Thoughts

So things have been pretty busy lately. My hours are starting to pick up at Target because of the holidays so starting next week I will be getting more hours then I have been recently. My grade in Speech and Language Development got upped from a B- to a B which is super exciting. My mom and I met with Vicki Chesterly on Thursday afternoon after work to discuss my future in the program for Speech and LanguagePath. She suggested what I should do is go out in the field and observe Speech and Language Pathologists to see what they do and to see if Speech and Language Pathology is a field I really do want to go into for a career. I foresee that I will struggle a little bit with this field because of my disabilities but it my main goal in life to help children with disabilities so hopefully I will be able to over come my obstacles in order to achieve that goal.
This weekend was a blast. Friday Matt and I went Christmas shopping at the mall with Sonya. I feel super accomplished because I got all my shoppping done six weeeks early so I don't have to deal with excessively long lines after Thanksgiving. Yesterday we celebrated Matt's birthday. We went Glow Bowling at the Leda Lanes Lighthouse which was a different experience from going bowling at the regular Leda Lanes Bowling Alley. It was fun. Afterwards we went out for dinner at Bertucci's which was awesome and amazingly delicious. Today I went to the SHS Championship Football Game which was intense for a majority of the game. Souhegan won 49-29. Go SABERS!! WE ARE THE CHAMPIONS!!

This week I will be so busy. When I am not working at the Chamber or at Target I will be working on not one but TWO Milford Cabinet articles which are due at the end of the Thanksgiving Holiday period.

Things I am thankful for this Thanksgiving
1. Family
2. Friends
3. Having a job in this incredibly tough economy.
4. The fact that I don't know anyone who is fighting in Iraq (at least not in my family)
5. My relationship with my amazing boyfriend


That's all for now
Janine

Drama... BE Gone

Over the past two months I have had to deal with a significant amount of drama.Part of which involved an argument I was in with my best friend Heather which has since been resolved. I am very happy we are not fighting anymore. The second part of it involved a few of my friends from NEC who shall remain nameless.. it is best to let them be for the time being and not talk to them though I think they are not talking to me for pretrty dumb reasons. I can't let that bother me too much though. That has been too much of a problem for me over the past year/year and a half and I think in order to prove that I am mature and not an insttigator of off stage/screen drama then I will not let this stuff or any ofther drama that goes on betweeen my friends at NEC bother me. I need to distance myself from all of that and try not involve myself in it. I find that to be a HUGE mistake I made last year and it came back to bite me in the ass later because linking myself to drama I was not even involved into to begin with caused me stress I didn't need and disallowed me to focus on stuff that was going on in the present. I went up to see the CTE play at NEC last weekend and met up with Laura Hachez her boyfriend Joe and Leanna Pizer before I went to the play only to learn that the drama continues. Laura and I both determined it is best for either of us not to get involved in the affairs of others and let people work things out on their own. As I said I have no time in my own life whatsoever to deal with other people's drama nor should I have to in the fiirst place so it's best that I keep my distance from all the drama that goes on at NEC. It still makes me rather upset that my group of friends has gotten so diviided since I graduated. I can't control what is currently going on between certain people but I guess I can only hope that people will realize how far apart this stupid drama has split apart everyone.

I am happy I don't have to deal with drama anymore.

Honestly, this world is insane! Don't know how many people have been watching the news and have heard about the Tradegy at the Ft Hood army base in Texas. I didn't really think such a violeny act yhay could kill so many people could happen on our soil. I think the war is really messing with people's heads and this incident is clear proof that the war has been going on for WAY to long and needs to end. I am just happy I don't know anyone who is fighying over there.

Thanksgiving is coming up soon. Quite honestlly nothing about that holiday really excites me though I am looking very forward to seeing my cousin Cameron play in his last football game, I had so much fun last year when I went to see him play. Christmas has always been my favorite holiday and I can't wait for that season to get here. I love celebrating the season with family and friends! Laura and I are trying to organize a holiday party @ NEC. We'll see how well that will work out based on how many people from our group of friends are currently not speaking to each other. Even if it's jist me and Matt Laura and Joe LEanna and James and Autumn I'll be happy with tthat small intimate group. We'll have to see how the guest list will turn out. My family Christmas party is December 13th and I always look foward to that because I get to see my extended family on my mom's side which dare I say is HUGE!! We only get together twice a year @ Christmas and July 4th so it's so great to see everyone. Though it is kind of far awqay I am hoping to see if I can get a groip of my friends together to go to Portsmouth for first night festivities on New Years. Plans for that probably won't start getting organized til the day after Christmas! Yay for the holidays!


