Last night I registered for my 3 Spring Classes. $2,167 for 9 credits. I'm going to have to make the first official transfer out of my six-month emergency fund to pay for it. Up till now I've only used my other savings.

This summer I'll take a 4 credit class, and then next fall I'll take 9 credits, and in the Spring 2011 I'll take a 3 credit class + the Capstone (1 week "course" where you write 3 1800- 2500 word essays - pass/fail). So, it looks good right now that I'll be able to graduate by May of 2011.

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Monday night I got home to find my landlady had acquired another dog! If you've seen the Legally Blonde movies, or Beverly Hills Chihuahua, then you'll have a good idea what the dog looked like -- except much, much skinnier/bonier. An old friend of hers showed up unannounced and told her that she couldn't take care of the dog anymore -she'd found it in a Wal-mart parking lot - and she wanted my landlady to take it.

So ... she took it. It was a very sweet and affectionate and extremely needy (male) dog - probably about six-years old and possibly used as a breeding dog (ahem..certain er.. actions constantly repeated around the female (spayed)dog Nikki ...)

Landlady put an ad on Craigslist on Tuesday, and today someone followed through and came and picked him up. His name was Bruno the Bruiser, but I thought a more appropriate name for him would be Shadow. (as in wherever the main human went he went, or wherever Nikki went, he went (until she growled at him))

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Not much else going on really. Classes are winding down. I'm still working on putting together my barefoot running paper, and have two assignments left in another class, and then a practice exam in a third class. I'm getting a few extra hours at work tomorrow, and again on Wednesday - which will be helpful since Thursday and Friday we'll be closed.

Just over a month till I see my brother again! I am really, really, really looking forward to that!

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This weekend I'm planning on putting some more hours in at the animal shelter. On Sunday I want to finish a rough draft of my running paper so my mom can help me proof it over Thanksgiving.

Yesterday afternoon I went to the no-kill animal shelter. I spent about 2 1/2 hours walking/interacting with 5 dogs. The last dog I took out was a 1 yr old large Chihuahua named Penny. She was so funny/sweet. As soon as I got her outside, she started running towards this garden area and jumped up on a bench and sat down. So, I sat down next to her, and she jumped up on my lap. We sat there for the next 45 minutes. Finally, I had to get up and take her back inside. I think she'd have been perfectly happy to have stayed much longer.

After Penny, I went into the cat room and petted cats for about 30 minutes.

I might go back on Wednesday, depending on how much I get done on my running paper.

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I stopped at the library today to pick up two James Patterson books on CD which were on hold. One is "Alex Cross's Trial" and the other is "Swimsuit." I've loaded the first into iTunes, and am working on the second one.

I also put my name on the hold list for another James Patterson book, "I, Alex Cross" which isn't out in stores yet. (I came across a free excerpt of it in iTunes - didn't even know he had a new one!)

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Heading towards the library it had been looking a little dark, which I'd thought was weird because it was only 3:30 or so. When coming out of the library, I found out why it'd been getting dark. It was pouring rain! I was completely soaked from head to toe on my way to my car.

Fun! Luckily I'd taken the dogs for their walk already.

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I stopped at Dollar General to pick up some body wash's and spray deodorant for the gym. Unfortunately I couldn't get them, because their card machine was down and they could only take cash. I hope E actually got the supplies I told him we were out of!

After work today I stopped at Wal-mart to get groceries. In the back they had a rack with a bunch of things on major discount.

I got 3 cans of new potatoes for $.34/each, two tubes of Total toothpaste for $1, and 3 3-packs of Trident gum marked $1/each.

When I checked out, the total was *much* higher than I thought it was going to be. There were a lot of people behind me, so I didn't want to challenge it at the register. After paying, I stopped by the door and checked my receipt.

Sure enough, the gum had been charged at $2.97 each.

So I stopped at Customer Service. Thankfully there was no line. The person gave me one free, and then took of $4 for the other two. In total, I received back $6.38.

Today was a good reminder to *always* check your receipt.

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I downloaded an audio book from my library's website a couple days ago called "Chocolate Beach" by Julie Carabino. I've been listening to it - mostly Thursday, then in the car during my commute, and finally finished it today.

