How well do you know Cheri?

Facebook can be fun sometimes. There is an application with which you can create a quiz about yourself, and invited friends to take it. I did just that, and the highest score was 50%. I thought I would use that quiz to create some posts about me. I mean, why not. If you want to take the quiz first before reading about why the answer was what it was go here.

I will start the posts not in numerical order, but in order of the questions that I felt had the most interesting results. And that just so happens to bring us to question #1.

1. If I won the lottery, what is the craziest thing I would do?
a. Throw $1 bills out of an airplane
b. Buy an energy efficient smart car
c. Shovel change into a wishing well
d. Quit my job and go back to school - permanently
e. Buy the local movie theaters for free movie days

Ok. Most people thought the answer to this question was d: quit my job and go back to school - permanently. But that isn't crazy! It isn't is it? Well, it doesn't seem that crazy to me. I would do it. But I don't think it's crazy. I would also b: buy an energy efficient smart care. Definitely. That isn't crazy either - at all I say. I would also try my best to e: buy out all of the local movie theaters, which all happen to be owned by one man. I hate his monopoly, and I would have free movie days - for everyone. Crazy? Perhaps, but it would be fun. The only one that I would not do in these choices is a: throw $1 bills out of an airplane. I would throw myself out of an airplane, but throwing the money would just be wasteful in my opinion. Crazy, yes. Wasteful, yes. Fun, no. That leaves the answer. C. Shovel change into a wishing well. I think that would be crazy! There is some commercial on tv about not throwing money away and it shows a woman shoveling money into a wishing well. It's crazy, but I would do it! I would make sure the money in the well went to a charity, of course. It's crazy because shoveling change would be like running your fingernails down a chalk board. But imagine all the strange looks people would give you! Totally worth it.

Next time, I'll talk about my favorite food.

Graduate school

Well, I got a letter from ISU today. It was one of those response letters letting you know whether you were going to be accepted or not. I know I had a great GPA, and some great letters of recommendation. I even had the head of the psychology department urging me to do it. My GRE scores sucked, however. I remember crying all the way home from LeGrande Oregon because I only got low 500s on both the qualitative and quantitative. And I procrastinated for a long time. I guess I just wasn't sure this was something I could do. I just wasn't sure I deserved it. I was wrong. I got accepted! That's right! I got a letter today congratulating me, informing me that I was chosen for the program. I was also chosen to get a teaching assistantship in which my tuition was paid, I have health coverage, and I will be paid a little over $9000/yr for being a teaching assistant for 20 hours a week!

To be honest, I was really surprised at how excited I was. It was just Monday night that I was dragging my butt from store to store looking for french combs (with no success) thinking about this job I have. I have clients I love and some that break my heart. But even on my best week (last week) I only got in 34 hours - and that was definitely a fluke. This week, I already have 4 hours of cancelled appointments, so no 30 hr week this week. I was thinking that I really wasn't getting anything for going to school and working so hard. I was kicking myself for not working harder to study the math part of the gre. I thought I knew that stuff well enough - but I didn't. And my daughter is in Boise, and I miss her. It was one of those doldrum moments that feels like it will never pass.

Then Megan called when I got home, she missed me too. We started talking about foster kids and parents and how the experience I am getting now really helps me to see things from all perspectives. The only people who really lose are the kids. No matter what - even when things turn out for the best, the children are the ones who have to pay the piper. They learn a set of behaviors in one place, have to learn new behaviors in another, and then often in more places. People say children are resilient. Damn it sucks when they have to be. Some day, I would really like to be a foster parent. I think I'd be good at it. I'd take the really hurt children. I'd help them work through the pain.

But I digress. When I got the letter the congratulations didn't even register at first. I had to read more of the letter to actually get what it was saying. I starting jumping up and down and screaming, and running around the house. I was all alone of course. This feels so right for me! I didn't even know how much I had let myself want this.

Just think, I can have my master's before Terry Devereaux gets up for parole! Oh, I didn't tell you about Jacob Vasques! He was up for parole last month and didn't get it. I didn't even send in a statement about him or anything and he didn't get it. That was reassuring. It means Terry probably doesn't have a snowballs chance.