I am vaccinated for the H1N1 flu! Usually I am not very good with getting shots or getting blodd drawn but this time I tried not to worry so much about the shot and everything ended up been fine. I feel the H1N! Flu has been way too hyped up in the news which is part of the reason why I was so nervous about getting the shot in the first place.

Nothing else to report really... this entry is pretty long as it is.

Until next time

Janine

The year has flown by

It's November already. This year has flown by way too fast. It's hard to beleive Christmas is a month and 25 days away and that soon after that it will be 2010. Wow!



Something has been deeply concerning me since the beginning of the year.



My friends at NEC are most definitley a second family to me. Throughout my four years at the college they have helped me through a lot... espescially senior year which was the hardest year emotionally in so many ways. My circle of close friends has kind of drifted apart due to drama that has arisen in various situations since I graduated. I FULLY UNDERSTAND I have no control at all over what goes on since I no longer go to the school but basically the group is pretty split down the middle. It makes it next to impossible to plan parties because there are so many people in the group that no longer speak to each other. It is really frusturating. When I went up to and still continue to go up to NEC to visit it seems hard to see everyone all at one time. It is frustuting because we should not be letting immature drama affect our friendships and yet we are doing that. It is not the best way to handle things. Drama should not dominate or dictate situations or friendships.



I wish the clock could be turned back and things could be reverted back to the way they were before I graduated when there was no tension and no drama. That's kind of imposible at this point but it's really a wish that I wish with all my heart could be granted because I miss everyone and truly miss the way things used to be and all the fun times we all used to have together.

Felt the need to get that off my chest... moving on.

All my hard work in Speech and Language Development really paid off and once again I caused myself academic anxiety for no reason. I got a B-! I am so pumped. I have new faith in myself now to continue withe the major. I feel nothing can stand in my way now. I am probably not going to sign for January classes until the last minute because I am applying for an internship program at St Joseph's Hospital. The compettion for the program is tough because there is only one adult spot open/ I really hope I get called back for an interview and that it goes well.

My uncle and aunt came to visit from New Jersey a few weekends ago. It was very nice to see them again. I hadn't seen them since August when I went to NJ for Violet's Christening. On Saturday Matt and his mom as well as my uncle Steve and Aunt Sue came over for dinner. We had a soup and pizza fest. So awesome!! :) This weekend Cooper came to visit and we went to Heniker to go see the CTE Play Seasonal Help which was one of the best CTE Plays I have seen in awhile. We met with Leanna and Laura for dinner before the show and I learned of more drama that has happened recently. I try to distance myself from it as much as possible because it frusturates to no end whatsoever. As I stated at the beginning of the entry I know I can't get involved in what is going on because I don't go to the school anymore and have no control over what happens between people. I just wonder if people realize how much this behavior is really affecting everyone else in the group. It is really a shame that there have been so many rifts made in the relationships of others that affect the overall cohesiveness of what WAS such a tight knit circle of friends.

and all I can do in this situation is wonder...

Crossroads

So tonight was my final in Speech and Language Development. I am happy that the class is over because I found the work to be very time consuming. The topic matter was very interesting and I definitley gained a new knowledge and appreciation for language and how it is formed. I am crossing my fingers that I did well on my final because the grades on my previous exams (midtem , a&p quiz a&p quiz retake) were not that great. I am hoping also that the grade on my presentation I did on Tuesday willl help to boost my grade at least a little bit.

