Epically long, but under cuts. You've been warned. XD
I really should write up a real update, but first, I want to talk about something else- my day from Tuesday. I had my placement test for school, and the day was... well, to put it kindly, a series of unfortunate events. There were a couple of points where it didn't suck, but those were few and far in between, and overall, it was just a truly terrible day. It's actually almost comical how things just kept happening. XD In list form:
1. I got up at 6 to bus it. I hadn't been able to get to sleep until about 4:30, so keep in mind through this whole thing that I was working on 2 1/2 hours of sleep here. Also I was really freaked out about the test and everything, so add a healthy dose of anxiety into the day. Additionally, I'd had a super shitty day Monday too, so I was still feeling residual grrr from that.
2. Got to the bus stop- was just about there when the bus up and left, a few minutes early no less. Had to take another bus about a half hour later- so could've slept another half hour. And by the way, it was goddamn FREEZING.
3. Random weird guy talking to me at the bus stop. Which is just strange. We're New Yorkers, dude. We don't talk to strangers at the bus stop. That's just the way it is. It wasn't even small talk stuff, he was talking to me about his sister and her kids and her ex and shit. Like... really? O_o
4. Two hours over the course of two buses, but that part actually went off without a hitch. SHOCKER.
5. Got to the college, found the admin building easily. Waited for check in.
6. 15 minutes after it was supposed to start, it was still a no go. I checked the letter that I'd been sent about my test date, which I'd thankfully brought with me. That's when I got a shock- the test date was the 17TH. Which is really bizarre, because I remember looking at the letter when I got it and going, okay, the 24th, Tuesday, cool. I remember this vividly. So what the fuck happened there, I have no clue. I felt especially stupid right then, but figured I could probably reschedule. It couldn't have been the first time someone screwed that up.
7. Rescheduled for the next day at the same time- why not, right? Yeah, doing it two days in a row would suck, but at least that way I'd get it out of the way, and now I would be more familiar with the bus route. (I hate taking new buses, it makes me anxious because I have ZERO sense of direction and I'm really terrified of getting lost somewhere. Which is not an unfounded fear.) Double checked with the financial aid desk while I was there- everything's on the up and up, just waiting for stuff to go through. They were super nice, by the way, which made me feel a little better. So I was actually considering it an okay day, at that point.
8. Hung out until the bus came. There's a TJ Maxx across from the college and they had plantain chips, which I've been looking for YEARS. Seriously. SWEET. (This was probably the highlight of my day, sadly enough.) Oh, by the way, it started raining hard while wandering around, and at at one point it was actually HAILING. Yeah.
9. Here's where it REALLY got sticky. Got on the bus. Got off where the directions I'd looked up previously told me to... and discovered that either the directions were wrong, or I was dropped off at the wrong place. Note that I'm not familiar with that area, and I'd been dropped off on a side street in the middle of freaking nowhere. Needless to say, this was just a little terrifying.
10. After waffling a bit, finally decided to just walk around till I found a bus stop. This... took quite a while. And a lot of walking. I finally ended up in a plaza with a Target and a Gamestop and all that. Went into Gamestop and did some retail therapy, was also trying to decide what I wanted to do. I was exhausted and it was going to take three or four buses to get home, not to mention another three hours. I decided I would call a cab, to hell with it. I was SO DONE with all of it.
11. Called a cab, found out it would be $35, which is not bad considering that I ended up in east bumfucked Egypt. Was told it would be an hour wait for the cab and about 15 minutes after that.
12. I'd been chilling out in the Target, but after about 15 minutes I thought maybe I'd go outside for a little while, just because I was bored- but didn't really want to wander around Target at the risk of blowing more money. Lo and behold, the cab I'd called! I don't know how an hour went to 15 minutes, but whatever. I was grateful.