But I digress. I am going to graduate school. I feel really happy and hopeful right now. Self soothing techniques work pretty well when I am stressed, but oh they feel so sweet when I am happy. And I had some good news last week too, just not quite as unexpectedly happy. The house my dad was building passed its last inspection. I can start moving in any time I'm ready. It is such a nice house too. I will have an art studio downstairs right next to the exercise room. There are two bedrooms downstairs. Right now, one will be set up as a guest room for when Megan and Steve and future children come to visit. The other will likely be a storage room where I will put a freezer and stuff like that. And shelves so that my dad and I can stack junk up to the ceiling.

But I digress. This post is supposed to be about acceptance into graduate school, not about apricots getting ripe in the back yard right now (Megan), or neighbors down the street yelling at their kids to stop it right now (they need psr), or getting out of this stinking back stabbing feud ridden neighborhood, or finding the french comb I did have, or anything else like that.

It's about getting accepted into graduate school. Oh yeah! It's sweet. I'm going now.

July post (one of one or many?

Well, the 4th of July happened last Saturday. I am only getting around to posting it today.

Megan, her husband Steve, Zach and I all went to Buhl for the Sagebrush day's fun run/walk. It was Zach's first competitive run since the half marathon. He only started training for it a few weeks ago, but he did pretty good anyway, coming in above the 50% mark. Steve was first in his age-group. Megan and I were suffering from overuse injuries obtained while following a runner's world beginning running training schedule. I will start training again when I am all healed, just not using this training schedule. She and I walked. We didn't walk very fast at first, but when we did, I had a heck of a time keeping up with her. She walks fast! We passed tons of people in the end, yet we still didn't place very well. I really think a lot of those people who were supposed to be walking started out running. That's cheating of course, but I am pretty sure they did.



When the race was over, we came to my house where I barbecued a rack of pork ribs. The kids went to get my dad, and that took longer than we thought it would, so the ribs were over-done, but still good. The corn was $.10 and ear at the new Walmart, so I got some. It wasn't too bad, small, but good.

We visited for a long time, then Steve and Megan went home. Zach took a nap, and then we went to CSI for the fireworks show. I had taken some advice from the internet. I think this advice was meant for places where the wind doesn't blow. I practiced the night before on some little fireworks Zach bought. I thought some of them turned out ok, grainy, but cool anyway. I thought I knew what I was doing when I headed off to the big show. My pictures there were all blurry, apparently I have no idea what the hyperfocal distance is, and the ones where the f-stop was set higher than 8 didn't look like fireworks at all. So, the pictures were disappointing, but, there is always next year.

The house my dad is building for me, is nearly ready for inspection. I have to convince Zach to come help us weld some grates for the window wells, the driveway has been poured, and it will be all good. My dad is really hoping to be done with it so that he can get on with his retirement, which will be filled with fixing up vintage cars, of course.

I thought I would be making good money this summer. I was wrong. It is hard to get people to keep their appointments in the summer time. They get so busy having fun I guess. They must think they don't need me so much. When school starts, I won't have enough time to fit them all in after school. Figures.

Zach and I went for a walk in Rock Creek canyon a few weeks before the fun run. I took pictures, but didn't like then when I got home. They aren't the best, but some are kind of cool. I really need to find more time to play with camera settings and really learn how this thing works. I like the picture of the shy snake as he rushed away to the creek. Zach spotted it. I just took pictures until it was gone. The robin was also hard to photograph. I think he was pretty sure I wanted him for dinner. The roses were pretty that day and smelled wonderful.

I am also in the mid to end stages of the daisy painting I have been working on for some years. I bought the pretty little daisies because Megan said she like them so much. Then I took pictures of them (all with the old camera) and found one I thought would look good painted. I then printed it out, laid a graph on it, then transferred the shape to a canvas that had been prepared by painting a black background with a rectangle of green leaf shapes. Then I blocked in the flower and left it for a couple of years. now I have revived the project and I think I am going to like the outcome. It was funny how the flower changed shapes with the picture taken from different perspectives. It really does seem to be coming out of the canvas. It is a fun project for me right now. The dragon I drew for a client. I gave it to him for meeting his goals. It's kind of weird looking, isn't it?

I have another project I need to get started on. I have to learn how to crochet baby booties and blankets. Not just for pregnant clients either. Megan has conceived. The due date should be on her birthday. Fingers crossed.

Wow, blogger is weird today. I couldn't move my pictures without a lot of trouble, then spellcheck said some words were spelled wrong and gave me alternatives that were exactly what I had typed! What is going on?!?