Cutting out the plastics

Okay, this is a little dramatic.  I don't actually plan on cutting plastic out of my life.  How else would I buy things?

When I say this, I don't mean cutting the bitches that I hang out with on a regular basis.  Well, sometimes I do.  I won't really notice how much money I'm saving until the end of the month when I don't have any credit card bills to pay, but man, let me tell you...using cash and debit is a struggle!  I've never had more coins in my pockets, but at least I can do laundry!

I actually unknowingly faltered on this goal, but I still technically still didn't use my credit cards and I'm going to tell you why. 

iTunes: So I had to buy Demi Lovato's "Heart Attack."  Don't judge me.  A friend of mine agreed with me that if her and Selena Gomez were to go on tour together, we would both lose our $hit.  Now I hoping they do and it doesn't conflict with JT and Jay-Z or even worse, my other idol Ke$ha.  With buying this song, I forgot my iTunes was synced to my credit card.  I'm giving myself a break on this one since like c'mon, how do I pay for that in cash!?!  Plus, I'm about supporting artists and not illegally downloading music.  Napster is so 2000 and late. 

Company Card: This shouldn't even count, for many obvious reasons.

Credit Card Credit: So I received a credit which means I have a negative balance.  Why would I be crazy enough to use cash and not bring my balance up to an even "Zer0?" 

AMEX Membership Rewards: I bought a plane ticket with my points and there was a difference that I had to pay in which you could only use the card to do so, that does not count.  I was a victim of circumstances. 

So, here's the deal, as far as I'm concerned, I still haven't used plastic this month.  I wonder what it would be like to not have to pay a credit card bill at the end of the month!

Aren't I Just the Academic?

Like all fears, they must be conquered!  Around this time last year, a lot happened.  Besides having a complete melt down of epic proportions while at work and pretty much seeking out psychological counseling for what would be the equivalent of post-partum depression after defending and submitting my dissertation, I also finished my academic career.  It was a long journey that pretty much imposed on my adult life.  I'm pretty sure that is why for the past year, I can count on two hands how many weekends I actually stayed home.  I was self healing with vodka like some alcoholic Orange County housewife that gave up a promising career who just found out her husband has been having an affair with his secretary of whom everyone knew about expect her for the past five years or maybe more like a retired KGB agent from the Cold War era.

I figured out the easiest way for me to conquer my fears would be to look into some adjunct positions, but then I realized what if I didn't necessarily want to teach for an entire semester and be told I needed to be at a classroom at a certain day and time.  TAing is not the same as teaching, so I can't really draw on that for experience.  Then one day, it hit me that I should just present at a conference...

The Hispanic Association of Colleges and Universities (HACU)'s mission as indicated on their website is geared towards:

• promoting the development of member colleges and universities;
• improving access to and the quality of post-secondary educational opportunities for Hispanic students; and
• meeting the needs of business, industry and government through the development and sharing of resources, information and expertise. 

The annual meeting this year is in Chicago, a city I have never been to.  I know, it's weird, I've traveled so much in the US for work and personal reasons, I find it strange that Chicago was never a destination I have come across as well.

So what am I presenting?  Well instead of writing about it, I'm just going to copy and paste my abstract:
Wish me luck that I get picked!

This study examined three institutional researchers from three different Hispanic-serving community colleges in southern California to examine how they would use data to act as agents of organizational learning and raise awareness of Hispanic students’ educational outcomes within their respective institutions.  This study was of a qualitative nature, and findings were based on data comprised of interviews and content analysis.  Based on the data collected, this study found that these specific researchers’ roles were not shaped by their affiliation with Hispanic-serving institutions and that using data to raise awareness of Hispanic students’ educational outcomes was not a primary concern.  However, even though raising awareness of Hispanic students’ educational outcomes was not a primary concern, these three institutional researchers exhibited qualities that would suggest the ability to take on the role of agent of organizational learning through the use of data to call attention to Hispanic academic achievement.  These qualities or practices include: (1) reflecting on the current role and institutional research practices to support the HSI identity, (2) not viewing Hispanics as deficient, (3) providing and promoting sufficient services for the success of Hispanic students, (4) understanding and knowledge of students’ histories and community realities, (5) further disaggregation of race/ethnicity into further racial/ethnic groups, and (6) developing strategic alliances.  These are further discussed and used as recommendations for the future practice of institutional researchers at Hispanic-serving community colleges to serve their Hispanic students better in regards to basic skills education. 

 

March - It's all about the savings and professional development

February Recap

It was really hard to hustle in February as it was only 28 days.  It's almost impossible to tackle 10 goals in 28 days!  So here's where I ended.  And oh, the update on my Bachelor pool...I officially lost when Desiree got sent home.  I couldn't think of anything more shocking than the fact that Lindsay is still on the show.  I did better than last month.  I accomplished 8.32 out of 10.  Still an Asian F, but we live in America, so showing improvement is all that matters.  So here's the run down...

