Thursday, October 23, 2008

The First Challenge


A lot can happen in a year. In fact, your entire life can change before your eyes within a year. I know mine has.

Last November, Rachel influenced me to go to Homespun Holidays, a half-day function at our church that involves craft classes, lunch, a garage sale, and a speaker. Rachel and I taught two classes, and for the third class, I went and stamped Christmas cards. This class forever changed my life. We only made three cards, but I enjoyed it so much. All of the sudden, I wanted to stamp. I went home that day and with gushing excitement told Steve that my new hobby would be stamping.

It took a little bit to get started. Stamps aren't cheap. And then you have to have ink (all sorts of colors) and paper (all sorts of colors as well) and accessories (like sparkly stuff and ribbon). My wonderful mother-in-law bought me a stamping set for Christmas, which was just enough to keep my interest alive.

Fast forward to this past summer. I decided to take a Stamping 101 class at UNM Continuing Education. Not only did I have a blast at the class and learn awesome techniques, but I met Amber, a Stampin' Up demonstrator. Next thing you know I'm committing to a ten month stamp club, attending stamp camp, and increasing my obsession and collection of stamps.

Recently, I was told about Split Coast Stampers, a stamping forum of wonder. Each day, they have a different challenge, and you make a card answering the challenge. Discovering this did not help my obsession.

Anyways, yesterday was a sketch challenge - they give me the layout and I make a card using that layout. Since it's Breast Cancer Awareness Month, there's another challenge to incorporate pink into your card. It took me two evenings and a canceled class to finish my card for the sketch challenge, but I finally finished tonight. I'm so excited!!! I heart stamps. I feel so accomplished. I totally want to quit my job and just stamp and scrapbook all day, every day.

Saturday, January 26, 2008

Real Quick

I forgot that said I would tell you how Laurie Notaro's Autobiography of a Fat Bride is. Quick review short, it wasn't as funny as the first book, but it was still quite entertaining, especially since I could identify with planning a wedding, being married, and buying a house. I still think she is a fabulous author and am looking forward to reading more of her books. The thing is, my mom bought me the Harry Potter series, and I think I'm going to concentrate on those for awhile. I shall return to Laurie. I shall.

Four More Years!!

No, I’m not rooting for George Bush for four more years. (I know that’s impossible anyways).

This past week, I started my first day of graduate school, which will take me four years to complete. I decided a while ago that I wanted, for some reason, to pursue an MBA with a concentration in marketing. After taking the GMAT, applying to UNM’s Anderson School of Management, getting accepted, and then fighting with UNM and trying to convince them that my name is NOT Carmelita Cereceres anymore, I went to my first day of class on Tuesday.

The whole UNM experience has been quite interesting so far. The more I deal with UNM, the more I realize just how well I had it at NM Tech. For example, you didn’t have to pay for parking at Tech. In fact, you could park right on campus for free! Right in front of the building you had class in if you were lucky. Personally, I could park at our house, which was two blocks from campus, and get to class in about 5-10 minutes depending on where I was going.

At UNM, free parking does not exist, and parking on campus is a bit tricky. I shelled out about $80 for a South Lot parking permit, which allows me to park at University Stadium (which is three miles south of campus) and ride the shuttle up to campus, where the shuttle will drop me off on the south side of campus and I have to walk completely across campus to my class. I’m trying not to complain, I really am, but after five years of being spoiled at Tech, it’s hard not to complain. The good thing in all this is that after 3:45, my parking permit become “universal” and I can park in almost any lot, including several on campus. Since my class is at 4, I think I will be able to find a parking spot in a nearby parking lot and just walk less than five minutes to class…I think! 

I won’t go describe ALL the differences that I’m experiencing, but I will say that my admission process to UNM has been hell. It got so bad last week, that I was actually thinking of disenrolling completely.

All that aside, I went to my first class on Tuesday. I was a bit in frantic mode from the beginning because I left work later than what I wanted to and was afraid I would be late (especially since I was planning on parking in South Lot and riding the shuttle). Luckily I found a parking spot not too far from my class. The next hurdle involved me finding my class. I went to the wrong building first, and then when I thought I found the building, I was hesitant that it was the right one because the sign called it something else. Once I decided the building was right, I realized that I had forgotten my class schedule and didn’t have the room number. Luckily, I’ve looked at it so many times that was about 90% sure that the class number was 230. In the end, I made it to class, on time, and in the right classroom.

I had 2 hours and 75 minutes of class, which I will spare you the details. I did experience a bit of culture shock, especially since the class is about 40 people, which 2/3 is female. I’m not used to being in such a big class dominated by women. My professor is awesome so far. I didn’t fall asleep in class, which says a lot, especially since I was in there for so long. (By the way, this class is called Statistical Analysis for Management Decisions). I made my first graduate school acquaintance, which turns out to be a roommate from an acquaintance at church (such a small world).

As of this writing, I have completed my first week’s homework, and am starting on next week’s. Figured I should get ahead now while I have the energy and time. Although I’m enjoying the homework so far, I’m still wondering if I can take four years of this along with working full-time. We’ll see how it goes.

Snowed In

It's like we were destined to not go to school today. I woke up to a beautiful 6 inches of snow in my yard. We are in the lower elevatio...