13. Uuuuuuuuntil I was actually in the cab. It was fine at first. Smalltalk, whatever. Then the guy started preaching at me. I hate that shit, but I didn't feel up to dealing with the whole atheist thing, for a lot of reasons. I just kind of made vague agreeing noises. So that was uncomfortable. Then he started hitting my creep-o-meter a bit, and then he was hitting on me. O_o Oh yeah, and he has a criminal record, which was one of the first things he told me. WTF? WHY WOULD YOU TELL ME THAT? He didn't say for what, but he was creeping me the hell out and I was thinking, oh god, I'm going to get raped and murdered right now. Fuuuuuuuuuuck.
14. Luckily, neither happened, and I got home unharmed, just exhausted and frustrated/angry from the day. Went out with Stef, who had also had a bad day, for drinks and dinner. I had a long island iced tea and felt MUCH better.
15. Though I still had to walk to the library and back a bit later because I had a video game out due, and video games can't be renewed. I can't tell you how much I didn't want to go and almost took the late fee on the stuff. -_-
Oh yeah, and by the way, today I realized that the game I bought? (Tales of Symphonia, if anyone is curious) DOESN'T HAVE THE GAME DISCS. I didn't think to check between everything else going on. *facepalm* Especially being a $30 game, I am not happy. So I can try to go to the Gamestop in the mall, but I'll probably have to go back to that specific Gamestop to deal with it. Which is a whole other ordeal and yet another writing day lost. Fuuuuuuuuuuuuuck.
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Meanwhile, yesterday? Aside from the fact that I was still running short on sleep (I did get about 5-5 1/2 hours though, so even that was an improvement), it couldn't have been any more different. THANK GOD. I approached the day simply hoping I wouldn't get lost, raped, or killed, so I'll grant you that the bar was set pretty damn low, but still. XD Also in list form!
1. Got up at 6:30. Again, see the above notation on sleep. That's probably the worst thing about the day, overall. I was BEYOND exhausted all day.
2. Nobody creepy tried to talk to me, which is a definite plus. No mishaps on the bus on the way there.
3. Obviously the right day this time. Checked in and got down to test taking. It went... pretty much about how I was expecting it to. The writing and reading portions were ridiculously easy, though I still did double check through them just to make sure. There are two math sections of the test- I was feeling pretty good about pre algebra... and then I got to algebra. Ugh. I spent the most time on that section BY FAR. I stared at a good amount of the questions going, I don't know what to do. There were definitely some I just made random guesses on because I had no freaking clue whatsoever, so why waste my time on them?
4. The libreral arts advisor was there, so I got shipped off to him, where I got thrown into a group advising session that had just started. The advisor asked if I was graduating in June and I was very much amused. :P That took a while, and then there were individual advising sessions to look at the results of the test and work out schedules and whatnot. Did AWESOMELY on the writing and reading sections (99 on both), pretty good on the pre-algebra (86 there), and er. Not so hot on the algebra, at a 37, which is considered kinda inbetween college level and not, but closer to college level. So. Not great, but not terrible. The woman who was helping me with that was about my age, and she was really impressed with it, actually. She was like, that's really good when you haven't had a math class in so long. If I had to take that test, I wouldn't have done that well. Sooooooo taking a straight up college level math, with the assumption that I'll go to the tutoring center for help as needed (probably a lot at first), but there's an option to drop down to a more intermediate level if I get in there and realize I can't handle it. So. Classes for second semester look thus:
ENG101- English Comp 1 (Ugh ugh ugh. I will be bored out of my MIND on this, I'm sure.)
ENG210- Short Story (Wanted to take Gender and Lit, but it's not available in the fall. Boo. Still, there's a bunch of the English electives I want to take, and this is one of them. Probably next year I'll try and do Creative Writing (....maybe, I'm kind of /o\ about it) and Women in Lit. Or something.)
ARTS100- Art History 1 (For the fine arts requirement. I like art and I like history, so possibly a win/win on this one? :D)
MATH150- College Algebra and Trigonometry (EEEEEEEEEEEEEEP. On the upside, if I do reasonably well in this and don't have to drop down to the 110, it will be the only math class I'll have to take to fill the mathematics requirement.)
