50 pages into Nickel and Dimed.

So far the main character is dealing with moving away from her home and normal life to experience middle class life to write a book. She moved in a little cabin like house 30 miles away from where she will be working at (pg 12). She then finds a job. She applies at many different places like hotels, supermarkets, and restaurants. She didn't want to be a waitress because she experienced that exhaustion in high school, but that’s what she ends up doing because they gave her the job (pg 16). later on she found out that even with her tips she couldn't afford rent one month, so she had to get another job. She got an other waitress job working a morning shift while still keeping her other waitress job during the evening shift (pg 28-29). She even had to move into a trailer closer to her jobs to save gas money and plus the rent was cheaper. She was in a high crime neighborhood now. She also explains the hardships of the people she has met so far too. Gail lives with a roommate, Claude is living with roommates but wants out, Annett lives with her mother, Marianne lives in a trailer, Billy lives in a trailer, Andy lives on his small boat, Tina lives in a hotel, and Joan lives in her car behind her work (pg 25-26).
While I was reading I thought that she should try to find a different job then to be a waitress. She hardly makes money with the wages being only $2 something plus tips. If she would get a minimum wage job she could probably get down to one job and work everyday all day. That is still crazy that all those people are living the way they do. Living in a hotel and car would be pretty rough. She hardly has time to eat even. She is late for her evening job because she has to change clothes and drive. I just hope I don't have to have two jobs and have any time for myself or even have enough money to have a day off.

Stress journal

A stress journal is something that you can keep track of how you cope with stress and how you react when being in a stressful situation. You pick a week or longer to keep track of and you record your time, stressful even, reaction, and coping method. I learned that when I’m in a stressful situation I either deal with it head on, walk away for a few hours, get worried, go out, or sleep. I think I deal with stress in a healthy way. I don’t let myself get over stressed when there is no need to. What ever happens, happens I guess. The most stress that I get is when I’m at school or have school work to do. Like when I had the flue during the week of classes. I had to miss a day of classes because it was so bad. I got lucky one day because the one class I had that day got canceled. But I still had to miss the next day, which I had 3 classes. I had to make up all my notes and get prepared for tests and papers. I also get less stressed when I get all that I need done that day, done. Stress journal 

Time	Stressful event	Reaction (symptoms, thoughts, behaviors)	Coping response
Feb 18	grocery shopping	I didn't know why walmart only has 3 cashiers open when its busy. sweating, not in a good mood	Went out to eat after putting stuff away and went home to sleep
Feb 19	Around family that I don't like	Just wanted to leave, Kept to myself	relaxed when I went home
Feb 20	Flue	Slept all day. Worried about how I'd feel the next day for classes.	Vent out my feelings to my boyfriend
Feb 21	Missing classes due to the flue	Slept all day, Wondering how I am going to make up anything, Felt sick to my stomach from stress of sickness and classes.	Asked classmates what I missed and took notes from online.
Feb 22	Today was good	none	none

#4, Stress.

I just read the article Record Level of Stress Found in College Freshmen. It was about stress of a normal freshman in college. Students were more stressed 25 years ago than today. But there are more reasons to be stressed today than there was 25 years ago.
Students are not only stressed because they are starting college but because the money that is put into it. They are worried about the debt they are going to be in with all the loans. Not only the debt they are stressed about but if there will even be a job in their career field to go into after their schooling to pay off the loans. They are actually less stressed and more determined to get a higher education to get the career that pays well. They know that in their generation it will be harder to find a job that pays more than minimum wage. If they can't get a better paying job they wont be able to do better then their parents or pay off their loans. The stress in women is higher than in males. The women were more over whelmed than the men. This is because men try to find more time to do what they like to do to relieve stress. But, as for the women, they tend to find more responsibilities than to do what they enjoy doing.
The stress of a first year college student is kind of high from what I have seen. Students are staying up really late cramming for a test or doing homework. But, I think that’s their fault if they get stressed from cramming and staying up late because they could be managing their time better. Instead of taking naps after your classes, they could do their homework and study. Since they didn’t nap they can go to sleep at a earlier time and wake up refreshed.
I experience stress when I don’t stay on top of my assignments and get bad grades on tests. I guess I get depressed when I get stressed because I don’t feel like doing anything but mope around. Therefore, I try to stay on task and do my work.








http://www.nytimes.com/2011/01/27/education/27colleges.html?_r=1

why I chose my book..

Even though I missed this blog deadline and not getting credit, I'm still going to blog about it. I chose the book Nickel and Dimed. I thought it could teach me the value of a dollar. It also looked interesting. I could kind of relate to this book in some ways. I live on my own even though I go to college in my home town. Unlike the character in this book, I don't have a job. Simply because I don't think I can handle going to work and school at the same time. So, I try to save my financial aid refunds as much as I can for gas money and school supplies. I thought the book could help me with saving money because like the girl in the book I don’t have much money to get by on. I also think its interesting how this girl can work that money jobs but still not be able to get by.

My stress score..

I took a stress test online. The test was called Student Stress Scale. It has 31 events that could be stressful in your life. For each event that you experienced in the last 12 months, you add up. It has events like death of a family member, lower grades then expected, too many missed classes, change of college, traffic violations, major personal injury or illness, fired from job, death of a close friend, or change in health of a family member. If you score 300 or higher, you have a high health risk. If you score between 150-300 points, you have a 50% chance of serious health change within 2 years. If you score 150 and below, you have a 1 in 3 chance of serious health change.
I have a 134 stress level according to this scale. I really don’t think that I will have any serious health changes because I’m a little stressed. I only checked 4 of the events on this scale. They can be changed easily except one. Now, I see if you scored 300 or up that you could have a risk of health problems but not what I scored. The only stress events that I have is school stuff and with my dad.