Squashing the Most Excellent Grandchildren: So... had the first meeting of the new class - Child and Adolescent Development. On the syllabus it states:

* It is important to compliment your instructor on her most excellent grandchildren

Can I tell you that am so not feeling a connection with this woman? Maybe it's because she's Mormon -- her youngest son gets back from his Mission on December 21st -- and she has 5 sons older than him and also a daughter. (Though I would like to say that to her credit she doesn't look old enough to have that many kids of that age.) Maybe I just resent the fact that she's filling my head with useless junk about her family while expressing little interest in what the class wants.

She's broken up our learning team, from 6 people to 3 and 3. BUT, she added in 2 people from another group to our other half for the final project, AND added another guy to our half so may or may not show up. Fabulous. I am unimpressed.

We're working in groups more than ever - which I dislike extremely - but which I understand to be the driving force of the U of P. And the first paper which I spent a whole morning on for last week's class, doesn't even receive a grade -- but if you didn't do it, you lose points. Oh yeah, just shpiffy.

So far I am not feeling any connection with this woman. However -- the class only meets 6 times and I probably will gain something from it, even if I can't stand the teacher or her methods.

Anyway - I have to get back to the new apartment for lunch before work. I will attempt to find an attitude adjustment before coming back here. Promise. :-)

Still alive: This whole packing thing is taking a lot out of me. I still have my computer hooked up at the old place, but that's about all that's here. It's going well, though I suspect getting everything arranged to a point where both of us can live with it might take some struggle.

Reminds me of my mother's story of remodeling the family home when I was about 10 years old. We put two bedrooms -- mine and my brother's -- into what had been the attic. My mother had one idea for how to do the closets, my father had another. My father won that argument and my mother walked around crying for 2 days. The workmen were so upset they could barely look at her while they worked. Granted, Mom was also 9 months pregnant with Kerri at the time...

Fortunately, my problems with Jay seem to be limited to my offering too many suggestions when he asks for my help with something, and a disagreement over where to put the couch. We'll get over it.

I finished my first class in my MAED program. Went fairly well. I expect to get a solid A in the class. We have this week off from the demands of our learning team meeting, but the next class - Child and Adolescent Development - starts Thursday. I can't wait to be totally moved in to the new place... this back and forth while working 50 hours a week and going to school is running me into the ground.

And hopefully, once I get settled, I'll be able to keep up with this thing a bit better.

One can only hope, eh?

PowerPoint: Would that refer to the driving headache I feel pulsing behind my eyes? I volunteered to coordinate our first group presentation for class... been working on it for about 3 hours. It's starting to look good, but I need the rest of the group's info so I can put all the slides together.

On a positive note, we got up early today and managed to take four big boxes of stuff up to the new apartment, along with my fan, mountain bike, and x-country skiis. My little smoke-surrounded box is beginning to look empty. Yay! Not to mention the yummilicious Indian food we gorged on last night and the breakfast I treated us to at Sage's Cafe this morning. So... not really a bad weekend at all. If only I could kick this headache and get the muscles in my neck to unclench. But I won't be greedy. Today.

How old?!?! I just realized that my wee baby sister is about to turn 16. 16!!! Old enough to drive. I somehow still think of her as the cute little 7 year old who helped drop me off at college saying, "It's okay, go talk to someone. You can do it." Obviously, she's not the shy one in the family. She was the one I sent to borrow an egg or a cup of sugar from the neighbors if we'd run out while baking cookies. I remember playing with /torturing her and Karlyn when they were little. (Reference to the infamous electrical tape incident below.)

What makes me sad, though, is that I've spent more years away from her than with her. Until the trip we girls made this summer, I didn't really know who she had become at all. We don't have as much in common as Karlyn and I do perhaps. Kerri's sweeter and more sensitive -- less confident, maybe -- but undoubtedly nicer than her older sisters. She's got different attitudes about what's important, and I'd really like to know what they are. So I guess that's what I want to do this coming year: get to know my munchkin better. With a little luck, I hope to get her to come visit me. Not that I have a ton of free time or anything. But for her, I would make time.

I guess I'm just feeling a little homesick for my sisters.

And now back to the regularly scheduled programming: packing and boxing and cleaning - yee haw. Ennh.

I have a home Yes, ladies and gentlemen, instead of living in the apartment complex from hell, I now have a nice 1/2 house apartment. Nicer neighborhood, nicer neighbors, yard and garage... I'm pretty darn psyched.

And now that I have ABsolutely no money, I'm going to the mall to buy new shoes because I wore through the sole of my old ones completely today. And they were only 10 months old. Worn 5 of 7 days a week for the last 10 months at a job that keeps me on my feet 7 hours out of 9, but hey... I think they've earned a funeral.

We have an apartment!! Hee hee!

Just stay calm So, we got a look inside the apartment today. It's partially underground so the lighting isn't the best but it wouldn't cost as much to heat or cool and considering our environment, that's a big plus. The landlady's awesome -- outdoorsy, liberal, practical... she liked us, too, because she said that if we wanted it, we could have it. Yeah.

And my classroom observation, which I had been dreading, went very well. The teacher who scared me last week turned out to be a very nice lady who just happened to be coming down with a nasty cold last time I saw her. Glad I made the second attempt. I'll be going back on Tuesday to interview her for the second part of the assignment.

So now I have to run around and fix my car insurance issues and pay my cell phone bill - all $17. Wish the insurance was as cheap. Argh.

Still experimenting: And no, you pervs, I am not referring to my earlier post. For some reason the stats program I had on the site was making it very slow to load... which annoys the heck out of me, so I changed it over to a different one. We'll see how I like it - may have to make another change.

Speaking of change... I should change out of my nice warm wool sweater and into my fuzzy pyjamas. Sigh. But it's so COLD.

Rather disturbing, actually So, surfing though weblogs today, I found this link, which I foolishly followed... Googlism. Once there, I entered my first and last name and came up with this:

kate **** is reisboekenschrijfster

kate **** is like a magician as she makes your c*ck disappear into my a**

So is anyone else disturbed by that, or is it just me? Granted, I don't know what the first means, but the second makes me sound like a illusionist madame in a gay brothel. My next career, I suppose.