Keeping on

Okay, wow, it's week 7, and I haven't posted since before classes started.

School has been... awesome?  fun?  I mean, I'm enjoying classes and have made a couple of casual friends.  I'm at two As and a B right now (they do +/-, but I'm not at the point of figuring that out), and may be raising the B to an A with the most recent midterm (which I think I did well on; find out tomorrow).  Tues/Thurs/Fri, and my weekends, are the best days of the week right now.

That leaves Mondays and Wednesdays, which are work days (I work some on Friday and Saturday, but from home).  Work's actually not bad; getting up at 5:30 to leave at 6, and then generally not getting home until 6:30-7, sucks, but it's doable.  The only real problem is my car.  I think the move kind of pushed it over the edge; it needs thousands of dollars of work now, and frankly - as much as I love this car - I can't justify it.  So, right now, it's hard to start most mornings (once it's running it's fine), which is a little anxiety-inducing.  But since I'm only driving twice a week, I'm hoping to make it until after finals (mid-December) before getting a replacement.

Probably something cheap and used; I can drop about $5k in cash on a down payment, and I don't want anything more than $200 or so a month as a payment, so that puts me at about $14k-16k.  Which isn't unreasonable for a small used car in the area.  I'll probably end up paying it off early as well.  I just don't really need a fancy car if I'm not driving much, and I'd rather keep my expenses lower.

I could also do a lease, like of a civic or something, but I'd have to think about it.  The mileage would probably be a close thing, and a lease is a flat 3-year commitment rather than being able to just pay off a loan if needed.  Down payment would probably be less, of course,and I'm really only looking for something to last me the next three years I'm guaranteed at school (after that, who knows).  Anyway, stuff to consider.

I've got a paper due the week after TK.  I've already started writing it, but I'm having trouble getting my thoughts framed.  I've done the outline, so it's more just a matter of phrasing and such (I don't think in words, so often figuring out how to say what I want to say is the hardest part).  I'll still likely be done, at least in a solid edited first draft, this weekend.

Still enjoying the apartment.  I love being able to walk both to classes and down to the village for meals/studying.  I've taken to hanging out at a local sports bar or Starbucks for homework; I've asked, and both places are fine with it (I'm always ordering stuff too, so it's not like I'm freeloading).  I actually study better in a "noisy" environment, which is my flavor of ADHD at work: I have to have enough "background" activity to keep my peripheral attention satisfied without being massively distracting.  Coffee shops work pretty well.

The fires have made the air quality around here pretty bad.  School actually issued no-outdoor-activity alerts over the weekend.  Things seem a bit better at the moment.

Not sure if I'm going to do anything for New Years.  I kind of feel guilty about spending money on a vacation if I'm buying a car.  I also don't feel like I need to "get away" at this point; being in Westwood is still relatively new and feels like its own little vacation anyway.  Which I suppose is a good sign.