Goal 1: Okay, I only went four times this month, but give me a break!  I had to run a 10K this month, so I was training for that instead of actually stepping foot into the gym.  I also traveled home for President's Day Weekend, hurt my back, and well...got lazy.  (.4 - a tenth of a point for each day I went).

Goal #2: Check for me.

Goal #3: Never will I attempt this goal again.  However, I really did like not drinking diet carbonated beverages.  So I guess from now on, I'll just use them as mixers.  Who really needs to drink 2 cans of diet coke a day anyways? 

Goal #4: The fact that the diploma frame has been sitting by my kitchen counter and the fact that it took me 23 days into February to do this just goes to show what a lazy POS I really can be at times.

Goal #5: Who am I to judge what my friends eat this month?  I had three donuts one day at work and I ate at Popeyes one weekend for lunch.  And then I supported my roommate's 11PM McDonald's run.  Kettle, meet pot.  I also pigged out on gelato at work thanks to Haagen-Dazs samples.  The point is, I supported all my friends this month in all the crap they decided to put in their mouths or at least I didn't say anything about it.

Goal #6: Let's put it this way, I've been REALLY REALLY REALLY REALLY EXTREMELY blunt (vicious) this month to everyone I have talked to.  I mean like Regina George style.

Goal #7: Firecracker 10K in 55 minutes did not happen, but there were many reasons why.  The point is I ran it.  When was the last time you ran a 10K?  Yeah, I thought so.  (.75 points, just because).

Goal #8: Check plus!

Goal #9: FAILed.  I'm still going to give myself partial credit for it because I allegedly lasted a whole month in January and then an additional five days in February...so we'll just divide 5 by 28 and say I earned .18 for this one.  

Goal #10: FAILed, kinda, but totally giving myself partial credit.  The intention of going home was there.  It's not my fault Nemo happened that weekend.  Chinese New Year is a 15 day celebration, so I went home while it was still happening.  Plus, I stood in 27 degree weather to watch a parade.  (.99 points because in my mind I totally went home for CNY).  

Framed!

So clearly I'm lazy.  It took me five minutes to do something that should have been done back in October when I received this lovely diploma frame from my former colleagues on my last day of the job.  Well, technically, this should have been done back in March when I received this diploma, but who are you to judge me?  I'm sure there are stuff in your apartment that are not framed and just laying around.  You pot, me kettle. 

So I don't really talk about my educational accomplishments mostly because I blocked it out of my memory.  Talk about PTSD.  I essentially went to school for 10 years to become a doctor and not even a medical one.  I was at the dermatologist on Tuesday and he basically saw me for like 10 seconds and I'm sure I my insurance was charged $550 on top of my $10 co-pay.  Not to mention, I was the one that had to disrobe.  For the amount of schooling I did, I mine as well have gone on to become a dermatologist...I sure as hell not making $560 every 10 seconds!  Then again, science was never my thing, so I'm sure I would not have been that great of a doctor or med student in general or maybe even biology major.  

My journey to a doctorate began in 2006 when I started to pursue my master's degree.  I was working at an college in New York at the time and one of the perks in working at a college is that you can pretty much get a free master's degree as long as it's related to your professional development.  So, higher education was the field of choice.  Now I know when I tell people I study higher education, they think it's so I can teach at a college.  That's not it.  You can teach at a college with any degree you want as long as you have a doctorate in said discipline.  The study of higher education is different.  This degree focuses on leadership, organizational theory, and student development theory so you can examine higher education as an institution.  Bored yet?  Basically, you examine why certain ethnic groups tend to have lower success rates in graduation and what the factors are the influence it.  Or you look at why taking NYU and putting it in the Middle East doesn't work.  Or you can look at female leadership roles in large public institutions or lack there of.  It's basically interdisciplinary.  Obviously, it's deeper than the way I said it, but you get the point.  So in 2008 after finishing and realizing I was at a dead end up job, hopped on a plane to LAX to pursue my doctorate.  I only applied to schools in SoCal mostly because I always wondered what it would be like to live in LA.  I entertained Columbia, but they didn't entertain me.  Sadness.  Actually, hindsight is only 20/20, they pretty much did me a favor because life is so much grander now albeit much more plastic.  I feel as though in the process I earned a Ph.D. in being fake and bitchy and Regina George was my dissertation chair.

