An update overdue --- I made it back from Ecuador!

If you are still reading my blog, you are a SAINT!

My attempt to update promptly obviously failed. I have become such a terrible blogger, and I really, really want to change that, but I feel like I have been saying that for awhile. I have an almost complete post highlighting my Ecuador adventures, but that was drafted around the first of the month, and the workload just drowned me and I never got around to finishing it in decent time. It's true that I have been busy and a lot has happened, but how is it that I find time for browsing around on FACEBOOK and not this...? Out of anger at myself for this realization, I'm banning myself from even opening a Facebook tab while I write this. It's just a time killer, it just eats away the hours of free time I have.. While I find it useful for keeping in touch, I'll find myself just going from "Home" to "Profile" when there's essentially no activity going on that I'm any part of. I need to learn to just [X] out the page more.
For lack of better words I've been trying to kick my own ass into gear lately, in multiple ways. For starters my funds are steadily depleting since traveling internationally, spending three days in NYC, paying the bill for my spring classes, and the expenses one encounters while being in college. Also not to be overly personal, but at one point in time I developed an infection, a UTI, and had to go to the ER for medication since it was over a weekend...and if you've ever had the displeasure of this experience you will understand that it CANNOT wait for Monday or a "future appointment"..and the bastards sent me a bill for $850!! All I got out of that visit was a urine sample and a prescription...! I paid a $50 co-pay the day I went, nobody said it was going to that freaking expensive! So now I owe my mom $50 a month until half of it is paid for (thank god she said she'd cover the other half..) Cheers to having shitty insurance that doesn't really help unless you have a major life-threatening/disabling injury(they covered $60, so the bill WAS over $900 to begin with..) Got to love being poor farmers. /end rant.
But I do want to put myself in a better financial position, less spending more saving, and I also need to look into internship opportunities and second job possibilities for the summer because I will be staying down at school...BECAUSE.....I FOUND AN APARTMENT! I MOVE IN JUNE 1! That's probably been the biggest news for me lately, getting the offer from a friend at work to search with her and her friend, and then deciding over Chipotle that we would all really get along well, and have the same ideas for what we wanted. We only had to look at a couple places before we knew we found the one, a spacious "Italian style" second story apartment on a relatively quiet, nice street. The landlord was really nice and helpful too, and since the upper story had been his place for years back when he was in school, he's ensured it's been taken care of well over time. The living room area has these nice bay windows, there's a front balcony that we're going to put Hannah's patio furniture on, there's a dining room in addition to the kitchen.. a decorative fireplace, it's pretty charming. I'll like it even better when we can fill it and decorate it with our own stuff too, and our kitten we plan on adopting. While it all sounds dreamy and lovely, I do know I have to come back down to reality when it comes to the expenses..the monthly rent as well as the initial furnishing costs.
I need...
* A comfortable full-sized mattress
* A bed frame for said mattress...
* Collectively we need to buy a used washing machine/dryer, or decide to laundromat it.
* Collectively we need a dining table and chairs
* Decorative things, which will surely add up.
* Groceries, which will be a monthly expense along with gas/electricity/hot water

There it is! Second floor! I'll wait to take pictures of the interior when we move in.

Yes, it's all pretty daunting.. But I'm ready for a more independent lifestyle, and working here will definitely make me more money than if I were to work at home this summer, Fossil pays better than my last job, and I could most likely find a decently tipping restaurant job down here too. I LOVE the girls I live with right now. My roommate is literally the best, we became instant best friends freshman year and have stayed together all the way through, so it's hard to leave her and the other two, when we all get along so well, but they really want to stick to the dorms. I mean, it makes sense for them since they go home to the city for breaks and they don't drive, but it still sucks we can't live together. Dorm life is just unnecessarily expensive for me.. I don't need a $4,000/year meal plan, I want to be buying my own groceries and choosing how I spend my money, and have the chance to cook. And the rooms are small, and I often can't fall asleep until late at night because people outside are so loud and obnoxious. Plus the dorms don't help me during breaks when I still have to work at Fossil, and have to commute every day I work because I don't have a place to stay here. I don't really feel like I have my own "space" at home either. I basically moved out of my bedroom at home a long time ago, probably when I started college. When I come home to visit, which is pretty often, I spend a lot of time during the day at my house with my family, just hanging out, catching up. But I never stay there, I always go to Tom's to unwind, and it's nice to just be with him. But it would also be nice if I had my own place too, and for him to be able to come stay with me for a change, or for me to have more independence. Staying in my bedroom at my parent's is just frustrating because Tom's is only 10 minutes away, so obviously I'd usually rather be with him.We don't ever really step on each other's toes, we never fight..so it's like, as long as it works out so well for us to spend our time together---why not? We're both always coming and going, between my schooling and his work on my family's farm, we don't get to just sit around for long, and when we do get time, we usually get together with our friends too--we're far from being the typical secluded couple. Although Saturday, for the first time in a long time, we both had the same day off. And neither of us had other obligations to attend to for once..so we slept in until 1:30, made pancakes on the wood stove for breakfast, and we just relaxed the day away, it was heaven.
Moments like that bring me back to Ecuador, because aside from all of the other utterly amazing, beautiful things about that adventure, one of the biggest things for me was an overwhelming feeling of content. It was very seldom that I felt anxious or frustrated, or even rushed. And I have tried to carry that over to my lifestyle here, but I'm still working on it. We live in such a hectic society filled with deadlines and expectations, that it's hard to just live, you know? Even taking the time to write this right now, I have the anxiety in the back of my mind that I have an 8:45 class tomorrow morning, one that I have to give a little presentation on my poem during, so I should probably go to bed..but I'm conflicted because I want to continue writing this. In Ecuador I felt like the days were full, and I had time to write in my leather journal EVERY.DAY. Something I had hoped to continue back in the states, but the overwhelming craziness of New York just killed that idea, but I'm going to make an effort to get back to it.

(A preview of things to come ;))
I WILL post many more of my Ecuador photos and write an in-depth post about it next time, but I don't want to rush it or pull a late night tonight with my presentation in the morning, but I promise the update will come soon, and this time I mean it. I had to watch Julie & Julia for my Expository Writing About Food & Drink class, and if she can blog every day (although I found her a bit crazy-obsessive and obnoxious at times) then I can definitely do it AT LEAST once a week, hopefully more. This week I don't have any excuses either, I only work tomorrow. So here I go, plunging back into the blogging realm.

Thanks to all of you for being awesome readers,
I really can't wait to catch myself up with your blogs and lives
♥ Olivia