Life changes

It's been a long couple weeks. My mom drove up from NJ (after driving there from FL) to visit us and my sister and her boyfriend flew in from the west coast to surprise her. We had a busy busy weekend. Friday was spent exploring Boston with Paul able to take off work and come with us. We met Tom Babson at the Cheers bar...he played Sam's lawyer for 11 years on Cheers! We got autographs and pictures and that was pretty cool. I showed everyone my own personal tour add-ons...if you've ever had the Jenn McArtor Boston tour then you'll know what I'm talking about. If not, then you just need to come visit! Saturday Paul and I did a 5k fundraiser for our friend Greg and his wife and then raced home to shower so we could drive up to the Chauncey Creek Lobster Pier in Maine. Yummy!

Sunday we got up and went to Salem, MA and ate lunch at Kelly's Roast Beef. Someone in FL had told my mom about it. If you're not from New England then you don't understand New Englanders obsession with roast beef restaurants. I have to say I didn't either at first and now LOVE LOVE LOVE me some roast beef. I didn't think Kelly's was as good as Bill & Bob's so I was disappointed. After lunch we drove into Ipswich to go to Crane's Beach. We passed a little winery/orchard place and stopped on the way back. Yummy icecream and lots of neat stuff.

We also stopped at Trader Joe's on the way home because my mom had never been to one. I was exhausted! Monday was time to say goodbye and God bless my mom for driving everyone to the airport in early morning rush hour. I had a training for work and actually walked there (4 miles round trip).

Sunday we received sad news. Our cousin Karen had died of cancer. I hadn't seen her in a long time and feel a lot of regret that I didn't take the time to contact her before she passed away. I had recently sent a card, but it didn't make it in time. It just reinforced to me that life is so precious, that its important to take the time to tell people thanks or how much they mean to us. Karen had sent us a Christmas ornament with our name on it and I never told her how much that meant to me, but it will hold a special place on our tree.

Thursday I drove over to NJ for the wake and funeral. I have never been to a funeral filled with so much love. Karen lived an amazing life of service to others...her church, the Ladies Auxillery of the VFW, and 22 years working with AIDS patients at the hospital. Sadly, she didn't take the time to take care of herself. All everyone could say was what an incredible woman she was and how much she touched people's lives. The funeral was standing room only and had a line of cars probably a mile long on the way to the cemetary. Karen was in the military and the Honor Guard came to play taps and fold the flag from the casket.

My dad, aunt, and uncles were also in town (and I stopped to see my Grammy and we saw my dad's bff Howard and his wife Ellen), but the best part of the weekend (if a funeral can have a best part) was to get to know Karen's daughter, my cousin Katie. Katie just finished her freshman year of college and we've been emailing back and forth all year. She stayed with me at the hotel and I got to spend the weekend getting to know my cousin. She is incredible and I'm so glad that she chose to stay with me. Her and her friend Sarah are coming to visit for July 4th weekend and I cannot wait to see her again!

I was sad to leave on Sunday to come home. I think people can forget how much extended family can mean to them and I am so thankful for getting to spend the weekend with my family even if it took such a tragedy to bring us together again. I hope we remain in closer contact and make more of an effort to see each other. I'd like to plan a get together for my cousins where we can have a cousins weekend somewhere.

So I hope y'all out there are well and making the most of your lives and your time with those you love.

Reducing my carbon footprint

So, yesterday I had a meeting at the state hospital near my house and by near I mean 2 miles away. Not too far, right? After the gluttonous weekend I had with my family (think 2 Maine lobsters with melted butter, roast beef sandwiches, goat cheese mashed potatos, Mike's Pastry--and let me tell you that those lobster tail dessert things are DELICIOUS, and copious amounts of wine)and I probably weigh more than most of the Biggest Losers weigh now so I have the bright idea that I am going to WALK TO MY TRAINING. I get up at 6:45am to say goodbye to my family and debate heading back to bed because realistically I could've slept until 8am to be at my 9am training if I drove. But I didn't go back to bed. I stayed up and got ready for work.

I wanted to leave the house by 8:30 so I'd have a good hour (I know an hour to walk 2 hours, right?), but didn't end up leaving my house until 8:40. And I forgot my ipod. So, I'm walking along and its pretty nice out, but I'm not going as fast as I would've of if I had my ipod although just being present was nice, too. But I start to get nervous that I'm not going to make it despite the fact that I know its only 2 miles and I know I can walk a 5k in under 45 minutes. So I pick up the pace and I start to sweat. I see this woman in front of me and I hear her singing as in top of her lungs singing mixed in with some talking. I figure she is an escaped patient from the psych hospital. Well, ya know how usually when you get caught singing, especially when you can't sing, you typically will stop singing...yeah, not this chick. I walked past her and she kept singing her little heart out. God love her cause she definitely entertained me.