SOC100- Sociology (This may or may not get changed to Social Psychology, assuming I get my AP Psych exam test results sent there, and that will count for my Psych/Soc100 prereq, hopefully. Note to self: need black printer ink so I can print out the form. XD)
FORM108- College Forum (A required one credit class. Pretty sure it's a "this is what college is going to be like" class. Which seems kind of stupid, because at that point you're IN college and you've presumably got other classes, so you KNOW what's up. But whatever. I don't make these kinds of decisions. XD)
5. Bussed it home. I figured out what happened Tuesday- I pulled the cord when my stop appeared on the readout, but it apparently shows up waaaay in advance of where the stop actually is. (Of course, I had no way of knowing that.) So the driver just dumped me where I hit the cord, instead of where the actual stop was that I was going for. Soooooooo a mix of me not being familiar with the route and the driver being an asshat. Woo! So I made sure that I didn't have a stop in the same place this time, and it was a place I knew, just in case. Also it was a different driver, and the driver from yesterday was awesome. He kept talking over the intercom like he was a radio DJ, which was incredibly entertaining. Perfect radio voice, too. I could totally see him as a DJ on like a jazz station or something, he has that kind of voice. ANYWAY. The instructions did have a weird ass transfer that made NO sense, but I knew that if I walked a few blocks, the 63 would be there at some point soonish and that would take me directly to the stop closest to my house, so I just did that instead. ^_^
Aaaaaaaand I more or less spaced out the rest of the day. I couldn't concentrate on anything (I tried), but I didn't want to go to bed too early because I've messed with my sleep enough. Ironically, today is a work day and I got to sleep in. It was nice. :D (Though I'm kind of groggy feeling, ugh.) Hopefully later I'll be able to get some writing done, because I lost two full BG writing days on this whole adventure and will have to lose another one next week. WHAT IS MY LIFE.
Okay, I really have to go. Work and all. Hopefully I'll get my shit together enough to post about something that isn't school in the next few days. :D
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This has been crossposted to my DW account. You are free to comment either here or there, if you'd like to comment. Preferably here, but it doesn't really matter. Whichever one works for you. :D
1. I got up at 6 to bus it. I hadn't been able to get to sleep until about 4:30, so keep in mind through this whole thing that I was working on 2 1/2 hours of sleep here. Also I was really freaked out about the test and everything, so add a healthy dose of anxiety into the day. Additionally, I'd had a super shitty day Monday too, so I was still feeling residual grrr from that.
2. Got to the bus stop- was just about there when the bus up and left, a few minutes early no less. Had to take another bus about a half hour later- so could've slept another half hour. And by the way, it was goddamn FREEZING.
3. Random weird guy talking to me at the bus stop. Which is just strange. We're New Yorkers, dude. We don't talk to strangers at the bus stop. That's just the way it is. It wasn't even small talk stuff, he was talking to me about his sister and her kids and her ex and shit. Like... really? O_o
4. Two hours over the course of two buses, but that part actually went off without a hitch. SHOCKER.
5. Got to the college, found the admin building easily. Waited for check in.
6. 15 minutes after it was supposed to start, it was still a no go. I checked the letter that I'd been sent about my test date, which I'd thankfully brought with me. That's when I got a shock- the test date was the 17TH. Which is really bizarre, because I remember looking at the letter when I got it and going, okay, the 24th, Tuesday, cool. I remember this vividly. So what the fuck happened there, I have no clue. I felt especially stupid right then, but figured I could probably reschedule. It couldn't have been the first time someone screwed that up.
7. Rescheduled for the next day at the same time- why not, right? Yeah, doing it two days in a row would suck, but at least that way I'd get it out of the way, and now I would be more familiar with the bus route. (I hate taking new buses, it makes me anxious because I have ZERO sense of direction and I'm really terrified of getting lost somewhere. Which is not an unfounded fear.) Double checked with the financial aid desk while I was there- everything's on the up and up, just waiting for stuff to go through. They were super nice, by the way, which made me feel a little better. So I was actually considering it an okay day, at that point.
