Month: August 2022

The fall semester has started!

Category: Personal
Tags:
Words: 366

HACC fall 2022 swag

HACC’s fall semester started on August 29th, 2022. If it weren’t for recovering from the effects of COVID, I would have been all over that. But alas, I was, and so I wasn’t. But I was still excited. So excited, in fact, and well enough that I completely finished a class less than 24 hours after it launched a few days before the official start of the semester. Yes, you read that right. But in my teacher’s defense, it was a beginner’s class on the internet and web design. The final project was to put together a 6-page portfolio using HTML skills learned in the class. Um, have you seen what I can do with CSS? I think I can handle some basic HTML.

Amusingly, I’m actually not 100% finished. I need to grab some screen-recording software and do a presentation of the actual portfolio. This is the part I’m dreading, because I hate talking to an audience (this is why I’m not a vlogger, and why you’ll rarely find me doing videos on Instagram). But still, finishing a 16 week class in about 16 hours (while sick with COVID and a fever, mind you, and starting in the middle of the night) will hopefully show my advisor (who is the teacher of that class) I do in fact know what I’m talking about, and so pretty please listen to me next time when I ask for more advanced classes, because this one? Yawn. Still, easiest 100% ever!

This leaves 16 weeks for three classes instead of four, and one of the three is another beginner-level HTML class. My first homework assignment instructed me to use a total of five elements of HTML and/or CSS to construct a one-paragraph biography of myself. I ended up throwing in an inline stylesheet and validating it along with the HTML, and I styled the hideous horizontal line the teacher insisted we include, for good measure. I’d have finished this class, too, except this teacher is releasing the class work week by week, instead of all at once, so I have to sit and twiddle my thumbs.

My other two classes will be a bit more stimulating: Windows Server and desktop administration. I’m excited for both!

♥ Jenn
2 Comments


♥

We caught COVID

Category: Personal
Tags:
Words: 229

Our household caught COVID-19. We traced our probable exposure to my brother, A, who chose not remain unvaccinated. Alyssa and I spent the week of August 14th – August 18th with my mother and brother, and on August 15th we picked up my brother from work early because he wasn’t feeling well – feverish, chills, headache, body aches. On August 19th, Alyssa’s symptoms slammed into her out of nowhere – high fever, intense headache and body aches. August 20th, I was down. August 21st, down went Dan. August 22nd, bye Ryan. During that time period we all tested positive, and because my mother and brother were at my house, I was able to test and confirm their positives, too.

Obviously we can’t say with 100% confirmation that it’s my brother’s fault we caught COVID. But there’s this: we’ve gone the entire pandemic without getting sick. We ditched masks months ago and have been fine. Yet my brother’s co-worker is out sick two weeks ago, and then my brother gets sick, and suddenly we get sick? Hmm. Kinda sus. Eh. But I forgive A. He’s my brother, after all, and I love him. ♥

After a week and a half, one trip to the ER’s Urgent Care section for Zofran and fluids (Alyssa), a shit-ton of DayQuil and NyQuil (all of us), and copious amounts of vomiting (Daniel), we’re all feeling better.

♥ Jenn
No Comments


♥

Alyssa’s kayakcident

Category: Personal
Tags:
Words: 457

One of the more disconcerting parts of parenthood is letting your children go to explore and go on adventures. Alyssa recently discovered kayaking, of all things. She did so well with the rental, and with researching kayaking, so when she stocked up on a 10′ kayak and all of the basic supplies, and had me drop her off at a creek with the promise that she would be BACK and for us (my mother and I) to come BACK (emphasis both mine and hers) for her, I thought nothing of it.

Of course, as the blog title implies, things went awry. Alyssa’s first mistake was deciding to not come back to her starting point, but to drift down the creek…some three miles. When I checked on her location (thank you, Google Maps), she was in the middle of the creek in the middle of the woods, with no way for me to get to her, not even with our SUV.

Her second mistake? She over-estimated her strength and endurance.

Fortunately she knew her limits, and when she realized she was in over her head — stuck in a creek, trapped with cliffs on both sides, and a steep railroad, surrounded by woods, in the dark, etc., she stopped and called for help. Ironically, she let me know she was calling for help a few minutes after I joked to my mother about how funny (but also not funny) it would be if her adventure ended with her being fished out by rangers.