It was really good, and funny, and sweet. I could've read the hard copy much faster, but it was kind of nice to be able to just lay back and close my eyes and let the words flow over me.

Brianna is a beach loving, Christian mom of one teenage son who is married to an extremely busy attorney. She works as a tour leader for a bus tour company in Ventura, CA. One night at Bunco, one of the ladies at her table makes a catty remark which becomes a catalyst for many changes in her life. Oh, and yes, chocolate is mentioned often, and even plays a semi-important role. Yum.

So E asked me to open the gym today. He's put the time clock from the location that's closing here. Blech!

J, the lady who reccommended me for the job came in a bit ago. As I figured when I didn't get a call yesterday nor an email- didn't get the job. The lady they hired started yesterday. Apparently. shed been laid off for a year and could start right away.

She probably had more exp. and the fact she didn't need to give a notice ....

Oh well. It wouldve been nice if they had let me know yesterday. Guess it tells me I'm better off not getting the job. With only 5 cannidates it isn't that hard to at least send an email.

So tonight I'm going to go ahead and register for the 3 classes. I think I'm also going to look more into the ideas of tutoring or working with housebound kids.

I kind of wish I hadn't even tried for this.

It's life, right?

Tonight I attended the orientation meeting at the local no-kill shelter. There were about 12 women varying from 14 to 60's in the group. We were taken on a tour of the facilities, and got to go in the kitty room and the cat room, as well as the small dog and large dog rooms.

There was a couple Siamese cats that were just adorable. And there was a 10 year old Maltese who just looked so sad. Can you imagine a 10 year old dog in a shelter? How likely is it he'll ever be adopted? I'm almost tempted ... just so he'll have a home, even if only for a few years.

You don't have to sign up for particular times, just show up when you have time and they're open.

I need to volunteer at least 8 hours, and then I can take another training session to learn how to train the dogs to do various tricks and commands. Or, I can also take another class to work with the big dogs.

The shelter is about a 20 minute drive, so it's not something I could go to on a whim, but maybe once a week would be doable.

I'm really looking forward to spending time with the animals there.

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Today B, one of my co-workers at the gym told me he tried to cash his paycheck today (the one that was over a week late) and he couldn't. His check was about the same as mine. I deposited mine yesterday.

Oh joy. I wonder how long it'll be till I find out how far it bounced? At least I found out the great possibility *before* I started moving money out of the account!

I obtained the list of children and young adult books that I will have to read for one of my classes next semester, and today read one of the high-school level ones.

It is called "If I Stay" and is by Gayle Forman. A very powerful book about the love of family, and the choices we all make. The main character is a 17 year old girl named Mia. I would not recommend reading this if you are in a sad mood. I also would suggest a box of tissues nearby.
It's short, less than 200 pages, but very well worth reading.

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I stopped by the library today to print out some discussion guide questions for the books I'm reading for my class. (We have to post thoughts about the books and do blog posts - so I'm taking notes as I go to be prepared.)

I was going to print out the booklist, but it was 15 pages long, and at $.15 per page, just not worth it.

I checked to see if there were any books on running that I could use as a source for my project, but there weren't any usable ones. I do have "Born To Run" by Christopher McDougal on hold, which will be a great source.

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I also stopped by Wal-mart and by Payless to check out any shoes they had to replace my sandals. Wal-mart had a slim selection of sandals for $5, but none of them fit my wide feet. Payless had some, but all of them had way too much heel to be a comfortable walking shoe.

I was going to stop by the Dollar General, but breezed right past it on the way home without realizing it. (It is less than 1/4 block from my street.)

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I stopped by the bank to deposit my gym paycheck and the check from my dad (iPhone fees). I attempted to do both checks via the drive up ATM, but it couldn't read my dad's check. So, I had to go inside to deposit it. Not painful, just annoying.

I also pulled out the $30 I need to bring tomorrow when I go to my orientation meeting at the no-kill animal shelter.

I am feeling uber exhausted right now - maybe left over from Saturday? - but need to have much more energy for tomorrow night!

My sandals which I have been wearing now for about three years have recently developed quarter size holes in the mid-foot area. The only reason I can think of is that as I have been learning and practicing barefoot running with a mid-foot strike instead of a heel strike, my walking has also become more mid-foot.