Right now I find myself at a crossroads. Clearly from I have struggled in the past two Speech and Language Pathology classes I am not really sure if this is the right path for me to go down. One of the main things that I want to do is find some kind of way to make a difference in life of children with disabilites and I figured Speech and Language Development would be the perfect way to do that since I had a speech disorder when I was younger but overcame it due to working with a speech and language pathologist.Figured I could make the same type of difference in a child's life that the speech and language patholigist I had when I was younger did for me. I did not expect to be bombarded with so much information all at once both from this class and the class I took over the summer. It was a lot for me to take in and catalog in my brain. Especially all the medical terminology. I feel like I have let myself down in a huge way because I wasn't able to get a good grade in these course.
As I said right now I am at a crossroads because I do not know if going back to school is even the best option for me right now. I was considering switching my major to Medical Coding and not taking classes again til January but I might end up deciding to totally bypassing school all together because I need money to pay for the tuition and I can't afford it right now. I feel like it would be better if I just focussed on getting more skills in the workplace so I can eventually get a job in the field I got my degree in at NEC.

So much to think about it.. right now it's time for bed. Working at Target 11-3 tomorrow so I neeed my beauty rest.

Janine

Mix Bag

The murder in Mont Vernon has completley turned this community upside down. I am still in shock about the whole thing and that 2 kids from Souhegan were charaged in conncetion with crime. It is very eerie how close to home this whole thing hits... truly eerie and truly amazing.
Right now I should be studying for my final for speech and language development.. I will get back to that as soon as I am done writing in here. Overall the class the been very interesting. The course load has been demanding and somewhat challenging. So much material was thrown at me at once and I feel like there wasn't enough time to catalog it all in my brain. I did learn a lot though. It gave me an intereting perspective on how people communicate with each other. Due to financial issues I will be taking a break from school from the time being so I can take sometime to think if Speech Lang Path is the field I want to persure. If this not end up being my choice I still have my degeee from NEC to fall back on and will continue to look for a job in that field or jobs at theatres in the public relations department.
Possible Fields of study I could into instead of Speech Lang Path if I decide to go back to school in January:

• Marketing Certificate
• Spreadsheet Certificate
• Early Childhood Certificate
• Human Services Certificate

So we'll see where things end up with that.

Alumni Weekend a few weeks ago made me really nostalgic about NEC. I don't really miss the town of Henniker because there is not much to do there but I miss the general atmosphere of NEC and all my friends. Basically I just miss being in the college setting.

I miss

• Theatre
• SEC Events
• Midnight Madness
• Movie nights with my friends
• International Night
• Pancake Breakfasts at the end of each semester

I do not miss

• 3:30 am fire alarms
• 8:30 am classes (luckily I did not have too many of those)
• Anxiety I put myself under about passing certain classes and getting on deans list
• the food at Gilmore Dining Hall (except for the omlettes and the ice cream)

I wonder if things would have been different if I had chosen to major in education at NEC?When I was thinking about going back to school for Speech Pathology that thought constantly ran through my head and it still irks me. At the time when I was deciding on what to major in at NEC I was having a really hard time deciding what to study. I was choosing between education and communications because I had two passions that I wanted to persue.. working with kids and writing. Theatre was an added passion but I didn't think there was too much I could do with that since acting is not really a strength. I consider that more a hobby then something I could make a job out of. Not trying to offend people who are studying theatre or who have studied it. I am sure people find their own individual succeses in whatever field they choose. I chose to stick with my passion for writing and study communications. At this point I am not saying I regret that choice.. I just wonder if things would have been different if I had chosen to major in education or could have found some way to create my own major in order to combine all three passions (education.writing and theater) together. I guess it will just take a while to find a niche and a job that I truly like. Right now I am working at Target and that is going well so far. Can't complain too much really. I do think I need a second job or find some way to get more hours so I can start paying back my loans from NEC. I also still have my freelance job at the Milford Cabinet which is going well.

Something else I have constantly wondered about my four years at NEC is how much different things would have been if I had not been involved in so many clubs? I met a great deal of people through being involved in various clubs at NEC and had fun being involved in all the activities the clubs put together. However, a thing I had a lot of issues with was time management skills and managing my time between meetings, going to events and homework. I realized that if I had done a better job at managing my time and given myself more time to focus on my homework then I would have done better in my classes and been able to more easily achieve the goal of making deans list each semester. If I could go back and do my four years at NEC all over I think the main thing I would do diffferent would to have not to have been part of so many activities. My goal with being involved on campus was to get a good diversity of activites under my belt and mix old experiences with new ones. That goal was very easily accomplished. I was in 13 clubs at one point and that was way too many clubs to be in. I often found myself to be frazzled because as the years went along the work load in my classes got relativley harder. As I said before time management was a HUGE issue for me

If I could do my four years at NEC over again these are clubs I would have joined and stuck with throughout the entirity of my four years

• Carriage Theatre Ensemble (student run theatre troupe)
• CAB/SEC (Student Activities Committee)
• WNEC (Radio Station) had i not been involved in so many other things I would have had more time to do my show
• New Englander (Newspaper)
• TEACH (community service club for education majors)

Well.. enough procratinating back to homework.

