just me in the office this whole week and i've been bored out of my mind. well, i'm working here and there finding things to do/catch up on or staggering it out for the week otherwise i literally will fall asleep at my desk every day.
just registered for my classes yesterday. i'm still somewhat anxious but it'll be good (at least that's what i keep telling myself). i went to lunch with an acquaintance who will be graduating from the same grad program--just so i can pick her brain and know what to kind of expect. unfortunately, she isn't and hasn't had a good experience. but it was still good to talk and hear her experience--good or bad.
it's very beneficial that i work here on-campus as well....i asked another acquaintance about financial aid and my paperwork and she answered my questions and added that she was also in the program (congratulated me on my acceptance into grad school) and offered me her textbooks for my use if i happen to be using the same ones! Yes, I just looked online yesterday and I'll need about 4-5 books with a bill rounding about $200. It's not a ton but that's just this summer session. I'll take any and all free offers, donations, materials I can get. Good to me. I sent her my list of textbooks and she'd go through and see if she has what I need. Awesome!
I've been missing out on the gym these two weeks. Bad, I know. I have been bz w my kids, grad school stuff, prepping for summer, and spring cleaning at the house. they're doing some smoke alarm and other house inspection stuff tomorrow and we need to clean the house--badly! Yesterday afternoon i took it upon myself to start in the basement. it's a fire hazard having my mom's stuff in the lil corridor by the basement stairs. they've asked us/her to clear the area twice now and she still hasn't done anything. it's hard explaining to my mother of her "habits". Though she thinks it's not a big deal with her "stuff" (bags and bags of blankets, pillows, sheets, pillow cases, and random fabric for her quilting and spools and spools of colored string) 'set aside' she doesn't understand that such things are a fire hazard (the materials itself--the furnace is on the other side of the wall) and that it's taken up the entire corridor underneath the stairs which is said to be the "safe zone" for tornadoes or other severe emergencies. When we owned the house she could do and have things however she wanted but now that we don't own it we have to abide by the landlord which she does not understand. I nicely tried to tell her about the basement as well as her room (which she has things stacked up along her walls like a fortress with extension cords lined up the whazoo, which again, is a fire hazard! She of course thinks nothing of it.
OG Hmong folks mang, hoarders like mad crazy!
Funny though, bc I say all this and as i was cleaning, rearranging, and organizing her stuff last night--i looked to throw things out but felt bad doing it. I didn't want to throw everything away (though it would be a good thing i also know the more room u make the more she's going to find something to fill up the space with) but kept what i thought was in good condition and what she had dups up. Luckily she only saw the first few things i threw in the garbage pile. If she came and saw all that i had collected (8 huge garbags bags worth) she'd probably yell at me (that i didn't love her and was being mean) and would have gone through and kept a good 2/3 of it.
Sadly, we're just getting started. Gotta do it though--as I told her. "If you don't like it then do you not want to live in here anymore? They will evict us if we don't do what they say. Remember, it's not our house anymore--if we want to live here then we must do what they tell us." She didn't want to hear what I had to say but knowing that she didn't say anything she knew I was right. Usually when my mom and I "talk" she's always going off on me and yelling at me (yes, we have THAT kind of a relationship--we always have) but this time she didn't say much other than having a stinky face bc not only was I right but she had to get rid of her crap. LOL As much as we don't get along I am more sensitive to her than my brother. I wanted to break the news to her as nice and rational as I could instead of having him talk to her. What would he have done? "Mom, lawv kom koj muab koj cov khoom pov tseg na. Sw sw tsev lawv tsis nyiam na".....and two days later after she comes home from work she'd find that he tossed everything out (not out back in the garbage--he'd take it to a dumpster so she wouldn't be able to drag it back to the house). He's done it before and she was devastated. I'm not that cruel--even if he was right. There's a nice and simple way to do things w/o making others feel like crap. My brother is very cut-throat....he's usually right but his execution is very cut-throat. Oh well. Good thing I got to her first.
