The end of week 8

Week 8 is finished! Only two weeks left in the quarter. I am so glad. I saw a commercial for macy's yesterday and they showed video of the macy's day parade. It made me think of all the years waking up on thanksgiving morning and sitting on the couch in my pajamas watching the parade onTV with my mom. It reminded me of family and a day off of school and really good food. I think thanksgiving may be my favorite holiday now. And after finals, it's only one week until then. I will get to go home and see my grandparents and help grandma make the stuffing for the turkey. I am so excited!

Oh, that reminds me: I have a new little baby second cousin! Her name is Chloe and she was born on my mom's birthday, October 27th, at 9pm. We are going to go visit right after Thanksgiving because one cousin just had a baby and the other is getting married! This all happened in the last month.

The end of the quarter also means my classes are getting harder and my schedule is more hectic. I have two presentations on Tuesday, a big paper due on Wednesday, a quiz on Thursday, and a third presentation on the Monday after that. Daniel and I are going to Estes Park this weekend so I won't have that much time for homework. But thank goodness today was our last lecture in psychology. After today is just group presentations so I can start studying for the final. I took a biology test on Friday, and on Monday I found out that I got an A! I was so thrilled. I never ever expected to get an A. I was super nervous for it. So now my average is about a 90%. That makes this last test super important.

I am trying to pick up extra hours at work whenever I can. I am losing one shift because of Estes Park and two shifts because of the opera, so I want to make that up. I got two extra shifts this week so that helps. Every extra bit of money that I get is going straight into our savings account for Europe. I'm really hoping to get the RA job because then that will be $6000 that my grandparents are saving on my school that I'm sure they will put towards Europe. But Daniel and I are still trying to figure out how to pay for his part. His parents basically said that they won't give him any money. He has to raise it all on his own. I really really want him to go (obviously) so I am putting every extra dollar that I earn towards his trip. That's really hard because I am making a ton of money between my three jobs and putting a lot of it into our joint savings account. Daniel, on the other hand, has to borrow money from me just to pay his credit card bill. I'm okay with that because I love him and I know he needs help, but it's frustrating too. Sometimes I feel like I pay for everything. Once in a while it would be nice for him to take me out and pay for it himself. I have to give him credit for buying me a beautiful birthday cake though. It would be so much easier to build up a couple thousand dollars for Europe if two people were putting a couple hundred dollars in a month. Right now we both have committed to $50 a pay check, which is $100 a month. Obviously that won't accumulate enough to pay for the trip by itself, so we're counting on gifts from family at Christmas and extra income here and there from odd jobs to fill it in. But we're confident we can do it.

Thinking about all that money stuff is depressing. Even more depressing is my plans for halloween. I have to work. I should probably dress up to work at the desk, but I don't really have a costume and I don't want to buy one. Daniel is on duty so he can't go out either. I'm thinking I'll watch a bunch of movies. But not scary ones. I don't like scary movies.

I haven't gotten my absentee ballot yet and I'm a little concerned. But not enough to do anything about it I guess. I would feel terrible if I didn't vote, but I don't really know who to ask about my absentee ballot. On election night our school is opening up our big convention center and they are playing election coverage on the big huge media screen. Some of the political science professors are going to 'analyze' (like we need more of that) and they will have food and prizes and stuff. I think it will be fun. If I decide to go.