Janine

Murder!

So over the weekend there was a murder in the neighboring town of Mt Vernon. It is eerie that something like that could happen so close to home and even eerier that two high school kids from the high school I graduated from five years ago have been charaged with being connected to the crime. Something of this nature would be expected in a big city like Manchester. But Mont Vernon? No.. not at all. Everyone in my town is in total shock and I am too.

Alumni Weekend 2009

This weekend was homecoming weekend at NEC. My best friend Alli from NEC came to visit me for the weekend and it was so great to see her. Friday morning I did homework and then Matt came @ 3:45 and we went to go get Ali at Manchester Airport. After we picked up Ali we went out to dinner at Longhorn Steakhouse. I got fried shrimp... maybe not the best choice for the diet I am supposed to be on because the last time I went to the doctors my cholesterol was a little high. After that we went to Souhegan to watch the football game. It is so different to be going back to SHS to watch any type of event after having been out of that school for five years. Mostly because the last of the people that I knew graduated the year I was a freshmen at New England College and the only people I know who still go there are my sister and all of her friends. The game was pretty good.. though by the end of the third quarter it was clearly obvious that Souhegan was going to win the game but at least it wasn't a total washout like the last game when Souhegan won 48-0. Yesterday I had to work and it was pretty much a day in reveiw because I got trained to work in the fitting room and since I have done that at Marshalls and TJ Maxx it was pretty self-explanitory and easy training though there were a few new things that I learned. After work Matt Ali and I headed up to Henniker. We missed the barbecue by about 10 minutes so we went to Sonny's Main Street Pizza for lunch... made a somewhat better food choice and got pasta alfredo with brocolli. The weather was really crummy and we estimate that that is why the attendance was so low. Most of the people in my immediate group of friends had to work but I got to see a lot of people I hadn't seen in awhile. After hanging out in the pub and catching up with old friends we went to the fieldhouse for the Rennisaince Fair which was where a few clubs had tables set up selling things and local artists were selling their artwork. There was also a magician but we just caught the end of his show. Since it was family weekend I didn't get to see a lot of my friends who still go to school there since they were doing stuff with their parents but I will mostly likely see them in a few weeks when I got up to see the Carriage Theatre Ensembe play Seasonal Help. Being at NEC definitly flooded me with a lot of memories from my time there from movie nights to theatre shows from Spring Weekend to March Madness from performances in the coffeehouse to comedians, I miss the people I went to school with moreso then the town of Hennker. A lot of stuff haschanged since I left.. especially a much needed update to the Simon Center Cafe in terms of food and ambience. I have yet to try the food though. I will have to do that the next time I go up there at the end of the month. Aside from the weather Alumni Weekend was awesome and I can't wait til next year. After driving home in what seemed like a torriential down pour we went out to dinner at Red Arrow Dinner.. hot dogs and beans for dinner and a small taste of Ali's Mac and Cheese. I feel like I should have gotten something a lot healthier then a hot dog. I don't even eat hot dogs a lot except during the summer at barbecues.


In other news.. I have been so stressed out because of my class at the tech college. I have realized since my last entry that the course material is way too over my head. I have decided not to continue with the major. There goes one dream out the window but it's better to give up now because the classes will just continue to get harder. It may not be in my best interest to go back to school right now. At this point I am completley confused about the path I should take. I may consider going back taking the rest of the semester off and then take medical coding classes in January but I am leaning closer and closer toward just focussing on work for the time being so I can pay back my loans from New England College. My job at Target is off to a fabulous start. I am really liking it so far and meeting a lot of new people.

That's it for now.

Love

Jamine