8. Hung out until the bus came. There's a TJ Maxx across from the college and they had plantain chips, which I've been looking for YEARS. Seriously. SWEET. (This was probably the highlight of my day, sadly enough.) Oh, by the way, it started raining hard while wandering around, and at at one point it was actually HAILING. Yeah.
9. Here's where it REALLY got sticky. Got on the bus. Got off where the directions I'd looked up previously told me to... and discovered that either the directions were wrong, or I was dropped off at the wrong place. Note that I'm not familiar with that area, and I'd been dropped off on a side street in the middle of freaking nowhere. Needless to say, this was just a little terrifying.
10. After waffling a bit, finally decided to just walk around till I found a bus stop. This... took quite a while. And a lot of walking. I finally ended up in a plaza with a Target and a Gamestop and all that. Went into Gamestop and did some retail therapy, was also trying to decide what I wanted to do. I was exhausted and it was going to take three or four buses to get home, not to mention another three hours. I decided I would call a cab, to hell with it. I was SO DONE with all of it.
11. Called a cab, found out it would be $35, which is not bad considering that I ended up in east bumfucked Egypt. Was told it would be an hour wait for the cab and about 15 minutes after that.
12. I'd been chilling out in the Target, but after about 15 minutes I thought maybe I'd go outside for a little while, just because I was bored- but didn't really want to wander around Target at the risk of blowing more money. Lo and behold, the cab I'd called! I don't know how an hour went to 15 minutes, but whatever. I was grateful.
13. Uuuuuuuuntil I was actually in the cab. It was fine at first. Smalltalk, whatever. Then the guy started preaching at me. I hate that shit, but I didn't feel up to dealing with the whole atheist thing, for a lot of reasons. I just kind of made vague agreeing noises. So that was uncomfortable. Then he started hitting my creep-o-meter a bit, and then he was hitting on me. O_o Oh yeah, and he has a criminal record, which was one of the first things he told me. WTF? WHY WOULD YOU TELL ME THAT? He didn't say for what, but he was creeping me the hell out and I was thinking, oh god, I'm going to get raped and murdered right now. Fuuuuuuuuuuck.
14. Luckily, neither happened, and I got home unharmed, just exhausted and frustrated/angry from the day. Went out with Stef, who had also had a bad day, for drinks and dinner. I had a long island iced tea and felt MUCH better.
15. Though I still had to walk to the library and back a bit later because I had a video game out due, and video games can't be renewed. I can't tell you how much I didn't want to go and almost took the late fee on the stuff. -_-
Oh yeah, and by the way, today I realized that the game I bought? (Tales of Symphonia, if anyone is curious) DOESN'T HAVE THE GAME DISCS. I didn't think to check between everything else going on. *facepalm* Especially being a $30 game, I am not happy. So I can try to go to the Gamestop in the mall, but I'll probably have to go back to that specific Gamestop to deal with it. Which is a whole other ordeal and yet another writing day lost. Fuuuuuuuuuuuuuck.
---
Meanwhile, yesterday? Aside from the fact that I was still running short on sleep (I did get about 5-5 1/2 hours though, so even that was an improvement), it couldn't have been any more different. THANK GOD. I approached the day simply hoping I wouldn't get lost, raped, or killed, so I'll grant you that the bar was set pretty damn low, but still. XD Also in list form!
1. Got up at 6:30. Again, see the above notation on sleep. That's probably the worst thing about the day, overall. I was BEYOND exhausted all day.
2. Nobody creepy tried to talk to me, which is a definite plus. No mishaps on the bus on the way there.
3. Obviously the right day this time. Checked in and got down to test taking. It went... pretty much about how I was expecting it to. The writing and reading portions were ridiculously easy, though I still did double check through them just to make sure. There are two math sections of the test- I was feeling pretty good about pre algebra... and then I got to algebra. Ugh. I spent the most time on that section BY FAR. I stared at a good amount of the questions going, I don't know what to do. There were definitely some I just made random guesses on because I had no freaking clue whatsoever, so why waste my time on them?
