Work/ School Balance

Last week was my first week of the Spring semester for my master’s. It was interesting. I’ve never done Zoom before for school. I have used it in the past, but not much. I use Microsoft Teams for work, so I’m very familiar with that, but there’s no video. Through the classes, I kept thinking about people looking at me and seeing a resting bitch face or something. I made it through, and thankfully, we haven’t had any bad weather this weekend, so everything will be in person. It’s freezing here, literally. It hasn’t been above freezing in over a week. Fingers crossed, I don’t freeze off my behind while walking to class.

I’ll admit, I’m having some trouble getting back in the swing of things. I hope by next week everything will be back to normal. I don’t know if it was because it was Zoom or what, but diving back into reading and nothing but reading has been a little hard. It could also be that because we’re in the beginning of the semester the reading isn’t as interesting. The book I have to read for my Non-Fiction workshop is interesting, but the reading for my other class hasn’t been the most entertaining so it’s taken a lot for me to just sit down and read. It’ll get better as I get into the semester though. We have some fun projects planned and I’m interested to try writing with pictures.

When I looked at my required classes, one of the ones I knew for sure I would never take was Poetry unless I was forced. I don’t understand most of it, and my attempts at writing it were painful. I was hesitant to take a Non-Fiction class, but I had to choose between that and Poetry. Non-Fiction it was going to be. Last semester, I had my eyes opened on what it actually was. Here, I thought it was all memoirs, biographies, and how-to books. I have since realized my error and found I actually like it. I’ve experimented with writing it, and while I’m not great, it’s actually interesting to write. I’ve started a few essays that I’m not sure are going anywhere, and one I finished. I’m really not sure if I’ll even take it in for a workshop, but I love another one. I am going to finish it and take that in. Maybe I’ll share it sometime.

My weekend hasn’t been all about studying, which it should have been. Instead, I went mattress shopping yesterday (which actually inspired my essay). It had been on my list of future expenses, but there was a good sale, and I’d mostly done my taxes, so I thought, what the hell. I ordered my new Tempur-Pedic mattress that will be delivered next Saturday. I spent a lot more than I wanted, but I got a good deal on financing, and honestly, my mattress isn’t great. I got it from my grandmother’s house, it was free, and I’m very grateful for it. I couldn’t afford a bed, and it came with a bedroom set. The mattress was old and extra firm. It took two mattress pads and multiple blankets to make it semi-soft, and I use that term loosely. It feels like I put a bunch of padding on a piece of wood and called it a bed. It’s also very old. Again, I am very grateful I had something to sleep on. I’m not complaining about that, but now that I can, I’m getting a new mattress.

So, that’s been my week. I’m sad the weekend is almost over, and I’m hoping to survive the next week, especially since I’ll be back in person at school, and Tuesday it’ll finally be above freezing, but that doesn’t help my Monday night class. Have a nice and warm week!