So, since I still haven't gone and replaced the $5 sandals yet, when I took the dogs out today for their walk I wore a pair of ballet flat shoes. About half-way in my pinkie toe on my right foot was really being rubbed the wrong way. So, I took my shoes off and walked barefoot the rest of the way.

I got a few strange looks from passing cars, but the majority of the sidewalk was free from debris, and I was enjoying myself quite a bit.

I put Kayla back in the house, and took Nicki back out for our second walk. Shortly after starting, I just felt like running! So, we ran.

On our way back, Nikki actually was acting like *maybe* I'd succeeded in tiring her out just a little bit and was actually keeping almost pace with me. So, I put a little burst of speed on, and of course, found out she wasn't so tired. She did NOT want to let me run ahead of her.

It was truly a beautiful day, and I was really happy to have a chance to do some barefooting. With all the rainy/cold days we were having for awhile, I had stopped doing my barefoot runs and gotten out of the habit.

I'm planning on doing my final paper for one of my classes on barefoot running - how to get started, why it's better for you than shod running, things to watch for, etc. If anyone's interested, I can put it up as a google doc *after* it's graded. (I wouldn't want my professor to google it to see if I copied some other source and find it already online!!)

Financially speaking, barefooting is great on the pocketbook. No shoes to buy!

If you are interested, a great place to read up on it is at Runner's World online in the Barefoot Running forum.

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In yesterday's mail I got my $50 gift card from mypoints for Walmart. That pretty much wiped out all my points. I may use it for some clothes for work (if I get the job) or for groceries, then put the same amount into savings.

If nothing happens to my car this month, I think that this will be the first month since January of this year that I'll actually be able to put money into savings!!!!

Although ... I need to register for my classes for Spring semester, and they usually require a portion upfront. Well... at least I won't have to take out the full amount from savings for it!!

Last Monday the gym manager E asked me what I was doing this weekend. I told him I didn't have any plans. He then told me that they were closing one of our three locations due to the building that location is in wanting to start charging rent. (Apparently their business model includes not paying rent, but just managing a fitness center for the building.) Then he said that they would need help moving. I told him I would be willing to help.

I forgot to ask which day he was planning on this move. Ooops. It turned out that it was Saturday. He knows that I go to church on Saturday, so when he got back to me with the day, he asked me if I could come by 2:30.

Because I had already said I would help, I didn't want to back out on my word. So, I agreed to be there by 2:30.

I've mentioned before that I'm a Seventh-day Adventist. Our beliefs on the day of worship is similar to Jews, in that Sabbath is from Friday sundown to Saturday sundown. Working for money, watching t.v. etc., is not part of that time.

So, I decided to consider this an "ox in the ditch" situation, and also not accept any pay for the time I put in. (He was going to pay me my regular hourly wage.)

Well, when I got there at 2:25 there was NO ONE else there, except for him. Earlier that day one of the male "sometimes worker" and his son had come for a few hours and helped him load the heavy equipment, but everyone else had not been willing to come help. His dad, the owner, was at home "supervising" some contract work being done on their house.

So, about 2:30 I started loading up all the boxes of books (the dad/owner had co-written a book a number of years ago - there were LOTS of copies still left unsold.) About 4:30 his dad came and started to pack his office down. By about 5:15 I had finished bringing all the boxes in the gym out to the truck where E had been loading them. About that same time another helper M showed up. He helped E take down and load one last piece of equipment.

About 6:30 we finally got in the truck and headed out to the storage facility (after stopping at Taco Bell for food and drink.) A 10 minute trip took about 45 minutes because of a semi overturned in the ditch.

We finally get to the storage place, and unload everything that was to go in the "dry" building (non-climate controlled.)
About 7:30 S, E's now maybe ex-girlfriend (long story) showed up to help.

Then we started to look for the climate controlled unit. After 20 minutes of fruitless searching, we figure out that E had mixed up the numbers! He called the storage place's manager and worked it out.

About 8:00 we started unloading the book boxes into the climate controlled unit. About 9:30 M left. We closed the door of the storage unit, and the rental truck a little bit after 11 p.m.

