A Penny For Your Books

A few things have happened recently. Sam and I moved into a new place with my sister in a town I love (good), classes have started up (good), my dog is on anxiety meds (okay?), my brain fog is awful (bad), I cannot find a job (bad), the jobs I want the most just lost funding (????bad), and Trump is single handedly causing nightmares about my teeth falling out that I haven’t had in years (bad). So it’s not all bad!

There are some exciting things going on and I am trying to stay optimistic about it. I’m excited about the two English classes I’m taking this semester. I am especially glad I’m taking them because I did not have this level of reading to do for my STEM undergrad degree. It’s taking some time to get used to reading novels and poetry from the 17th and 18th century, but I’d rather get used to that now than in grad school (if I get accepted). But this does mean that homework is taking up much more time than I anticipated, so I’m worried about working full time. My in-person class is MWF right at 11am too, so I will have to find a job that is willing to work with that or drop the class. I really don’t want to drop the class.

Also on a good note–I love the apartment we just moved into! It’s technically a townhome, so we have 3 “bedrooms”, 2 full bathrooms, a big kitchen/dining area, and a single car garage. The only downside is that there’s no fence, but I do plan to ask our landlord about that possibility when it gets warmer. I’m thinking that part of my dog’s anxiety stems from no yard space to run around in. She’s pretty used to country living where she had acres to run around and explore. If he declines it, we’ll just be sure to spend plenty of time on walks, at parks, and visiting the farm.

Since we only use two of the rooms as bedrooms, I was able to turn the other into a reading room/office space and it’s been incredible for my attention span to have a separate space dedicated to work. Here are a couple pictures:

On another note, the job search slowed down there for a bit. I would really love to work in a public library, publishing office, book store, or anything similar. There’s just not many places in this category hiring right now, and those that are happen to be highly competitive. I may have to start applying to any job. Having no income is rough, even if Sam enjoys providing. He’s already doing so much and I hate putting that kind of financial stress on him when we just moved somewhere with a higher rent (albeit a great deal for the area). Anyway, I’ll keep you updated on that.

I don’t even know if I want to get started on politics in this post. I tried to convince myself that all the shit going down in the Trump administration would suck but wouldn’t be catastrophic. However, it looks as if my attempts were futile. The orders he’s signed this early are already incredibly problematic and push back years of progress made towards civil rights and conservation, whether it be LGBTQIA rights, racial inequities, workplace discrimination, healthcare, climate, and whatever he’s trying to do with federal funding. Just yesterday he cut off federal funding to all sorts of programs until they agree to whatever dumb terms he’s come up with. It’s all insane and incredibly disheartening. I’ll refrain from further comment in this post.

So anyway, it’s not all bad! But the bad is pretty rough. I am reading quite a bit though, so that’s always great! I hope you all have a great rest of your week and succeed in all your endeavors (unless you’re Trump).