Alyssa’s “simple” kayaking trip down a creek turned into a 5-hour ordeal during which two police officers struggled to find her, only found her after I sent screenshots and coordinates (again, thank you, Google Maps), both of us were freaking out because her phone battery was quickly draining (and got down to 10% by the time the officers did get to her), those same two officers ended up stranded with her because they scrambled down a cliff to get to her but couldn’t get back up, and after several hours of back-and-forth with dispatch over how to GTFO of the wooded area, they eventually climbed/walked out a good mile along the railroad tracks, with the nice but grumbly officers carrying the kayak for her.

Needless to say, lessons were definitely learned! I was just so relieved to have my baby girl back, safe and sound. No need for yelling or scolding…she learned her lesson quickly enough, as she was stranded in the dark, with limited visibility and a dying cell phone, as rescuers struggled to reach her, while she died of embarrassment at getting herself into such a situation.

Alyssa has since spent considerable time doing a lot more research on kayaking safely. 🙂

♥ Jenn
No Comments


♥

Reprieve

Category: Private
Tags:
Words: 128

This is a Members Only post.
Login | Register

Members Only posts are semi-private, viewable only to people I am comfortable sharing more private details of my life with. While registration on my blog will always be open, not all registrations will be approved for Members Only. Please contact me at x@jenn.love if you’d like to be considered for Members Only posts.

♥ Jenn
No Comments


♥

Blog updates in progress

Category: JennDOTLove
Tags:
Words: 85

I’m working on fixing up Jenn.love. I threw the blog together last year, but haven’t done much with it. Now, with two weeks until my college fall semester begins, I’m going to actually build a layout, tweak plugins, etc. But first I need to fix some core issues.

Please ignore any mess. 🙂

P.S. During my updates I inadvertently wiped my registered users. I’m sorry! Please re-register / register to be considered for private posts (things I’m not comfortable sharing with the internet at large).

♥ Jenn
No Comments


♥

Summer semester 2022: done!

Category: Personal
Tags:
Words: 63

I am proud to say that after working my ass off this summer, all 12 weeks, I aced both intense 12-week classes with As!

Computer Information Systems: 95.19%

CIS 105 (summer 2022)

Computer Networking Technology: 94%

The fall/winter 2022-2023 semester starts on August 29th, though I have a late-start class that starts on September 11th. I’d be lying if I said I wasn’t excited. I have always loved school!

♥ Jenn
3 Comments


♥

Nothing changes if nothing changes

Category: Private
Tags:
Words: 1452

This is a Members Only post.
Login | Register

Members Only posts are semi-private, viewable only to people I am comfortable sharing more private details of my life with. While registration on my blog will always be open, not all registrations will be approved for Members Only. Please contact me at x@jenn.love if you’d like to be considered for Members Only posts.

♥ Jenn
No Comments


♥

Some random feelings about recovery, and PTSD (not necessarily related)

Category: Addiction
Tags:
Words: 284

I’m at a point in my recovery where I recognize the behavior that led to the mistakes I made, but I have no interest in re-visiting those points in history if they don’t serve a purpose.

If you are still re-visiting those points in history for the wrong reasons, then you are not at a good point in recovery. If all you can do is wallow in toxicity and throw it around to try and hurt others, then you are not in a good place at all, and you need to take a step back, take a deep breath, and start again. Part of recovery, a big part of being well on the road to a better place in your journey, is being able to move past the hurt others have done to you, and instead look to the hurt you have done to others, and what you can do to ensure that you never repeat those behaviors, and that you instead exhibit healthier behaviors that lift you and others up.

*

My therapist thinks a lot of my PTSD issues comes from me trying to quell the urge to deal with my trauma. My fault is in trying to simply push it aside and distract myself with Everyday Life. I’m working on actually working THROUGH my feelings instead of just blowing past them, because I have learned the hard way that difficult emotions are not ones to be ignored. They will wait, until a point, and then make themselves known in order to be acknowledged. I keep having to learn, unfortunately at not just my own expense but also at the expense of others, to not make those feelings wait until the acknowledgment point.

♥ Jenn
No Comments


♥