Back on track

Looking back over my blog, I realized I have gotten distracted from the whole idea I had initially wanted it for-- mainly career tracking. It's almost been 6 months since I started working in the cafe, and I am longing to move on to the next part of my life. I enjoy my job right now, but I need something that challenges me so I feel like I am learning significantly. I want to start my internship so badly. Let me back up... I want to get in to and internship so badly!

I went to the Internship Open House at Benedictine University on Thursday, 1/6. I left wondering if I should even bother applying. In college, my grades were not fabulous and I did pretty terrible on the standardized test. I still meet the minimum requirements for the program, to the best of my knowledge, but yet its just the bare minimum. There are 9 spots left to fill in their program, and about 50-60 applicants by Feb. 15th. They toss out any application that does not met the minimum requirements and then rank the applicants on scores and grades. Experience comes in last. I have so much to offer, and I wish that that could shine through beyond my less-than-stellar academic performance. I'll have to write a rockin' personal statement to draw them in.

Tomorrow I am bringing in my letter of reference for my boss to fill out for the graduate program application. I wrote an e-mail to my professors a couple of days ago so they could complete the other letters for me. I hope I hear from them soon because BenU highly recommends submitting that application by the end of January so that the internship can determine if the applicant then qualifies for selecting that concentration.

Boring, but important things are going on! 

I Promise

Yesterday Trevor and I took Adam with us to Oak Park to visit my grandma who lives in a nursing home.  I had not seen her in a year and a half, when I was pregnant with Adam.  She was in a wheelchair back then, and we we even took her with us across the street that day to a bar that grandpa frequented on his visits.  (Quite the scene it was, see picture).


Anyway, when I anxiously turned the corner from the hallway to her room yesterday, I saw that she is now bedridden and has gained a good amount of weight. I could not hold my tears back as I put my hand on her forehead and stroked her hair back a couple of times and said, "Hi, grandma! It's Michelle, and I want you to finally meet your great-grandson, Adam and Trevor his daddy."  She looked so surprised and happy to see us, and I brought Adam over and he immediately looks up at her with a big smile on his face and says, "Hiiiii!" while doing that air-grabbing wave he usually does.  She smiled and nodded her head, and he nodded back.  It was so cute.  We shared his favorite book with her, and had him blow her kisses like I usually ask him to do before bed.  She blew some right back at him!  We visited for about an hour before Adam was showing signs that he was well overdue for a nap.  I let her give him a kiss on the cheek, and I told her my goodbyes and we turned to leave.


Just as we are getting Adam's shoes on in the lobby, I remembered that I had money (just a few singles) in my pocket I wanted to leave for grandpa so that he could have more cash on hand to ride the bus, since seniors don't ride free anymore.  When I got back to the room, I was going to leave it on the dresser but she immediately waved it off and instead pulled her hospital gown down a little bit so she could keep it with her instead.  It was so funny to me, but I guess she felt like it was a much safer place to keep a few dollars! I gave her another kiss on the cheek and said that I promised to come back soon.


On the way back I was pretty quiet, and mad that I couldn't get to the nursing home to see her sooner than I did.  Trevor tried to make me feel better by pointing out that I got there to visit today, but I could not imagine being in that state, stuck with a TV infront of me all day.  My grandma has no signs of any serious mental illnesses, and it's sadly physical issues that have taken a toll on her.  She had a stroke over 6 years ago and my grandpa has not been  visiting as often as he had because he is old and it takes an hour and a half to get there on public transportation.  My grandma can speak but she doesn't like to because its very very slurred.  I don't know what activities I can bring her next time, but in the past my grandpa brought over coloring books and had her reading some things out loud (surprisingly, very clearly too). I want to go see her as often as my schedule allows, and Adam still has to meet his great-grandpa.  I look forward to the opportunities ahead.

New Year, New Start

Today is the perfect day to start up a new series of posts.  I am excited to share all the happenings of 2012 as I hope to make some big changes in my routine and start the serious parts of the application process for my dietetic internship (DI), which I will hopefully be enrolled in for this fall.

2012 had a rough start!  I thought I was going to want to begin training for the 200 Mile Madison-Chicago Relay happening in July... but the reality of working full-time on a six day-a-week schedule is draining, and its hard to get out of a warm bed when sleep is definately an option!  I killed my 7:15am alarm, and snuck in an extra 45 minutes of rest before getting up to work at 9am.  Luckily, I had the opportunity to make it up to myself after work, and ran on the treadmill for a half hour watching E!

Note to self: bring headphones!! Reading subtitiles while running made me so dizzy, when I went to run a couple of cool-down laps on the track, I had not only 'treadmill legs' but also had hard time looking straight ahead.  It was so weird.

Tomorrow is going to be great because I am FINALLY going to see my grandma Izzo, and she is going to meet Trevor and Adam for the first time.  The only thing that could make it hard to accomplish is the weather, but I'm crossing my fingers that mother nature is on my side.

Workwise, I'm always looking for new opportunities to fill up some of my morning hours.  I am hoping to hear from a local school district soon and see if they'll hire me as their driver/shopper for their Family and Consumer Sciences classes.  It pays well and wouldn't cost me more than 12 more hours in the week.  Call me a workaholic if you must, but its something I can do with the schedule I'm already dealt.

Adam had a great Christmas, he has so many toys now its almost unbelieveable!  Trevor is going to purchase a bookself for the mountain of books that is still overflowing out of the boxes we brought them in.  We are so so so close to finishing the paint job on our new place, and next to come is deciding what to do with all the stuff in the bedroom (keep, toss, donate, store).  THEN I will no longer be sleeping in the livingroom on an air mattress! WOOO!  Patience, the key word to the start of this new year!  Happy New Year everyone!

Resolution Log
Workout:  25 minute run + 5 minute warm up/cool down.  Stretching and some core work followed.
Mass: check!
Clean Aparment: close enough
Blogged!