"Why are you still talking?" and other rude things I've said lately,

just in case you ever doubted that I am thoughtless, sarcastic, shallow, and mean.


"This is not relevant to my interests."

"Why hasn't a friend or family member mentioned how hideous that is? Does NO ONE love her?"

"I sometimes find myself doubting the value of his existence."

"The hotel seems very concerned that you are all filthy monkeys. Soap, shampoo, etc. all labeled with the command, CLEAN. Or perhaps they are differentiating from the dirty lotion and shampoo? Vexing..."

"Don't mistake good manners for respect."

"Yes, you're very smart. Shut up."

"I'm sure Jesus loves her and stuff, but seriously, that hair cannot enter heaven."

"I know you were raised by wolves but even YOU must realize that is completely unacceptable!"

"Don't kill them. Remember, you are peaceful. You are strong. They are assholes. You wouldn't look good in orange."

"I didn't say it looked good. I said, 'Oh, you got your hair done!'"

Who the heck are you?

I won a coaching package which included MB personality testing, Strengthfinder testing, and a couple other things. 

Unsurprisingly, my MB type was INTP, although, as ever, my introvert/extrovert tendencies are borderline but with a skew toward introversion~ which always surprises people because I am friendly and socially adept. 
 Which may have something to do with what the Clifton StrengthsFinder said about me. According to that I am very into connectedness, in an INTP way, and am also into ideation, context, adaptability, and I am a learner. All these things are true. The text of description is at the bottom of the post so you can read if you like or skip if you'd rather. So, turns out, I am headed for a good job field and I should just carry on with my bad self. Good to know; that is what I was planning to do anyway, which is exactly what an INTP would say.So there ya have it. 

Connectedness

Things happen for a reason. You are sure of it. You are sure of it because in your soul you know that we are all connected. Yes, we are individuals, responsible for our own judgments and in possession of our own free will, but nonetheless we are part of something larger. Some may call it the collective unconscious. Others may label it spirit or life force. But whatever your word of choice, you gain confidence from knowing that we are not isolated from one another or from the earth and the life on it. This feeling of Connectedness implies certain responsibilities. If we are all part of a larger picture, then we must not harm others because we will be harming ourselves. We must not exploit because we will be exploiting ourselves. Your awareness of these responsibilities creates your value system. You are considerate, caring, and accepting. Certain of the unity of humankind, you are a bridge builder for people of different cultures. Sensitive to the invisible hand, you can give others comfort that there is a purpose beyond our humdrum lives. The exact articles of your faith will depend on your upbringing and your culture, but your faith is strong. It sustains you and your close friends in the face of life’s mysteries.

Ideation 

You are fascinated by ideas. What is an idea? An idea is a concept, the best explanation of the most events. You are delighted when you discover beneath the complex surface an elegantly simple concept to explain why things are the way they are. An idea is a connection. Yours is the kind of mind that is always looking for connections, and so you are intrigued when seemingly disparate phenomena can be linked by an obscure connection. An idea is a new perspective on familiar challenges. You revel in taking the world we all know and turning it around so we can view it from a strange but strangely enlightening angle. You love all these ideas because they are profound, because they are novel, because they are clarifying, because they are contrary, because they are bizarre. For all these reasons you derive a jolt of energy whenever a new idea occurs to you. Others may label you creative or original or conceptual or even smart. Perhaps you are all of these. Who can be sure? What you are sure of is that ideas are thrilling. And on most days this is enough.

Context

You look back. You look back because that is where the answers lie. You look back to understand the present. From your vantage point the present is unstable, a confusing clamor of competing voices. It is only by casting your mind back to an earlier time, a time when the plans were being drawn up, that the present regains its stability. The earlier time was a simpler time. It was a time of blueprints. As you look back, you begin to see these blueprints emerge. You realize what the initial intentions were. These blueprints or intentions have since become so embellished that they are almost unrecognizable, but now this Context theme reveals them again. This understanding brings you confidence. No longer disoriented, you make better decisions because you sense the underlying structure. You become a better partner because you understand how your colleagues came to be who they are. And counterintuitively you become wiser about the future because you saw its seeds being sown in the past. Faced with new people and new situations, it will take you a little time to orient yourself, but you must give yourself this time. You must discipline yourself to ask the questions and allow the blueprints to emerge because no matter what the situation, if you haven’t seen the blueprints, you will have less confidence in your decisions.

