Excuses for not writing a blog post today:

• I took a giant chunk out of my fingertip this morning while opening some pink Breast Cancer Awareness staples. The bandage solution I devised is not conducive to typing. (I posted the picture to Instagram earlier.)
• After work, I picked up my new glasses and immediately experienced that "Ooo, the ground is trying to give my face a high-five!" sensation that goes hand-in-hand with a new prescription.
• Sleep is good.
• Rewatching every episode of House Hunters is an important responsibility that cannot be ignored.
• Sleep.
• Sleeeeep.

So instead of happy, well-adjusted sentences, you get a lovely bunch of coconuts and a lovelier list of excuses. How are you doing on this lovely 6th day of September?

If you have Meijer stores in your area, you might have seen a commercial recently that depicts two children reacting with sheer joy when their mother brings home school supplies. The voiceover points out that the children are only reacting that way because they are paid actors. Then the narrator says something that makes me so furious that I clench my hands into fists every time I hear it: "Your kids will never get this excited about school supplies. So why pay more than you have to?"

Do you know what I did for my birthday this year? I went back-to-school shopping, even though I am dropping out of school. DIE IN A FIRE, MEIJER.

For as long as I can remember, back-to-school shopping has been my favorite excursion of the year. Unlike the kids in that commercial, I never let my mom do the shopping without me. I was always leading the way, stopping in every aisle twice, just to make sure I didn't overlook the perfect pencil or the most prestigious day planner or the best spiral-bound notebook. My mother would try to limit the items I would purchase, and I would cleverly avoid her limits by asking for the extra items as birthday presents. (I felt so lucky to have a birthday in early September.)

Some of you might remember that I even worked as a cashier for a year at Office Depot. I was so animated when talking about pens and stationery in my interview for the position that I startled (read: disturbed) the store manager and the front-end manager.

People, I love school supplies.

Even if I'm now at a place in life where I must refer to them as office supplies, I love staplers and clipboards and reams of paper and half-inch binders and two-inch binders and good heavens, my fingers are tripping over each other trying to keep up with my excitement.

Phew.

Anyway, if you ask me what I did for my birthday yesterday, I probably won't mention the trip to Staples because 1) I cheated on Office Depot and 2) I can't talk about it without hyperventilating. And definitely don't get me started on the fact that I watched Return of the King with my parents or that I had Giordano's pizza and my mom's goo bars for dinner tonight.

P.S. Link to the Meijer video, for any curious monkeys in the audience.

I'm more than a month behind in posting pictures to Flickr. As of this morning, I'm completely out of clean underwear. There is a solid inch of dust on my coffee table, and I can't tell you the last time I set aside time to exercise.

For several years, I've put up with these things because I've been working really hard to establish a quality portfolio at my job and to finish my degree through DeVry. Both of those things are important to me, and I exert every ounce of energy I have to be successful at both. But I have to admit that I've really been worn pretty thin this year, and the constant drain on my mental energy is having a negative impact, specifically on my performance at school.

So I think I'm going to cut myself some slack. I'm anxious to be able to spend more time taking care of myself, so I can in turn be a better friend, sister, daughter, etc. The best way I can do that is to pull out of school. And that's what I plan to do.

I hate admitting that I can't do it all, but I'm so excited by the thought of what I can do without the mental, emotional, and financial burden of school. Making this one decision will force me into moving forward with my life in a lot of ways (hello, student loans that I can't afford to pay off with my current job), but I'm excited about that, too.

Anyone want to tell me this is a super great decision? Leave a comment and remind me later to give you a hug.