Now I'm walking along wishing I had brought some deoderant with me. I stop at the Shell station to buy (not deoderant), but a giant iced coffee. Picture my sweaty ass standing in line to get my DD iced coffee and the old guy behind me is telling the other guy behind me how he got lucky over the weekend. Yeah. And now I have that imagine to carry along with my coffee up to the hospital. Yes, up as in up hill. Not a huge hill, but all sun and definitely more strenous when I should be trying to not sweat so much.

I was almost embarrassed when I got to the training and definitely felt bad for whoever had to sit next to me. Luckily it was pretty cold in the room and I cooled off fairly quickly.

I enjoyed the training and then had the pleasure of walking home. I only jumped twice...once because I heard an animal in the bushes next to me and once because I wasn't paying attention and looked up to see a woman right in front of me (she was jogging) and I'm sure she thought I was having a seizure when I jumped a foot in the year at her appearance. I didn't see any turkeys though.

But yay me! I reduced my carbon footprint by not driving to work and I got in some good exercise (4 miles of walking)!

It's good to be #1

Worst-Paying College Degrees
We all know money doesn't buy happiness--and that's good news for these new grads.
by Charles Purdy, Yahoo! HotJobs senior editor
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There's no denying the value of a college education: According to recent U.S. Census surveys, the median salary for college grads is more than $20,000 higher than that of people with only a high school diploma. And the unemployment rate for people with bachelor's degrees is almost half the rate for people without.

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But some degrees are worth more than others, as PayScale.com shows in its 2010 report on the earning power of bachelor's degrees.

No surprise, engineering degrees continue to be top earners--and (also no big shocker) you have to go pretty far down the list before you see the liberal arts well represented.

But there's more to choosing a major than comparing dollar amounts. We salute and congratulate the graduates whose interests (and hard work) have led them to the following degrees--the lowest-earning degrees on PayScale's list.

10. Drama (starting annual salary: $35,600; mid-career annual salary: $56,600)
Some mega-millionaire movie stars with drama degrees (Denzel Washington and Meryl Streep, for instance) may be skewing these numbers upward--for every Denzel and Meryl, there are thousands of thespians struggling to make ends meet. But you don't study drama because you want to get rich--you study drama because you love the theater. (And an ability to act comes in handy in many professions.)

9. Fine arts (starting annual salary: $35,800; mid-career annual salary: $56,300)
Well, it takes an artist to make a thrift-store wardrobe look like a million bucks.

8. Hospitality and tourism (starting annual salary: $37,000; mid-career annual salary: $54,300)
Jobs that include tips may be skewing these numbers downward--and this is an industry that looks to be on the rebound as the economy improves. Plus, the perks associated with jobs in hospitality and tourism may compensate for the comparatively low salaries--many jobs in the industry allow extensive travel (or provide considerable travel discounts).

7. Education (starting annual salary: $36,200; mid-career annual salary: $54,100)
For the right people, teaching is an immensely rewarding career--and it's truly a noble one. The good news is, according to the U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics (BLS), the employment opportunities for primary, secondary, and special education teachers are expected to grow by 14 percent in the coming decade. And there will be plenty of new opportunities in continuing education for adults, as professional skill requirements change ever more rapidly.

6. Horticulture (starting annual salary: $37,200; mid-career annual salary: $53,400)
It seems that a green thumb doesn't necessarily bring in the greenbacks. But when you work among flowers and plants in a nursery or garden, who needs 'em?

5. Spanish (starting annual salary: $35,600; mid-career annual salary: $52,600)
As an old proverb puts it, when you learn a new language, you "gain a new soul." Who could put a price on that? And certainly, knowing Spanish--the language with the second-highest number of native speakers (after Mandarin)--in addition to English opens up a world of job opportunities beyond Spanish teacher or translator (as a plus, you can better enjoy a world of fantastic Spanish-language music, movies, and literature).

4. Music (starting annual salary: $34,000; mid-career annual salary: $52,000)
Hey, if being a musician were easy, everyone would do it. Some of us are guitar heroes; most of us just play the video game.

3. Theology (starting annual salary: $34,800; mid-career annual salary: $51,500)
This is the perfect example of a degree earned by someone who's "not in it for the money": people who choose to study theology often feel they're pursuing a higher calling (and often feel a strong desire to do good in the world, no matter the cost).

2. Elementary education (starting annual salary: $33,000; mid-career annual salary: $42,400)
Specializing in elementary education means a lower median salary than an education degree (number 7).

1. Social work (starting annual salary: $33,400; mid-career annual salary: $41,600)
They say that crime doesn't pay. As this list seems to point out, neither does helping people. So it's a good thing that many college students seem to believe that helping others is its own reward--social workers are an indispensable safety net for people who've fallen on difficult times. And the BLS reports that the outlook for opportunities in this field are favorable--particularly for social workers who work in rural areas or with senior citizens.

Thanks Rollins for that $130k education leading me to the lowest paid career in the country. That seems like a fair trade-off.