Adaptability

You live in the moment. You don’t see the future as a fixed destination. Instead, you see it as a place that you create out of the choices that you make right now. And so you discover your future one choice at a time. This doesn’t mean that you don’t have plans. You probably do. But this theme of Adaptability does enable you to respond willingly to the demands of the moment even if they pull you away from your plans. Unlike some, you don’t resent sudden requests or unforeseen detours. You expect them. They are inevitable. Indeed, on some level you actually look forward to them. You are, at heart, a very flexible person who can stay productive when the demands of work are pulling you in many different directions at once.

Learner

You love to learn. The subject matter that interests you most will be determined by your other themes and experiences, but whatever the subject, you will always be drawn to the process of learning. The process, more than the content or the result, is especially exciting for you. You are energized by the steady and deliberate journey from ignorance to competence. The thrill of the first few facts, the early efforts to recite or practice what you have learned, the growing confidence of a skill mastered—this is the process that entices you. Your excitement leads you to engage in adult learning experiences—yoga or piano lessons or graduate classes. It enables you to thrive in dynamic work environments where you are asked to take on short project assignments and are expected to learn a lot about the new subject matter in a short period of time and then move on to the next one. This Learner theme does not necessarily mean that you seek to become the subject matter expert, or that you are striving for the respect that accompanies a professional or academic credential. The outcome of the learning is less significant than the “getting there.”

Golly, commuting is just so gosh darn fun!

So, this is a little look at what I do to get to the U for class.

I drive to the little town pictured at the top of this little map, there I hop onto a bus which does a straight-shot run on to the campus at the bottom of the image.

From front door to classroom it takes about two hours and I arrive just before my first class.

Doing that two days a week seems doable even though on the way back in the middle of the day there is no straight-shot bus so it takes me a bit longer to get home. 

Next term, I will have to be in class 4-5 days a week, with 1 (one) class each day. The idea of commuting for a total of 5 hours a day to be in a class for 80 minute.... it just makes me, I mean, I can't even begin to, I'm just saying, do you really think... I mean, come on, people! How the... what is the... REALLY???

Soooo, I began to explore other options.

Driving all the way to the U would mean paying upward of $300 in parking fees and dealing with rush hour traffic, gah! Not really a great plan in my opinion, but I was convinced a better plan existed and was merely awaiting my discovery of it. After hours of exploring transit pages I believe I have located it!

I will drive to this lovely park and ride facility...

which is pretty cool. The bus I will catch onto campus in the morning leaves from the area off to the right of this image but later in the morning when I return to my car the bus pulls into that area in the center median which has platforms and walkways to get pedestrians to the buses and back and forth to the parking structure and I will hop into my car and be home in HALF the time it is taking me to get home this term. Of course, I am going to have to drive further but at least I won't be parking on campus and as long as I head out before rush hour in the afternoon the traffic will be no problem, yay!

** UPDATE 3/3/14**

The navigator on my phone pisses me off and Verizon and Google should both be scolded soundly for wasting my time and being uncooperative!! So, it occurred to me that in driving the stretch of road leading to this new park and ride I will be encountering pretty heavy traffic therefore I mapped a route that used surface streets from the point where, I know from experience, the traffic starts to line up. I printed it out and hopped into my little car and headed south this morning. Sure enough, at just about the point I anticipated, traffic slowed and I decided to use my surface street plan. I turned on my phone's sat-nav and it estimated a travel time of 45 minutes to the park and ride. I turned off and began paralleling the freeway and even with stoplights I was going faster than the cars on I-5. However, my freaking phone kept trying to route me back onto the parking lot of a freeway instead of giving me a surface street route or time estimate. Every I passed a ramp onto I-5 it would first try to get me to loop back around and then it would send me to the next on-ramp and estimate my time and distance that way, grrrrrr.

Once I finally passed the last possible entrance to the freeway it finally recalculated properly and voila, my travel time magically decreased. In total, I made the trip in 20 minutes instead of 45. I guess I should be glad though, as more people rely on Google they are all getting terrible driving advice and that leaves the side roads clear for meeeeee!

My trial run went well and I am excited about my new plan and the fact that it doesn't cost $300 a term to park there.