i'm taking a little break...

i'm taking a little break from my homework...i just did a report on amphetamines and learned a heck of a lot more than i ever knew about drugs in general, i think...i haven't had much experience with drugs...so this class i'm taking has been a real eye-opener for me...it's called addictions and family dynamics, and it explores how families are impacted when someone in the family has an addictions -- drugs, alcohol, eating disorders, gambling, or sexual addictions...and maybe a few things in between, too...

goodness, before this class started i automaticall thought of drugs and/or alcohol when i heard the word addiction....i didn't even really think to associate it with food/eating, gambling, pornography, video games, or anything like that...

so even that has been stretching me and causing me to change my thinking to a certain extent...

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it's grey and rainy here today, and part of me is glad...because i have all of this homework to do, i needed to have as few distractions/reasons to put it off yet again as possible...it is, after all, due monday...i work monday morning until 11:30 then i have a few things i'll be doing then i've got a doctor's appointment and then class...so working on it last minute monday would be out of the question, really...and tomorrow my morning at least will be tied up with church...and then sometimes things come up sunday afternoons - invitations to go out to eat, or an invitation to go to a neighbour's house to go visit or just going out with my mom and doing something....so, i made today my "do homework at all costs" day...

ideally, i'd really like to be out fishing right now, but the weather is not really the best for such an activity...and also, again, there's the whole homework factor...

i guess if you have to be stuck inside doing homework, you may as well be stuck inside doing homework on a rainy day...

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anyways, i still have another small report to do, so i need to work on that...and i've also got two academic journal entries i must do today as well...

last week, i was realy, really bad...i did some of my homework during the sermon sunday morning at church....nobody really caught on to what i wa doing, for all they knew, i was taking noties...but what i was actually doing was writing in a notebook some thoughts/ideas for one of my entries for my academic journal....

i promised myself that i wouldn't pull that stunt again, so i really need to buckle down and get with the program here...

it's been rough because i started back to work at the same time i started going back to classes, so i'm really trying to find that delicate balance, plus have enough time to do the thins i want to do/need to do for my own health and sanity...

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have a great weekend everyone....i'll try and post more when i can...

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how i woke up this morning: a friend of mine, patrice, phoned me to thank me for some cd's i made for her...(i felt bad sleeping in so late -- 9:30!!...but i mist have needed it...i've not gotten to bed before midnight almost all week...)

and ...

one good thing that happened today: i had a male monarch butterfly hatch in my house...when is wings were dried off enough, i placed him on the pulley clothes line, under the little overhang that comes off the porch over the cement steps...i figured there he wouldn't get rained on, but he could be outside when he decided he wanted to take flight....

so, i've decided to jump on board with blogspot...

so...i've decided to jump on board with blogspot...i have this insane need/desire to write, and sometimes i don't want to write on my myspace blog, and my poor xanga is terribly neglected...blogspt seems much more user-friendly and seems also to be primarily for blogging more than anything...which i know xanga is also, but i like this a lot better...it loads faster for me (no joke) ... and that's hugely important since i have an almost-slow-as-molasses-going-uphill-in-winter dial up connection...on a "good" day i can connect at 26.4 kbps...usually it's 24.0 kbps...undoubtedly tough for a college student who need to do research, but a small price to pay for living where i do...i'm less than 500 feet away from a convient fishing spot (though due to the convience of it, it's not always a "good" fishing spot" ...) i've been visited in my yard by moose, bears, deer, foxes, coyotes, and the neighbours dogs and cats...i'm 8 and 1/2 miles from an active eagle's nest....in the spring time i only need go about a mile and a half and i can fish a spot where the red winged black birds are hanging out and will often vocalize (loudly, too!!) ...

i can sit in the living room and look out the window and see birds...i have robins, blue jays, starlings, crows, warblers, sparrows, and other passerines nesting on the property....it's a little slice of heaven, these 5 & 1/2 acres that i live on with my mother....

i love living out in the middle of nowhere...where only really good friends would even bother to look for/find you....i love living in a town with only 300-something residents and knowing my neighbours...

it more than makes up for slow internet...(besides, i can always go to the college and use the DSL there if i want to have faster internet...)

anyways...i'm exhausted...it's been a long week for me, but over all, a very good one, i think...

i had dinner with a good friend last night, and that was certainly one of the highlights of my week...quite possibly the top highlight....

another highlight was spending some time with my sister, who is 22 years older than i am, and who i sometimes have a bit of a hard time relating to....i think what we had this week was the start of something new in our lives...she's seeing me now as an adult, not at the "baby sister" ....a few other people in my family have started to make that change recently -- have started to see that i'm taking myself seriously and that's been an interesting thing to have happen....

(on a side note i think it's the first time my sister and i have done something with just the two of us in over ten years...so it was really different...)

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one more thing -- today on the way home from work, i saw a lone canada goose flying....

i love seeing nature things...it seems like i almost always have something fun that i'm seeing...twice in the last 6 weeks i've seen a white tailed deer....thankfully i haven't seen any moose...(i love them, but they're so dangerous!!...) ... also, monday evening on my way home from a class in conway, i saw a beautiful big red fox by the AMC visitor center in the notch...

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okay, now i really think i'm going to sign off...i'm tired, and i need my rest...this weekend i've got oodles of homework i must attend to, and so if i can catch up on my sleep, it will make homework go much smoother....

have a wonderful weekend, everyone...

ramona anne