4. The libreral arts advisor was there, so I got shipped off to him, where I got thrown into a group advising session that had just started. The advisor asked if I was graduating in June and I was very much amused. :P That took a while, and then there were individual advising sessions to look at the results of the test and work out schedules and whatnot. Did AWESOMELY on the writing and reading sections (99 on both), pretty good on the pre-algebra (86 there), and er. Not so hot on the algebra, at a 37, which is considered kinda inbetween college level and not, but closer to college level. So. Not great, but not terrible. The woman who was helping me with that was about my age, and she was really impressed with it, actually. She was like, that's really good when you haven't had a math class in so long. If I had to take that test, I wouldn't have done that well. Sooooooo taking a straight up college level math, with the assumption that I'll go to the tutoring center for help as needed (probably a lot at first), but there's an option to drop down to a more intermediate level if I get in there and realize I can't handle it. So. Classes for second semester look thus:
ENG101- English Comp 1 (Ugh ugh ugh. I will be bored out of my MIND on this, I'm sure.)
ENG210- Short Story (Wanted to take Gender and Lit, but it's not available in the fall. Boo. Still, there's a bunch of the English electives I want to take, and this is one of them. Probably next year I'll try and do Creative Writing (....maybe, I'm kind of /o\ about it) and Women in Lit. Or something.)
ARTS100- Art History 1 (For the fine arts requirement. I like art and I like history, so possibly a win/win on this one? :D)
MATH150- College Algebra and Trigonometry (EEEEEEEEEEEEEEP. On the upside, if I do reasonably well in this and don't have to drop down to the 110, it will be the only math class I'll have to take to fill the mathematics requirement.)
SOC100- Sociology (This may or may not get changed to Social Psychology, assuming I get my AP Psych exam test results sent there, and that will count for my Psych/Soc100 prereq, hopefully. Note to self: need black printer ink so I can print out the form. XD)
FORM108- College Forum (A required one credit class. Pretty sure it's a "this is what college is going to be like" class. Which seems kind of stupid, because at that point you're IN college and you've presumably got other classes, so you KNOW what's up. But whatever. I don't make these kinds of decisions. XD)
5. Bussed it home. I figured out what happened Tuesday- I pulled the cord when my stop appeared on the readout, but it apparently shows up waaaay in advance of where the stop actually is. (Of course, I had no way of knowing that.) So the driver just dumped me where I hit the cord, instead of where the actual stop was that I was going for. Soooooooo a mix of me not being familiar with the route and the driver being an asshat. Woo! So I made sure that I didn't have a stop in the same place this time, and it was a place I knew, just in case. Also it was a different driver, and the driver from yesterday was awesome. He kept talking over the intercom like he was a radio DJ, which was incredibly entertaining. Perfect radio voice, too. I could totally see him as a DJ on like a jazz station or something, he has that kind of voice. ANYWAY. The instructions did have a weird ass transfer that made NO sense, but I knew that if I walked a few blocks, the 63 would be there at some point soonish and that would take me directly to the stop closest to my house, so I just did that instead. ^_^
Aaaaaaaand I more or less spaced out the rest of the day. I couldn't concentrate on anything (I tried), but I didn't want to go to bed too early because I've messed with my sleep enough. Ironically, today is a work day and I got to sleep in. It was nice. :D (Though I'm kind of groggy feeling, ugh.) Hopefully later I'll be able to get some writing done, because I lost two full BG writing days on this whole adventure and will have to lose another one next week. WHAT IS MY LIFE.
Okay, I really have to go. Work and all. Hopefully I'll get my shit together enough to post about something that isn't school in the next few days. :D
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This has been crossposted to my DW account. You are free to comment either here or there, if you'd like to comment. Preferably here, but it doesn't really matter. Whichever one works for you. :D