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So far, I have done a little research on Des Moines, IA and Topeka, KS. Topeka is 1 hour from Kansas City, where I wouldn't mind living. But, 1 hour is pretty much too far to go there for dinner or a show or whatever very often. If it was like 30 or 45 minutes, that would be OK, but I think that's our limit for spontaneous drive time. Otherwise, Topeka seems to be really dull. Pros are that it has a very low crime rate and low cost of living. Of course, Des Moines also has those things, is a bigger city, and is closer to my family and to Madison if I want to visit. Des Moines also has a cool skywalk system downtown, so when it's cold you don't have to go outside- how cool is that? So I think I am giving Des Moines a "yay" and Topeka a "nay" for now.
David has said that he doesn't want to live anywhere smaller than Madison (excepting Salem, OR), so that rules out a lot of capitals. I didn't know so many of them were such small cities!
Oh, and I almost forgot- Des Moines has Adventureland... which IMO beats Six Flags because there are never any lines... and you can ride the rollercoasters over and over!
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So David & I are living in Atlanta, GA right now... we will likely be here for another 1 and a half years or so, before there is an opportunity through his company to move on. The trouble is, we don't know where that might be, other than it has to be a capital city... so to assuage my anxiety I thought I'd do some research on the capitals of the U.S. and post it here... any input from those who have lived in any of these areas is appreciated!
First thing, I will need to list out all of the capitals, and cross off the ones I know are out for various reasons:
Washington D.C.
this may be a possibility, although from what I've heard so far the cost of living is way too high there... we'd have to take a pretty big cut in our lifestyle to make it work.
Alabama - Montgomery
Has a project... not sure about this city...
Alaska - Juneau
This is probably a no-go, since it would be to hard to travel to and from the other states from here.
Arizona - Phoenix
Arkansas - Little Rock
Already has a project, not sure if there's a spot here...
California - Sacramento
They just started a project, but the government there is such a mess that it would be a very frustrating location for David.
Colorado - Denver
This one has a project already, so it's out.
Connecticut - Hartford
Delaware - Dover
Florida - Tallahassee
Georgia - Atlanta
where we are now... would like to go somewhere else... hopefully somewhere smaller!
Hawaii - Honolulu
can't really go here, since I won't fly!
Idaho - Boise
There's already a project here, too.
Illinois - Springfield
Has a project... I have heard bad things about Springfield.
Indiana - Indianapolis
Iowa - Des Moines
Kansas - Topeka
I heard rumors about Kansas City, so I will check into both...
Kentucky - Frankfort
Louisiana - Baton Rouge
There is already a project here... I don't really want to live in LA, either.
Maine - Augusta
Maryland - Annapolis
Massachusetts - Boston
Michigan - Lansing
Minnesota - St. Paul
I would love to go here, but unfortunately it's also not an option due to the project not having a place for David.
Mississippi - Jackson
Missouri - Jefferson City
Montana - Helena
There is a project here already... not sure about it... probably way too small of a town for us, anyway.
Nebraska - Lincoln
Nevada - Carson City
New Hampshire - Concord
New Jersey - Trenton
New Mexico - Santa Fe
Has a project... I have heard Santa Fe is nice... I have only been to Albuquerque
New York - Albany
North Carolina - Raleigh
North Dakota - Bismarck
David says no to North Dakota...
Ohio - Columbus
Oklahoma - Oklahoma City
Oregon - Salem
We'd both like to go here if it comes up!
Pennsylvania - Harrisburg
Rhode Island - Providence
South Carolina - Columbia
South Dakota - Pierre
Tennessee - Nashville
Texas - Austin
Of course I used to live here... not sure I'd want to go back, it's still too big of a city for me... but a little nicer than Atlanta.
Utah - Salt Lake City
Has a project... pretty sure we don't want to go here...
Vermont - Montpelier
Virginia - Richmond
Washington - Olympia
West Virginia - Charleston
has a project
Wisconsin - Madison
Already has a project- where we moved from- can't really go back there because there isn't a good spot for David.
Wyoming - Cheyenne
Also a possibility: non-capital cities (there are a few already); Canadian provinces; other countries' capitals... not sure how likely any of those options will be though.
Here are the current project sites: http://www.fastenterprises.com/clients.htmlCurrent Mood:  contemplative |
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I thought it was pretty funny that people are doing Thriller dances en masse... no one I know around here though, so my indepth knowledge of the dance is untapped. Darn.
I was just trying to find a local yoga studio to go to. I think I need to do a lot more yoga- I am tired all the time. My doctor ordered a sleep study because maybe I am not getting enough REM sleep, which makes some sense. I sleep all the time but I never feel rested, and I keep forgetting everything.
