spend it with. Tony at least got to call me Christmas Eve and Christmas Day. Christmas Eve we got to talk for a little longer than usual but Christmas Day was a strict 15 minute time limit since there were more Marines than phone call slots. Even with 15 minute limits, there would still be 50-80 men who did not get to call home for Christmas.

About a month ago, Tony's leave dates were expected to be February 1st until February 18th. Tony was 99% sure it would stay that way. So I went ahead and bought us plane tickets to Tampa for a long weekend to visit his family. Sure enough, a couple of weeks ago I hear the leave dates have not only changed, but been cut in half. And that half point is right in the middle of our "trip" to Tampa. So much for that right? I finally called Expedia yesterday to see what I could do about changing or canceling our tickets. The woman I spoke with sounded Indian and her thick accent was really hard to understand, but she was very helpful. At first, it seemed as thought the tickets would be an extra 600 per person! Plus 100 dollar penalty fees for each ticket and 30 dollar fee from expedia. I felt almost in tears as I explained to Zunni (the Expedia rep.) that my fiancee is military, he is who I will be traveling with, and his leave dates changed which is why we had to change the travel dates. She said she would check with USAir about their policies, she said "sometimes they wave fees for military situations." I doubted USAir gave a flying poo. After being on hold for ten minutes or so, Zunni returns to explain she is still on hold with USAir. While I was on hold I found different travel dates for a better price and she took down the flight info and put me back on hold. After being on hold another ten minutes, she returned sounding excited and said "Nicole, I have good news! USAir is going to wave the 100 dollar fees and I will wave Expedia's 30 dollar fee, you will have to pay 88 dollars." I asked it was 88 per person, but it was actually 88 TOTAL! I was so excited I wanted to cry. What a relief! Now we'll go down for only 3 days, but its better than not being able to go at all.

Homecoming is getting so close! Less than one month. Lauren and I will drive down together. We are like two six year olds bouncing around so excited for our boys to come home. Lauren has become such a good friend--I don't know how I would have survived my second deployment without her! We keep each other sane and focused on the end result. I am so thankful to have her as a friend. Love you girl!!

Tonight is the last holiday we have until the boys are back home. Its hard to believe in 14 short hours it will be the year 2008. I don't have any plans for tonight other than working until ten. I'm just happy I get to come home in time to watch the ball drop. Although it won't be that exciting. Some year I'd love to travel to NY for New Years, or at least go somewhere. And another year I'd love to host a New Years party in my future house! I'll go all out with dorky hats and noise makers, decorations, and tons of food.

Farewell 2007.....hello 2008!

Done for real now...

Finally got the rest of my grades! I got a 3.0 for the semester! I was pretty excited about that. So now I am done completely. It feels weird. Hard to believe I don't have to go back to school in two weeks when Pitt's spring session begins. I'm not complaining though!

Now I just have to figure out what to do with myself career-wise. For now, I'll take all the work I can get at Blockbuster. I want to get Tony home, get married, and settled before I find something more "big girl" oriented. I have too much going on to start a new job right now. But I'm not in any hurry. Just a little worried because I don't know what to do. I can't get horses out of my head. Guess thats what Brent always meant by it being a "passion." I wish he was still here, sometimes I really miss him.

Tony comes home in less than two months! Soon, Lauren and I will be driving down in our crazy decorated car bouncing all over the place with excitement. We'll have a blast!

The results are in....

passed my computer class!!!! I got a C, which was what I needed to be able to graduate. Oh thank goodness!! Still waiting for the rest of my grades but I know I got passing grades in those classes! I couldn't be happier.

When I called my mom to tell her, she was so happy she was crying. I was too! Its been so rough, especially the past two years. I didn't think I'd ever finish. I almost quit school like four times through out the last four and a half years -- maybe even more than four times. It was so hard, but I am so happy my mom and dad kept pushing me to keep going. I'm on cloud nine right now.

