With regard to this morning, I think I’ll have to go with what John said as we got into the car on the way home from classes. “It’s been a good morning.” We woke up, got ourselves together, and came to campus. I went to my William James class, and only half-paid attention while I went over some final things in preparation for my Film test. After class, John was waiting outside my class and I walked him to his class- then went to the testing center to see how I fared. Turned out, pretty well. I actually read all the material over the weekend, and felt pretty prepared. I wish I hadn’t taken so much time in preparation, but I guess I could avoid that by starting further in advance next time. We’ll see how that goes. I then stopped by the office for physical science to ask a couple of questions about when and how to take the test to get out of the class. The TA’s in the office just stared at me blankly. “You can’t do that anymore. That was only the first week of class.” I said, “Yes, I can.” One TA said, “I really don’t think you can.” I said, “The head of your department told me to take it this week.” More blank staring. I asked, “Do I take it in here, and how long does it take?” He then asked, “Can you explain your situation to me?” I said, “I’m going to the department chair’s office.” And that’s where I went, where I informed her that her TA’s were somewhat useless. She laughed. So- I will take the test IN the testing center on Friday morning. Pray for me. I’m going to do the work, but I’m looking for a little Divine Help in fulfilling this requirement so that I can move on with my life. I have a contingency plan…but it’s a contingency plan that involves $400. So yes, from now until Friday morning, I will be concentrating on learning at least 75% of a physical science text book.
Now I’m sitting in John and my JOINT science class- and it’s making me grumpy. That’s all I’ve got to say.
The weekend was nice. Friday night I cleaned, worked out, and did some homework while waiting for John to get home. When he got home after work we ran to Wal*Mart for things we deemed “necessities,” which, looking back, I can’t remember what they were. I remember hair dye (I am now a bonafide brunette) and a colander…and some picture frames…and that’s about it. When we got home it was pretty late, and so that was date night. Saturday we woke up and started work on moving the office around. I’m really happy with how it turned out. My desk is at the back of the room, John ‘s against the west wall, and the bed against the wall that borders the living room. Now, when you look in there from the living room- it looks like an office and not a bedroom, b/c the bed is almost out of sight. At very least, it is no longer the center point of the room. John must like it a little better, because he retreated in there a few different times yesterday- and started calling it things like his “secret hideout,” and his, “secret den.” I think it’ll be a more work-friendly space. In a smaller/smallish house, it’s important to me to have functioning space…and not just a junk room.
After that, we went to Bed Bath and Beyond, where we got MORE picture frames and some new, huge black towels. (Compliments of another gift card arriving in the mail, sweet). Yes. John likes black towels. And I support him 100%. We ended up hanging quite a lot of pictures, too. My Mom sent me a picture of her and my Auntie Paulette on her wedding day, and a copy of one of my and Auntie on mine- she was my maid of honor, and my Mom’s, too. The problem with framing the pictures was that they were both different orientation…and so I had to get a 8×10 frame and fill in the extra space. Let’s just say, I’m not the most creative girl- but in wondering what I should put down behind the pictures to make it pretty and block out the picture of some random couple in Rome that came in the frame….I took a couple of wedding cards we got and put them under the sheer part of one of our invitations. I used two cards that I loved just because of their color schemes, and b/c they seemed to match my dress, one from one of my Mom’s friends from MA and one from someone from church. The one from my Mom’s friends has a beautiful gold, embroidered flower that fills the top right half of the frame perfectly. The effect was really pretty- and now I’ have the pictures prettily preserved and hanging on the wall. We also framed the maps John bought WEEKS ago- putting the one he got me of England in the front room (or, on the wall you face when sitting on the couch) and the US ones in other spots in the living room and office. I love maps.
We’re planning on framing another card that we got from John’s friends in New Hampshire- the CUTEST little blue car with ‘just married’ written on the license plate. I’m just waiting to get my wedding pictures back from the photographer (I just got done choosing them a little while ago) and then I’ll put the blue car card with the picture of John and I jumping in my little car of the EXACT SAME COLOR and driving away from the Springville Museum of Art. It’s perfect!
Hmmmm. Trying to remember the rest of the weekend. Oh yes, the miracle of Saturday evening. I asked John a question I ask him pretty regularly, “What would you like to eat for dinner?” and waiting for his normal response, “Not sure. Not really hungry. Probably just need food.” However, he threw me for a LOOP. He said, “I want pizza, with pepperoni, and green peppers.” And out we went- finding the gluten-free pizza dough mix was a little difficult, but once he decided he was actually hungry for something, I knew we needed to find it. We ended up finding a brand of GF dough that was AMAZING. I can’t even tell the difference, and we can use it for French bread too. Three days later, it still tastes good, too. I was half expecting him to get sick, b/c it just tasted too good. But no, it’s just well made. Here’s the thing, I decided to test my luck AGAIN and ask him what he wanted for dinner tonight…and he said, chicken. With red peppers. And little trees. And then I said, “How about roast potatoes, and green beans?” And he said, “That sounds good.” I mean wow- it’s like, real food. I’m just writing it so that our mothers will be proud.
Sunday was good- I started my new calling at church- teaching the 8 and 9 year olds. They’re funny, and I was happy to find out that they’re all pretty good readers and have interesting little personalities. I was almost startled to find out that these little people were actually interesting. I’m really out of touch with children. It’ll be fun to get to know them and figure out how to teach them. It made church a little more interesting- even though poor John was left alone during Sunday school. But we’re independent people, we can handle it. Last night was more reading for Film, I helped our upstairs neighbor with her philosophy exam…and watched Rear Window with John. I like Hitchcock, but I have to be in the mood for it. And after three days of reading about why he is an American God of film, I decided I should see something before the exam.
This week has started out well. I feel like I’m heading (successfully) toward the end of my LONG and DRAWN OUT undergraduate career. I feel like I am on steady ground at the moment. I also know, if I’m not careful, I could be on very shaky ground by next week. So it’s time for some hard work, and some boring studying…so that I can achieve my newest form of the Grad-school goal: Get into Westminster College, and see about starting a program in Professional Communications either this January or in September. Yay for goals that give me something to strive for, a reason for going to class and trying to get good grades. I feel like I have new energy for it all, which I desperately needed. Tis a good thing. Westminster is in no way my long term goal, my big finale with regard to education. But what it DOES represent to me (and may actually provide) is a way to gain skills in technical writing, web design and editing that will qualify me for jobs that are interesting and ways for me to use my strengths to make some moola, allowing John and I to continue along in school. When getting jobs, people want either education or experience, better if you’ve got both. This accounts for the reason that John makes more money walking through the front door of his office building than I make spending a morning at my own job. Not bad- just shows my own need to get some specialized skills- and this opportunity to do it in a field I enjoy is EXCITNG to me.
Speaking of work: We’ve just about finished the draft. My task for tomorrow is to literally move files around, do some last minute run-throughs, and attend a meeting with regard to the next steps we need to take. It’s crazy, we’ve written the first draft of a book. We’ve got SO much work left ahead of us- but I think from this point forward it’ll be mainly creative, instead of trying to make sure conceptually, we’re in the right ball-park. On Thursday when I finished up work on the Conclusion, it FELT big. It felt very big, and I was proud.
Tonight will be making dinner, doing some laundry (towels) and studying. Du Du Dummmmm. Wish me luck.
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