I know I'm supposed to write about how amazing my experience was in my program, but to be honest, I was bored to tears my first year.  I often heard or read blogs from my classmates on how great is was that they took core classes that were heavily focused on K-12 education and how amazing it was that they could relate it to their careers or research field of choice.  Clearly, I was not one of these students.  What was so fun about reading and discussing "No Child Left Behind."  I went to public school and I kind of excelled without even trying, no thanks to the disruption of certain classmates, so sometimes, I do think some children need to be left behind...but that's a different story. 

Then there were summer classes.  They were six weeks long, but they were also 6 hours long.  We were in class from 4-10pm which I thought was totally contradictory to educational learning pedagogy.  They were also in the driest classes possible.  I believe it was something statistics-like.  Dying was probably the better option during those two summers where I took those four summer classes.    

Not all of it was bad though, I really did like the higher ed courses, it was the core education classes that I had beef with.  I was also very fond of my dissertation chair.  She was great even though not many people seemed to fond of her.  I think this was due to the fact that people didn't really want to work hard and she demanded hard work and perfection.  One time in class when she was giving a lecture, she scolded one of my classmates for texting in class and he was so furious about it during break.  I thought what was this world coming to if someone gets yelled at in class for texting and blames the professor for it!?!  Like she had no right to tell you to stop?  Hell, I was going to say something about it if she didn't.  I'm not going to lie.  I had a lot of knucklehead classmates where I was left wondering "what depressing shit did you mention in one of your three statement of purposes that got you in the program?"  Or "who the hell wrote your recommendations?" 

So in March of 2012 after re-writing what seemed like 6 versions of each chapter (there were five total), my dissertation was ready for defense.  So why PTSD?  You can't even begin to understand the torture, the writing, the time spent researching, interviewing, analyzing data, the lost social life, and the tears that I cried.  I've had so many melt downs, you'll be surprised I'm not a walking billboard for prozac right now.  This one time, I was sitting on my bed just reading over a chapter that needed revising and I just started crying out of nowhere.  I'm not even sure I was that sad to begin with.  I often ask myself this question and other people ask me as well if I had the chance to do it again would I?  The answer is "NO." 

Run, Beer, Dim Sum

We Run LA

I was so productive this past weekend, it felt like an outer-body experience.  I was able to work a full day Saturday, clean up the animals, do my laundry, drink heavily, and complete two of my goals for this month.

First off - let's discuss this the Firecracker 10K.  I spent a considerable time convincing a couple friends to do it with me.  I was able to get four others which I thought was successful.  There's an art to asking someone to wake up at 6AM and basically run a little more than 6 miles.  You need to bribe them with the beer that comes after the run and then some dim sum in Chinatown.  This only works with non-Chinese folks.  You can't bribe Chinese people with something that they had to do every Sunday since the day they were born.  Dim sum for us is like brunch for white folks minus the mimosas and drag queens.

Now I know I had this goal of finishing under 55 minutes and I trained really hard to make it happen.  However, I ended up finishing at about 66 minutes.  This was due to the fact that I stayed with my running buddy throughout the race.  My original plan was to just leave everyone and go, but I started feeling really bad when I forgot to mention that the first three miles of the race were uphill.  I forgot to mention because I forgot how to read a map.  I just figured since it was gradual as opposed to one huge incline, it would be easier.  While running, I actually thought about the mother of my child (long story for another day) cursing at me as she saw those hills.  So besides a slower friend to keep pace with and unexpected hills there were other factors that disrupted my goal time:

Water Cups
During these races, there are volunteers (usually school age inner city teens from a neighboring public school) handing out water cups.  Sometimes, they hold their cups in the way where they hold it two at a time with their fingers in the cup gripping to keep them together.  When you're thirsty, I guess you really don't have the time to think about whether their hands are clean or not.  I know this will gross most people out, but you need to pick your battles.  So what happens is you run, grab, drink, and throw.  Next thing you know there are hundreds of cups just on the ground.  As a runner and part time environmentalist, I found this to be disturbing.  Who really wants to run in trash?  So I would actually end up running with my cup until I can find the nearest garage can to dispose of the cup.  I drank water about 3 times, so you can imagine how many detours I made.

Views
LA views are some of the best in the nation.  Any canyon/hill you run around, you are guaranteed to have a beautiful view of downtown LA if you can get past all the smog.  So when you're running up hill and you see a view of DTLA, you can't help but stop and have your friends take a picture.

View of DTLA from Elysian Park

Other Runners
There are those who run fast, run slow, run with dogs, or just straight up walk.  The trick is to figure out how to run around all of them with tripping or shoving.  Luckily, because I'm so skinny, I can always squeeze between two people who are in my way.  