And when I came home from work tonight, my mom handed me flowers and a card. Then my dad followed shortly after with a brand new HDTV!! I completely did not expect anything like that at all! I almost cried again! lol Its a great TV with a built in HDdvd and video input plugs galore! I'm so happy, I can't wait to tell Tony. He's going to say "see I told you babe" haha! And he'll love my TV! I'm so thankful, I totally did not expect anything! What a great little family we are

The painful suspense....did she pass?

Its been ages since I've had a moment to sit and write a new blog longer than 3 sentences. School was ridiculously busy this semester. I don't think I've ever had to work so hard to keep up with everything. Balancing work and stuff at home didn't help. Then with Tony being gone and Gram passing away, felt like all of my school books gained an extra 200 pages each. I'm more at peace with Gram's death now as its had time to sink in. However, I still subconsciously peek into her room and feel the urge to sing "night Grammie" before climbing the steps to go to sleep. I guess this will go away eventually?

The suspense is unbearable as I wait for my grades. My classes were not all THAT difficult, but they took a great deal of time and effort. I had the bright idea of piling on a bunch of literature courses since they are not "scientific" like most of the classes offered at Pitt. I guess I never thought about the large amounts of reading I'd have to do! I took Fantasy and Literature, Childhood Books, Intro to Film, Computer Programming, and Soccer. Ok so Soccer didn't take much time. I actually really enjoyed it. It was a nice break from the daily grind and it definitely kept me in shape!

Fantasy and Literature was fun. We read seven books over the semester: Lilith, Harry Potter and the Goblet of Fire, Lord of the Rings Book 1, The Bartimaeus Trilogy: The Amulet of Samarkand, Neverwhere, The Tolkien Reader, and Sir Gawain and the Green Knight. I really enjoyed Harry Potter, Lord of the Rings, The Amulet of Samarkand, and Neverwhere. This class got me into Harry Potter and the Bartimaeus Trilogy -- I plan on reading the next two in the "Bart" trilogy (look for a movie in 2009!) and all the Harry books I can get my hands on! I don't think this professor liked me much though because I never got above a B on any of my essays or papers. So that is frustrating. She questions my writing abilities. I am no Steven King, but I've never had a professor ever offer to help my "writing style." Maybe she just dislikes young engaged college students! So guess I am stuck with a B in that class...

Childhood Books was interesting. We read six books over the semester: Treasured Tales from Beatrix Potter, The Secret Garden, The Golden Compass, Go Ask Alice, Tangerine, and one other title which slips my mind (it was something we printed off the internet). I loved The Golden Compass and plan on reading the next two in this trilogy. The professor was very nice and I got decent grades in that class, I might luck out and get an A of some sort.

Intro to Film was, well...very interesting. The professor can't stand the sight of violence. Not sure what she's doing in a Film course then! She walked out of the room during some girls' presentation because of a violent scene in Resovoir Dogs. Interesting indeed. Then two weeks ago I walk into class and she isn't there, some other woman is. She ditched us the last few weeks of classes! She had some family emergency. No emails, no message, just a sub who was going to discuss Gladiator with us, but she hadn't seen it in 7 years and couldn't remember a thing. Can you say "refund"? HAH But I almost never missed a class, participated, and got nice scores on graded things. So I hope for an A there as well.

Now, when it comes to Computer Programming, I get irritated just thinking about it. Its a hard class. But it is fulfilling a requirement for my major. I needed a Quantitative Formal Reasoning - CS0004 filled that requirement. The prof was not the best instructor I've ever come across (surprise surprise) but he seemed nice enough. I never missed a class. However, he canceled class FOUR times over the semester! And hardly adjusted the schedule for exams and projects. We were still expected to know what was going on. I struggled through most of the projects and did not do so well on the midterm. So I was hanging on by a thread. Then before Finals, he missed the whole week and we had basically 2 days to prepare for the final and turn in a final project (on the same day). I was almost in tears during the exam. I could not remember much at all and felt helpless sitting there. He knows how badly I need a C in that class...so keep your fingers crossed.

I keep checking online for my grades, hopefully I find out soon. I might go crazy waiting!

Taking a moment to breathe...

Yup....still too busy to write a good post!
I have two days left of my Undergrad career and about a week's worth of work to do for it! Posts will have to wait.


Soon my dear friends, soon!