Current Obsessions
1.. I did ok on the math placement test, grueling though it was. placed into 118(gen. ed), 125(statistics) or 140(college algebra), all of which count as prerequsites for the program I want. With helf from the admissions advisor at Harold Washington College, I talked myself into taking the slightly more difficult and much more poorly scheduled statistics rather than the conveniently on-line 118 -- statistics is more relevant for nursing. So what if i'm occupied every single saturday until christmas. Oy, how do i talk myself into these things.
2. The woman at the Malcolm X cashier's window took a second look at my final bill because it didn't seem right that adding the one class would be as expensive as it was. "Oh!" she said, her eyes lit up with the satisfaction of having solved a small problem, "Your program fee was increased from $50 to $150 because now you are a full time student, not a part time student." "Oh no! I'm Not Supposed to be Full Time. Aggggh!" I said it out loud, yes. And the poor woman at the window yanked my paperwork post haste and questioned me with her eyes, all ready to undo the damage and restore my part-time status if I said the word. No, no," I said panting and gingerly pulling back the horifyingly frightening piece of paper, "I'm just having cold feet, I just need to get over it and deal." She smiled understandingly and told me an encouraging story about taking an intensive summer school course while working full time this summer. If she can work full time and go to school the high end of part time, I can go to school full time and work the high end of part time. I remember (vaguely) being a college aged kid and thinking that the work world was a bit scary and it was much easier to keep going to school. Now the sight of that paper with those three courses attached to my name (Chemistry, Biology, and Statistics, to be specific) makes me hyperventilate.
But I started to really breathe on the ride home again. I did it, I really signed up for all the classes i needed like i said i was going to do. If i can manage to juggle them all this semester, i will be eligible to apply to the city college LPN to RN program for the following fall -- that means there is some chance I could have my RN in 2 years or less. Lots of ifs, but i am on track to have met all the requirements to apply for the program which would put me on that track, and that's exciting, that there's a light at the end of the tunnel, that my dread and inertia have finally subsided enough that i'm hauling my ass back to school for the express purpose of getting my RN. yay me. If I have to drop a class because it's too much, or the truman option doesn't work out so i have to take more prereq's for the UIC or Rush or CSU program, i'm still moving forward. But, yeah, don't feel to dejected if you don't see too much of me in the next 4 months!
3. After my harrowing experience with the cashier this afternoon, i was walking across the hospital campus wearing full scrubs. I saw a Salsa Casseroll bicycle n the hospital bike racks and took a moment to shamefully ogle it -- they are very cute bikes and i've been a bit obsessive about this looking for a bike thing. A woman in a lab coat busted me looking and said "oh yeah, i know the person who owns that bike," She also lusted after it and so completely saw through my intentions. We walked for a while together, the girl in the lab coat and the girl in scrubs, talking bicycles. She had an IRO and told me a little of her opinion on that make -- she was a true fixed gear devotee, which i'm finding more and more of, but it was still pretty fun to hear her geek out. The whole picture of us was gratifying and far too cute for words. Later I called the guy about the fuji cross pro 2007 listed on CraigsList. My size. Fancier than i need but he's asking what i can actually afford, so i'm definitely gonna look if we can work out a time. Yes, bikes. I'm a little obsessed, too, with the internal gear hubs -- you know, upgraded versions of 3 speed gears. Not the really expensive Rohloff gigs (though, damn, if i had the money, i would) but the mid range 7 or 8 or 9 speeds. Can't you see me on some crazy cyclocross frame rigged out with a 3-speed style hub gear set up? Yup, my project to try and geek out over bicycles more effectively is succeeding. I like the bikes. They are so pretty.
2. The woman at the Malcolm X cashier's window took a second look at my final bill because it didn't seem right that adding the one class would be as expensive as it was. "Oh!" she said, her eyes lit up with the satisfaction of having solved a small problem, "Your program fee was increased from $50 to $150 because now you are a full time student, not a part time student." "Oh no! I'm Not Supposed to be Full Time. Aggggh!" I said it out loud, yes. And the poor woman at the window yanked my paperwork post haste and questioned me with her eyes, all ready to undo the damage and restore my part-time status if I said the word. No, no," I said panting and gingerly pulling back the horifyingly frightening piece of paper, "I'm just having cold feet, I just need to get over it and deal." She smiled understandingly and told me an encouraging story about taking an intensive summer school course while working full time this summer. If she can work full time and go to school the high end of part time, I can go to school full time and work the high end of part time. I remember (vaguely) being a college aged kid and thinking that the work world was a bit scary and it was much easier to keep going to school. Now the sight of that paper with those three courses attached to my name (Chemistry, Biology, and Statistics, to be specific) makes me hyperventilate.
But I started to really breathe on the ride home again. I did it, I really signed up for all the classes i needed like i said i was going to do. If i can manage to juggle them all this semester, i will be eligible to apply to the city college LPN to RN program for the following fall -- that means there is some chance I could have my RN in 2 years or less. Lots of ifs, but i am on track to have met all the requirements to apply for the program which would put me on that track, and that's exciting, that there's a light at the end of the tunnel, that my dread and inertia have finally subsided enough that i'm hauling my ass back to school for the express purpose of getting my RN. yay me. If I have to drop a class because it's too much, or the truman option doesn't work out so i have to take more prereq's for the UIC or Rush or CSU program, i'm still moving forward. But, yeah, don't feel to dejected if you don't see too much of me in the next 4 months!
3. After my harrowing experience with the cashier this afternoon, i was walking across the hospital campus wearing full scrubs. I saw a Salsa Casseroll bicycle n the hospital bike racks and took a moment to shamefully ogle it -- they are very cute bikes and i've been a bit obsessive about this looking for a bike thing. A woman in a lab coat busted me looking and said "oh yeah, i know the person who owns that bike," She also lusted after it and so completely saw through my intentions. We walked for a while together, the girl in the lab coat and the girl in scrubs, talking bicycles. She had an IRO and told me a little of her opinion on that make -- she was a true fixed gear devotee, which i'm finding more and more of, but it was still pretty fun to hear her geek out. The whole picture of us was gratifying and far too cute for words. Later I called the guy about the fuji cross pro 2007 listed on CraigsList. My size. Fancier than i need but he's asking what i can actually afford, so i'm definitely gonna look if we can work out a time. Yes, bikes. I'm a little obsessed, too, with the internal gear hubs -- you know, upgraded versions of 3 speed gears. Not the really expensive Rohloff gigs (though, damn, if i had the money, i would) but the mid range 7 or 8 or 9 speeds. Can't you see me on some crazy cyclocross frame rigged out with a 3-speed style hub gear set up? Yup, my project to try and geek out over bicycles more effectively is succeeding. I like the bikes. They are so pretty.