This year has been an interesting one, full of learning experiences. When I first started writing I had just moved onto the Rowan Campus at their new Rowan Boulevard apartments. I moved in with three 19-year-old girls, from a completely different culture. It just didn’t work. They were loud, didn’t respect my Celiac Disease and had zero respect for me in general. I moved out at the end of the semester but gave on campus housing another try. I got lucky the second time, until about half way through the semester. Originally, it was me and two other girls, we got along, had fun, were able to go out together, and loved to just hang out in the living room. Halfway through the semester we got another roommate, one whose boyfriend lived with us. Now one of my other roommates and I both have boyfriends, and they stayed occasionally, but they didn’t live with us. They didn’t cook in our kitchen, they didn’t come in and out of our apartment like they owned the place, and they definitely respected the fact that this was a GIRLS apartment. The new boyfriend did not. He was constantly coming in an out without warning, I even caught him in the kitchen in his boxers when I was coming home from class one day! He also constantly cooked in the kitchen without cleaning up, and had a love affair with my roommates toaster and then never cleaned up his crumbs. I was sick a lot this semester and the issues all started when he moved in with us.

So after two not so great experiences, my parents and I came to the conclusion it was time for me to move off campus…alone! I moved in about a week ago and it’s been amazing! The reason I haven’t been posting is that until Friday, I had no cable or internet. Surprisingly, I didn’t die. My brother was kind enough to show me how to set up a mobile hot spot to stream the Flyers games. Other than that I’ve been listening to the Phillies on the radio, and studying my butt off. Honestly, it was probably a good thing that I didn’t have TV or internet, it forced me to study for finals.

Finals this time was incredibly stressful. I had a few classes where my grades were borderline and the final could make me or break me. Plus my classes this semester were way harder than I had expected them to be. The semester officially ended yesterday, so now its just a waiting game to see if all my studying paid off. Fingers crossed it did! I do have to say, not worrying about roommates and if I was going to get sick by accidental cross contamination took a huge weight off my shoulders this week.

One of the other reason’s I moved down to Glassboro before the next semester started is that I have an internship starting next week. I’m so excited! This is an incredible opportunity to see if I really am headed in the direction I want to be in. I’m working with a non-profit halfway house doing employment counseling for their residents. While employment counseling isn’t my dream job, this is a good opportunity to see if I will be able to handle working with offenders and addicts. I know its going to be difficult, and I know that if I choose this as a career it will be difficult. I know that in this type of counseling you have to expect more failures than successes, but I also know that some people who have made mistakes genuinely want to change their lives, and I want to be the person that helps them if they make that choice.

Unfortunately, despite moving into my own place, and not having issues with gluten, I did manage to get sick this week. I say this as a warning to all my readers, stay away from aspartame! I bought Crystal Light at the grocery store figuring making my own drinks in a pitcher would be cheaper than buying bottles of juice. Within an hour of drinking it, I was dizzy, nauseous, had a headache, felt shaky, had stomach cramps, and felt like I was going to pass out. This lasted for 2 days! The only thing I can trace it back to is the aspartame in the Crystal Light. I couldn’t tell you the last time I have purposely ingested fake sugar of any type, especially aspartame. I’ve always avoided fake sugars like the plague. I genuinely believe that real sugar isn’t harmful if you’re not eating it in large qualities. With how little soda I drink, I never felt the need to drink diet.

Just to make sure I wasn’t crazy, I did some research on aspartame. This website has a rather extensive list of side effects, and I’m not sure how legitimate they are, but I do have to say I have heard from a few people that aspartame causes migraines, which is what I felt like I had for the past few days. I was also incredibly bloated and needed to pee like every 5 minutes! A lot of the symptoms listed on the site are obviously from long-term indulgence, but some of them definitely match up to how I was feeling. The information on the internet about aspartame is hard to decipher, there have been so many controversies and debates about the artificial sweetener that you really have to make your own decisions. I know that I will not be ingesting artificial sweeteners again, but that is my personal choice. I just wanted to get it out there to all my readers that maybe some of the reports of getting sick from aspartame may be true!

In other exciting news, I started a new job! This summer, with my internship, my summer class, and the fact that I’m living in Glassboro, working at Uno’s was just not going to work. The shifts were just at times that didn’t work for me. So after a little less than a year of employment at Uno’s, it was time to move on. I am now working at a salad place in the Deptford Mall. I love it! I work with some hilarious people, I’m out of work by 10 at night at the latest, and they were willing to work around my schedule this summer.  It seems to be a much better fit for me, and it is much less stressful than waiting tables.

Also exciting and very scary, the manfriend graduates on Friday! I am so proud of him, he’s graduating with something like 3 minors. He thinks he may have gotten straight A’s this semester, and while he hasn’t been able to find a job, he did get contracted to do some 3D modeling and mapping for a company. I’m excited for him to go out into the real world and be the amazing person I know he is!

It’s time for me to do housework. That is probably going to be the worse part about living on my own. Fortunately, I’m no longer trying to clean up after 4 other people! I hope everyone has a fantastic week!

Game Four of the Flyers vs. Devils is tonight at 7:30! I’m hoping we can even the score tonight!