Hello friends, welcome back to both school and the first issue of Crayons are Delicious of the semester! I hope the break was relaxing and the holidays were great for you all.

It has been a weird and interesting break for me. My break started on Monday after all my finals were done. Sit down around in a school circle, boys and girls. It’s story-time.

Before the break, I was working the night shift with the custodial department on campus. It’s an interesting job, you see a different side of campus and work with some awesome people. Plus they’re always hiring! They let you work 20 hours a week and you don’t need work study. I highly recommend it to anyone looking to make some extra cash right before Valentine’s Day.

Anyways, let’s get back to the story before I get sidetracked again. I have a bad habit of doing that. Like usually when I start a story, I start to go on like twelve other different side stories. Case in point, look above in the previous paragraph. Usually, stories take me around three hours to tell. I usually never finish either. Half the time I forget what my original point was.

Sorry, got sidetracked again. Where were we? Oh yeah, that’s right. What happened in my life these last few months.

It should also be dually noted that I started off this past semester as a computer science major and was contemplating adding a minor in math to that. Somewhere down the line last semester though, I decided I didn’t what to do that anymore, so I switched my major right before Thanksgiving break and, well, that was that.

Right before the break started, I also accepted two other job offers. One, sitting at a desk and making coffee in the morning. The other, as an editor at this amazing place that lets me write the weird and random stuff that comes out of my mind. They also put up with all my weird antics, as well as the fact that I have a tendency to try to get a run on sentence published. This happens more often than it should; I mean last semester I tried about six different times. Maybe this semester I can try for at least eight attempts.

So, break for me started with adopting a puppy. He was seven weeks old at the time and so adorable I couldn’t say no. He’s a border collie and blue heeler mix named Zero. Well, Zero and I hung out a lot during the break, usually before I had to go to work.

My work schedule for custodial changed to full time during the break. Instead of working my normal 20 hours a week, I was working 40 hours. I worked from 6 p.m. to 2:30 a.m. so I wasn’t getting home until 3:00 a.m. Adjusting to my new schedule of being at work by 8:00 a.m. has been interesting.

Other than work, I tried to write more. I also attempted to get back into the habit of playing guitar, making paracord bracelets, reading a book and knitting a scarf. These things are utter failures, “works in progress.”

I successfully made a couple dozen chocolate chip cookies, binged watched a couple TV shows and bought a few other movies. I cut back on the caffeine and played with a very hyper dog. It was kind of a nice and relaxing break, and I didn’t feel like I was constantly in a rush.

When Christmas came, I spent some time with family and friends, got some awesome coffee cups and some epic socks and t-shirts.

Side note: no one ever thinks about coffee cups or travel mugs for Christmas presents, but they make the perfect gift! Also, it’s weird; as a child getting clothes were such horrible presents, but as an adult, it’s like, “yes, I don’t have to buy some.”

And that’s side story number three. So other than that, it was mostly candy and gift cards for Christmas. So, let’s fast forward to New Years.

Making New Year’s resolutions is pretty hard. I started thinking of all the normal ones, “I’m going to lose those 20 pounds,” or “I’m going to drink less,” or “I’m going to get all A’s this semester,” et cetera, et cetera.

I don’t think I will come up with any good New Year’s resolutions. I did think about being a better person and trying to be more sociable, or something like that.

Also, why do people use the word anti-social when they mean shy? Shy is when you have social anxiety, anti-social is a sign of a sociopath. Seriously, look it up. And that concludes side story number four.

Anyways, I think I’m just going to go with the resolution of, “stop making promises to myself that I have no intention of keeping after the second week of January.” From now on, I will make changes for a greater reason besides the whole new year, new me thing.

I don’t know if this was me trying to vent about my lack of an exciting yet relaxing break, or if this was more of me talking about how easily I get sidetracked. My mind is honestly like a goldfish.

Until next time friends, be safe, wear your seatbelt, don’t run with scissors and drink your milk.

Image courtesy of Nico Ortega | The Criterion