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It was a LONG day, but the weather was perfect for it, and I feel good that I decided to help. If I hadn't shown up to help, he probably would not have finished before 5 or 6 this morning! Every muscle in my body aches, and I slept really, really well last night.

E joked that he'd have to be sure to hire all Seventh-day Adventists because they wouldn't accept pay for working on Saturday's. I told him that might be a good idea, except that it'd be hard to find one who'd work on a Saturday in the first place. (unless unusual circumstances)

I did tell him though that he can be expecting a phone call from me around May to help me move wherever I end up going then.

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Oh, I also finally got my paycheck yesterday. (One week late with a $20 bonus for it's lateness.)

Above is a picture of me in my new suit just before heading off to my interview. K, the person who took over at the gym took the picture.

Overall the interview went pretty well. I answered the questions fairly easily, and the interviewer seemed to like me.

Near the end she told me that one thing they were looking for is someone who can look her in the eye and say they'll be there two years. I told her that I could say that with confidence, because my master's program will take that long (especially if I'm working a real full-time job.)

She then told me that if I was truly interested, that she had a test she wanted me to take. A test only given to candidates she feels are a good possibility.

oh, she also asked me if I thought I'd get bored up there, having a degree, etc. I told her that I had done a similar job at TO, and hadn't been bored.

Ok, now the test. Ugh!

First 20 questions were pretty normal ..
Gave me a list of 4 words and I had to mark the word in each set that least/most described me. Ok, no problem.

THEN there were FIVE Analogies!!!! Errghhh!!!!

white is to black: blue is to ____

5 - 66: 7 - ___

Then there were Five questions about completing patterns.

One example: 298, 209, 129, 58, -4, ___

Another: A, F, Z, U, G, L, T

My eyes were bugging out!

Then to complete my fun ... 10 statements which I had to say if I Strongly Agreed, Mildly Agreed, Agreed, Mildly Disagreed, Disagreed, and Strongly Disagreed.

One statement said: I never miss an event in a series I've subscribed to.

At first I was like, what in the world?!
Then I realized they probably meant like a symphony series or a playhouse series where you can "subscribe" for a season. Well... if I could afford to subscribe to a series, darn right I'd not miss any that I'd paid for!!! But I figured out they were looking for attitudes of rigidity or judgmentalness, so I put "mildy disagreed."

When I was finished, she told me that there are four other people they are looking at, and they should make a decision by next Wednesday or so.

Oh, forgot.. benefits

Paid health insurance
Paid long term disability
Paid 15k life insurance
401k 50% of every dollar to 5% :bug eyes:
8 pd holidays including Good Friday

I didn't bring up about my upcoming vacation. I couldn't find a good way to bring it up. If the offer the job to me, then I'll tell them. Maybe something like "I'm interested in the job, however, I have a trip over the holidays which has been planned and paid for since early October. Is that going to be a problem?"

We didn't discuss salary, so I'm not sure what that'll be. Though I imagine it will be more than min wage!

Thanks everyone for your well wishes and encouragement. Ya'll are awesome.

I have an interview scheduled for Friday at 1:30!

It would be awesome to get this - no more late or bounced paychecks! ( still no paycheck for the 2nd - supposedly will get it tomorrow. )

Monday night I stopped at Ross and bought a suit, a business casual outfit, and a new pair of dressy shoes. Total: $60

I needed the suit because none of mine fit right now. It was only $15. The outfit I'll need if I get the job - if I don't get it, I'll take it back. The shoes - my only pair of dress heels have part of the sole coming off -so not a good thing to wear to an interview.

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I finally heard back from the no-kill shelter I applied to volunteer at. I'll be going to an orientation meeting on Tuesday night. I'm looking forward to that!

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I also heard back from the receptionist job I sent a resume in for on Monday night. The contact asked me to fill out an attached application - only there was no attachment! So I replied to her, and she sent me the attachment yesterday.

I printed it out today and typed it out at the library. They didn't have a fax or a scanner. I attempted to find a Kinko's, but after fruitlessly driving around for 30 minutes, decided to wait till tomorrow and fax it from work.

