I wish I could help out my parents more with financial stuff and things that they need. My dad had to stop working a couple of years back because of illness that was pretty serious. He has a good attitude about his disease, even though he's in pain most of the time. My dad gets a pension which is decent and my mom works part-time, but the medical bills are high.

I'd like to help them with their bills. I also wish I could buy them a stove that actually worked, and a good dryer. I'd buy them the materials to fix the porch. I'd treat my mom to a vacation because is under a lot of stress much of the time.

I don't make a very big salary. After paying rent and bills- it's hard to find much extra. I wish there was more I could do for the people I cared about.

Everything is going well here. It's a little stressful the next couple of weeks with papers/projects/grading/teaching etc. I've really been liking the school and my job lately. I've felt a lot better about both this semester. I may have a couple of part-time jobs this summer that might be decent. I'm not 100% sure if they are hiring me, though.

Thank you all for the advice about the internet stuff. I have been using safari as my default browser, and I really like it. I may try firefox too.

Happy Hannukah to all of you who celebrate it! (Actually, (e:carolinian) is the only other person on estrip I know who does, but I'm not really sure about this).

Tonight is the first night of Hannukah. Hannukah's not one of the most important Jewish holidays, and I came from a mixed-faith background where we celebrated Christmas, too. I've felt down the past couple of days not to be able to see my mom or the rest of my family for Hannukah, though. I don't think I've ever not spent at least part of it with her.
She actually sent me this really nice package yesterday with an itunes gift certificate, socks, five dollars, and a funny card. It was a great surprise... I wasn't really expecting anything.

I'm pretty stressed out between work and school, but I'm "hanging in there." I'm looking forward to Christmas and New Years.