What is kind of annoying is whenever I go to the doctor with symptoms of any kind they are always like, well it could be because of depression. No shit, but I know the difference, and I'm not depressed. I guess it's just easier for them to blame it on your mind.
I was looking at this stupid website about how SSRIs like Prozac are dangerous and cause people to be homocidial, and how they caused the Columbine shootings. Apparently there are people out there who want to make them illegal. Ugh. And there are these yoga people who think that you can just "find what the underlying problem is" and work on it through breath excercises or whatever. Ok these people annoy me because the underlying problem is a chemical imbalance in my brain, which I need the medication to fix! Therapsits are little help either, you can talk about your childhood for years but that won't fix the chemicals in your brain. Only medication will do that. It really would be a shame if they managed to make drugs which have helped so many people get their lives back illegal, because a few people have gone off the deep end (which may be why they were prescribed these meds to begin with? Maybe they're a little unbalanced? Besides, you aren't supposed to give SSRIs to children or teens because they can cause bad side effects like worse depression)
Anyway that is my rant for now. Back to work. |
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That's kind of disturbing to me. I mean, a Master's degree means nothing anymore.
I am still trying to figure out the education system for educators. I applied to the Behavior-Learning Disabiltiies Certificate program, which is at the Master's level but is a "preliminary teaching certificate" whatever that means. At least I don't really care because I am tutoring privately so it really doesn't matter, but it is nice to know what you can do with your education. Ah, the young idealistic me who got a B.A. in Women's Studies, not caring whether that translated into an actual occupation. (Well I suppose 1/2 of my occupation now is "wife" so in some ways it did prepare me for that... there will be a lot of cleaning...I do wonder how women manage to have full-time occupations, husbands (or wives), and children. I mean, it is a lot of work taking care of a house with a guy who was mostly raised by his dad and is completely unconcerned with whether the laundry gets done. Oh well, at least he makes a lot of money so I can sit around doing laundry. I never did want to have to work full-time. I've always been somewhat of a homebody. Life seems more livable when you can nap in the middle of the day.)
Anyway, I had to defer my enrollment until Fall because they didn't tell me I was in the program until like 2 weeks ago, and classes started today, so I didn't really have time to get my immunizations taken care of. Also, David and I are planning a trip to Disneyworld in August and it's hard to miss Summer classes because they cover a lot (not that I would be particularly worried about it, but the professers might).
By the way I took a Facebook IQ test which says my IQ is 148, so I guess I am a genius. At least according to Facebook, whatever that's worth.
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I asked one of my students today what he wanted to be (he's 8) and he said he didn't know, to which I replied, "I don't know either," to which he replied, "but you're already grown up." Sigh.
I will have a new tutoring client (age 10) this Summer, with whom I am going to work on writing, so I should probably work on my own writing by posting more. Since starting my tutoring business I agonize more over every email I type, so it takes me a long time. If I don't go back and read what I type my grammar sometimes ends up very strange.
This tutoring stuff is a lot harder than it really should be, but I don't really know what else to do with myself at this point. No one is really hiring social workers except hospitals, and I could possibly get a barista job but I'm not sure that's the best route for my future. At least this way I can say I was doing something related to social work if I do ever get my PhD, and maybe they'll let me teach at the University level. I don't know. I keep trying to picture my dream job but I can't. I wonder if I would be happy doing anything at all? I'm not happy when I have no job- this is better than lying around the house watching endless episodes of What Not To Wear (which I kind of still do sometimes).
I don't know if I'm lazy or not, because I do a lot of stuff. David hasn't done his own laundry, the dishes, or any yard work since we moved (actually I think he hasn't done his own laundry since he met me... anyway he doesn't really know what he's doing). That's not anything I mind, of course, because he works like a billion more hours than I do at a real job, so I'm happy to do laundry. Today I volunteered at a school with ADHD kids, pulled weeds, walked the dog, tutored for an hour and drove for 2 hours (that's Atlanta for you), made some Spanish flashcards, emailed some people, and watched a little TV. Oh and picked up and dropped off David at work, and did the dishes. It kind of feels like I do nothing though. Maybe it's because none of it really feels that important, except the volunteering. The kids at this school are pretty great. I learned one of them has autism, which I didn't realize, and it does explain some things. He's pretty much constantly swearing or talking about movies like Kung Fu Panda, and repeating other stuff that doesn't make a whole lot of sense, but he also hugs a lot. Actually I saw him hugging this little girl who also has autism and I thought that was so cute. Like, they understand each other. She likes to repeat the things she works on in speech therapy so she's always saying things like "Why do you go to the doctor? Because you get hurt" out of context and in a monotone with a vacant stare. She's pretty much always smiling though, and she seems happy. She also mostly realizes what is going on. I guess I am used to people with autism who just live in their own world and nothing really gets through. She'll answer you if you ask her a question. Sometimes I think ADD is like very mild autism in a way. They have found a genetic link for austism, so in 10-15 years maybe there will be some drugs for it. I know some people things drugs are bad, but I am 100% pro-medication for mental things. It's the only thing that really worked for me, but everyone made me feel so guilty about it, which sucks.