Finally, the best part about running is the free swag you get after you cross the finish line and I'm not talking about those lame medals, the water, the food, or the goodie bags.  I'm talking about the socializing around beers.  The only sad part about the beer was that they were serving Mic Ultra.  I guess with all these runners, a light beer made sense.  That and it was also 10AM.  So after hanging around and talking to some friends we walked off to Ocean Seafood for dim sum where we were greeted by a nice hostess.  I'm sure she was the only hostess who knew how to speak English which was why she was the hostess.  Now I don't do this a lot, but there are times when it's necessary to speaking in my native tongue.  Getting dim sum is one of those times.  You see when I show up asking how long the wait is and make small talk in Chinese, I can get a table in 15 minutes.  When the all white group show up and basically just asks for a table...the wait can be about 45 minutes long.  It was kind of like the check-in line for the race.  The LE line had no one waiting, but all the other lines where they weren't some sort of Asian last name...well, that took a while for people to get a pinnie.  Sorry, I digressed.

Dim sum was awesome and I couldn't have thought of a more perfect way to end the day.  Well, another friend of mine came over and asked if we wanted to get foot massages.  I was totally game, but alas, I drove my friends there, so I guess that would have been the more perfect way to end the day...

Malibu. By way of Chicago...

There's something very Bonnie and Clyde about drinking all day on a week day when you actually have a job.  Last month, a friend and I ran away to Santa Barbara for the day and had a great time hiking, drinking, and eating the day away on some random Tuesday and I thought to myself, this would need to happen again!

I think the most fun part besides drinking excessive amounts of wine is the fact that you can do just about anything you want without having to deal with traffic, crowds, and just having the ability to maximize your day.  In order to have a day trip, you only need two things: a car and a partner in crime who has a non-traditional work schedule or is just willing to plan a mental health day. 

Unlike the Santa Barbara getaway, this one did not involve a hike.  There were good intentions to go to the gym beforehand but I overslept and so did my counterpart.  Why I thought I wanted to wake up early on my day off is beyond me.  So off to Malibu we went to begin our day!  The great thing about Malibu is that it's such an easy commute to get to and the drive is lovely, but you end up forgetting you're in LA.  Then again, is Malibu really LA? 

Lunch was at Malibu Cafe.  Quaint little place that happens to be next to a fat camp.  No seriously, it's right next to the Biggest Loser Resort.  I've personally never seen the show, but it basically looked like rehab for overweight people.  You're essentially in paradise.  Ever wonder why rehab facilities are located in amazing places?  It's like you're being rewarded for hitting rock bottom.  After taking some pictures, we went to the restaurant where we were greeted by a girl who really seemed to have hated life at the moment.  The place is cute with outdoor seating, great scenery, ping pong table, pool table, and foosball table.  What a great way to kill time while waiting for your food that's being cooked by your waiter/bartender/cook.  Literally, he was a one-man show.  I thought he was just kidding when he said that until I saw him make our drinks and then fire up our food.  Then again, I ordered a boughy lobster sandwich, so maybe it wasn't that hard to prepare.

Next up - wine tasting...or shall I say wine drinking at Malibu Wines.  Since it was a Thursday, I found the crowd to be very interesting.  There were literally six of us at this entire place.  These two groups of two ladies were just drinking like they didn't have a care in the world.  I was kind of interested in knowing what it was they did.  They were too young to be trophy wives, so I guess the next logical choice would have been strippers.  Hell, if I was a stripper, I would drink all morning as well.  It's probably one of the only jobs where you can actually show up drunk and not get fired.  In fact, it's probably in your advantage to be drunk.

So I'm super competitive.  I mean, not like Tanya Harding competitive, but I like to win in everything.  My motto is why bother if you're not going to compete to win.  It's like people who say "I like to play for fun."  There's nothing fun about losing.  I will take out a five year old kid if I needed to.  So naturally when we play mini-golf, something as to be at stake.  We played for bottom-less mimosas.  I lost by three strokes and I had one of the best mini-golf days ever.  Then I remembered my competition grew up in Indiana and I'm sure there was really nothing to do there besides putt putt golf and bowling.  Then again, when you play for alcohol, is there really a loser in the situation?

The night ended with a dinner at Brangelina's favorite Mexican restaurant in Studio City: Casa Vega.  Honestly, I wanted to go there in hopes that there would be a sighting.  I used to live in the valley.  Like for about four years and would drive by the restaurant every day and that was the first time ever setting foot in the place.  The wait was half and hour, but the food was worth it.  Oh, and their margaritas come in pint glasses.  At some point of the night we started having a conversation with the waiter and an entire story about how we're visiting from Chicago was fabricated.  I'm not even sure why, but we found out that the waiter has a cousin who works for Goya which I'm assuming is based in Chicago.  As Jamie Foxx would say, I blame it on the alcohol.  

Pretty impressive day I would say.  I dare anyone to try to recreate this day on a weekend.  You would never make it out of Malibu with the traffic alone!