Tonight I got an email asking me for an interview tomorrow at 1:30. I had to say I couldn't do it - I work from 9 to 6:30 tomorrow, and 1:30 is potentially a busy time period at the gym.

Hopefully she'll take the 1:30 slot on Friday I said I could do (would have to get K to come in early, but she usually has no problem doing that.)

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Today was my brother's 29th birthday! I called him and sang Happy Birthday. Then he told me that he'd just been showing a friend of his my video text I'd sent him a couple weeks ago, when the phone rang. Spooky.

I told him about dad buying the Wii for Grandma. He was pretty impressed too.

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I made macaroni and cheese for supper tonight. I'd thought about it before, but hadn't wanted to open up a Rice Dream (milk sub). Tonight though I really wanted some, so I opened up a box. I'd never tried it without real milk - it was yummy. (For added protein I nuked a Bocca Veggie Chicken Patty and tore it up.)

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The gym I work at is closing one of our three locations. E asked me on Monday if I had plans this weekend. When I told him I didn't, he said he might need some help with moving. I thought that he meant *he* would be moving. But I found out later that it was moving their stuff out of the closing gym location.

I'm not sure how much help I'll be - but I'll be on the clock, so the extra bit will be nice.

(in March they're supposed to be opening a brand new facility -- should be interesting)

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paychecks were late this week because E and his parents (check signers) were out of town. To make up for it, they've added $20. I'll have to see my check tomorrow to see if the money actually was added.

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I was accused of being rich on Monday - by the lady who takes the 3 - 7 shift. I had said something about the paychecks being late being more of an annoyance than a hardship. I had a real good laugh about being accused of being rich.

(It was kind of one of those under the breath things - not really directed towards her - just commenting out loud {I think I spend too much time alone sometimes} - she's not really someone I like all that much, though I suspect the feelings mutual -- K on the other hand who comes in on Tuesdays and Fridays, is a sweetheart {frugal} and we get along really well)

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This was my first Halloween since I've been out on my own that I've had a chance to see a lot of kids/costumes. Usually where I've lived there were very few trick or treaters that came by.

Here, we probably had close to 70!! My landlady had to go out and buy more candy because she'd made candy packs for 35 kids.

I'm not sure why, but she pretty much let me be the one to answer the door and hand out the candy. I didn't mind, because it was cool seeing the variety of costumes (and ages!), but I thought it was kind of weird.

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I'm really trying to get back into the mindset of making my food and not just nuking it. It's just so easy to nuke the burrito or the Lean Cuisine - little cleanup and little fuss. But that mindset isn't helping my food budget much. So, the past couple nights I've been actually *cooking* supper! I made quinoa M and T, and then of course tonight, mac and cheese.

I'm going to try to keep the frozen meals just for lunches, and do actual cooking for suppers. Maybe eventually I'll cut out the frozens for lunch as well ... I got back into some bad habits....

Today I was talking to my dad about Christmas plans. We have all agreed that we're NOT going to exchange gifts this year, but that instead we're going to *do* things together. It's been a long time since my brother and I and Dad have all been in the same place at the same time, so that is an amazing gift all by itself.

However, what surprised me was this: Dad bought Grandma a Wii for Christmas!!!

Apparently they were at the gym (where grandma has a free membership due to being over 75) and they wandered over into the video game room. Grandma was playing this bowling game and just loving it. So my dad asked what it was ... it was the Wii.

I told him he's going to have to ask my brother to bring some of his games with him (he has a Wii) and we'll probably end up spending a lot of time playing with it.

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Mostly spent today working on schoolwork and laundry.

When I had the dogs on their walk this afternoon we came across this lady walking three small dogs. We stopped and let each other's dogs sniff each other. It would've been fine, but she had to go and make not one, but three! comments about Kayla's weight! (the pudgy Beagle/Basset) Seriously, one comment is more than enough -- especially when my response was "Yep, that's why we're out walking."

Oh well, more than likely will never see her again.

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Even though it's only 9 pm right now I'm feeling as though it's 10 and am ready to hit the hay. Was thinking of watching a movie, but nothing sounded really appealing. Maybe I'll start a book ... but that's dangerous to do at 9 pm .... hummm..