Apartment living lessons learned

Over the weekend I was talking with a 2nd year grad student from the program I just graduated from about living in an apartment. It was fun mutually complaining about space and sharing the little bit of space you might get with a room mate. Which lead to the I think I need my own space to really be successful in grad school. I am the biggest advocate for having your own space where you can move about as you wish.
Here is my list of why you should live alone while in grad school:
You can live acording to some mythical clock so you can finish projects
You can eat when, what, and where ever you want
You can wear pjs all day even if you aren't sick
You can alternate between writing, having a dance party, and back to writing in 15 mins
No one wants to hear you talking in your sleep about Chickering's 7 Vectors
You don't have to explain your obsession with postit notes
You can leave books all over the floor
You only have your self to blame when you procrastinated

Now here is a tip on where and what to look for in an apartment close to campus:
Be close but not too close - any where that has more students then non students gets a little out of hand.
If you walk up to the leasing office and there are beer bottles in the planters, walk away.
Never move to a unit that has any major destractors within ear or eye shot (pool, tennis court, volleyball, community laundry, main entry gates, major streets)
Check out the community at random hours of the day just to get a feel for it.
Make sure a grocery store (or in my case a Target) is within walking distance.
Meet people who live there
Walk around after a tour, you see different things when you are on your own.


I have horror stories of apartment living and shopping. I have had crazy neighbors. But through it all I learned and lived. Good luck!

Stress is a state of mind...

My eye was twitching for 3 weeks straight. Probably due to all the things I have been trying to juggle at the same time. Fortunately some of the most stressful things have been working themselves out. We just finished a big event for one of my class projects. It was great to help the community and work with my cohort but I am glad that the day is over and now all we have to do is write about it.
I have found that stress and grad school seem to go hand in hand. Which is exciting (insert sarcasm)! So now I stress about work, school, papers, family, friends, group work, money, coworkers, pretty much anything! To say I am a worry wort is an understatement! I feel it is in my bones to worry! After all I am an older sister who at a young age developed a concern for others as well as an fear that I missed out on something!
So in the spirit of missing things I am have recently been feeling super nostalgic and missing the undergrad experience. Maybe it is because I felt like that was a challenging time but in reflection it was an exciting time. Grad school is exciting and challenging. I am having a great time getting to know my class mates.

So now I resolve to enjoy grad school.
To be over involved. To not get bothered by the stress. To be in the moment, enjoying it.
Because you are only in grad school once!

Summer 'down time'

On the down spin of a 4 week break in my graduate program. With one year under my belt, I feel amazing. My program is great (yippee for Challenge and Support, go Sanford go!), my cohort is AMAZING, the classes and faculty consistently exceed my expectations, SA and Higher Ed events are inspiring and motivating. I know I am in the right profession and at the right time, in history and in my life. I have some professional experiences leading into the program and have had time to reflect on my undergrad experiences.
I guess I am feeling that all this Challenge and Support is draining! I am SO mentally tired, but I want more. :) Learning never stops.
I am grateful for the break, but feel that I need to keep expanding my knowledge base. So rather then pull out a text to reread, I have started tweeting. Yep twitter is my new addiction. I have had an account for a year or more. I faze in and out using it. From Ed Cabellon, I found the SA Blog/Collaborative and #sachat on twitter. It is great to get involved in conversations and watch other SAPs talk about daily life! In my first day following the discussion everyone was talking about major retailers promoting underage drinking through end-cap displays! Exciting to be apart of the future of SAPs and HE and to see it all happening online! :)
Back to my obsession...
Tweeted about my MS program having us take an abbreviated MBTI and also the StrengthsFinder!

It's about time

So I created this blog a long time ago. I thought that I would be able and motivated to blog my grad school and developmental experiences. It wasn't until I became the IT coordinator for the Higher Education Leadership Organization (HELO), this is a student organization for the students in the Master's in Higher Education program as CSU Fullerton, that I saw the need for me to blog.
In the last year I have, out of necessity learned to use lots of web 2.0-3.0 technology. I started being a power Google user (multiple Gmail accounts, Google Reader, Google Docs, Google Sites, Google Scholar, Google Books, iGoogle, Google Talk, Google Mobile, Blogger, Google Calendar, to name a few). I have 3 blogger blogs, personal (GlueGirl), school (This one), and an Eportfolio (For school). I have 3 Tumblr accounts (Jaimeiscrafty, HEInspire, and JMedesigns). I tweet @jaimeiscrafty & @helo_csuf. I manage the HELO website. I love Flickr. This is just a little bit of my love of tech. I had to turn the web off on my BB pearl flip because I was WAY too distracted by it.
SOOO All of that rambling and linking over with, I just saw a tweet about the lack of women in student affairs who blog or tweet about technology. Kristen is getting together with others to create a group of Women in SA on Tech. I say great idea! Let's get talking or typing!