Anyway, I am now rambling, bu will try to write more. |
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I caught a runaway robber for them. He was hiding under my house. One of the police officers said "I looked under there once." Well, apparently not well enough. Anyway, I saw the cops going around my property and I was asking them what was going on, they said they had a robbery and the guy (actually there are still 2 guys out there I think- I am listening to the police blotter, and I haven't heard anything about them being caught) had come this way, so I thought, well if I was running away I know where I'd hide, under the deck, so I looked and there was the guy giving me the shhh sign. Sorry dude but you were hiding on my property. Then I thought, I hope the basement door wasn't open because there are more places to hide in there, so I got a cop to come with me and look and I said, there's a crawl space under there, and he was too lazy to look in there. So potentially there is a guy hiding in my crawl space, but hey they can't get into the house from there, so I guess I'll let it be for now. I couldn't find a flashlight. Stupid cops. Also, I have chased my dog through the woods around here and I know lots of places they could hide, namely in the drainage ditch pipes and sewer pipes. Also they are too lazy to look there. Sigh. I hope no one ever tries to rob my house.
Apr. 17th, 2009 @ 10:53 am
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| » rats as pest control |
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news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/south_asia/7933538.stm
I like how they say they keep them fed on milk and roti (which is a flat Indian bread). Lucky rats.
Mar. 10th, 2009 @ 06:31 pm
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| » I had a subject and I forgot it |
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I thought there was something physically wrong with me- I had all the symptoms of hypothyroidism: fatigue, dry skin, weight gain, memory problems- but the blood tests show my thyroid is fine. So I guess it was all in my mind. I guess I need to deal with something. I think ever since grad school ended, I really lost my focus in life. I've been OK enough because I have David and he makes me happy, but while I enjoy running a household for us it's not enough. I need my own thing to get out of bed in the morning for. Otherwise, I just go back to bed and sleep another 3 hours. The nurse recommended excercise and water, which is probably a good idea.
I applied to this program at GSU that is a year-long certificate in Behavior and Learning Disabilities. I think it's a really interesting field- having worked in the public schools and experienced an alternative school setting growing up, and just wanting to do something for the kids who fall through the cracks. There are like a million private schools here in Atlanta that deal with various aspects of that, but of course not everyone can afford them. Working with behavior challenges requires a lot of social work skills plus it's something I could do as a private tutor as well so I can get much more money for it than if I was a social worker. I just haven't really figured it all out yet, but I have found some good books to read.
All of my tutor clients are on hold right now for various reasons (they are having troubles in their lives) so I am applying for jobs and volunteer positions. Also I am thinking about getting a dog because I need to get out of the house and excercise more, and the cat walks on a leash but it doesn't give me much excercise to walk him. It gets me a lot of comments though. Also a dog could learn more tricks than our cat, although our cat is pretty impressive. I don't think David wants a dog, but maybe he'll come around.
David has been working like 10 hours a day or more lately, although we just had last week as a vacation together. It was nice, but now he has to make up for all that lost time. Actually today he was sick so he came home early and slept a lot. I notice he almost always gets sick when he works insane hours, and usually it's not the catching kind of sick. I wish I worked more and he worked less and we had more balance. I really admire that he is so dedicated and important in his job that he can go in and work 60 hour weeks and everything. I miss feeling that dedicated to something. If your heart's not in it, then you can't work that much. I think I can make this tutoring business like that, but then I am pulled in lots of different directions on that too. I have trouble organizing and motivating myself. I think I need a life coach or something.
Feb. 11th, 2009 @ 01:06 am
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| » I have an alter ego |
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http://www.wrenfineart.com/neweb/home.htm
There is an artist named Heather Bray at the Wren Gallery, which is weird because not only does she have my birth name, but Wren was my great-grandmother's last name. And she was a painter too. I guess there are a lot of Brays and Wrens in England though. I want one of her paintings now :o)
Go to www.zoominfo.com and search for yourself and people you know, it's a good way to pass the time.
Jan. 16th, 2009 @ 08:44 am
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| » New Blog |
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http://frugalbarista.blogspot.com/
is my new blog about making yummy coffee at home for cheap. It's a great way to save money, and you can make your drinks just how you like them every time! Just say no to Starbucks. Of course, support your local cafe as much as possible :o)
Jan. 12th, 2009 @ 03:55 pm
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