Back to school.

I'm now officially enrolled for class at MSU in spring. Now, don't get too excited, it will take me about 4 years to graduate, since I can only get timeoff from work to take 4 credits at a time; but I'm working on it, damnit, and eventually I'll be done. I changed my major to Kinesiology, and have a cognate in physical therapy. No, this degree doesn't qualify me to actually do anything like that; but it's a good springboard. Forest and I are hoping to both finish our degree programs at about the same time, take a post-BA teacher certification course, and then take turns student teaching.

I feel like big pieces of my life are falling into place. For once I know that I'm working toward something I really want to do. So is Forest; and the two things go together very nicely. We'll be teaching while Kirstin is in high school, so we'll have similar schedules at a time when parental involvement is so critical. We're pretty excited about that.

What's really cool about all of this is that after 10 or 20 years of teaching, I may go back and do graduate studies, and my Kinesiology degree meets the requirements for many disciplines in which I'm interested. Physical therapy, of course. Athletic training, medical school, nursing; I meet the requirements for all of them. It's pretty exciting. It also happens to fall in line with Forest's idea, which is that he'd like to teach for a decade or two, and then look into law school.

The classwork I have left to do is exciting, too. I have 44 more credits to get. (I know, *gasp* that's a lot.) I will graduate with enough credits for a degree and a half, but who's counting, right? There is only one tedious and nasty class I have yet to take; after that they are all interesting classes directly related to my major, and appealing to me on a personal level. I'm getting the tedious one out of the way first. Yes, that's right, folks. This spring I'm taking ISS 315: Global Diversity and Interdependence.

It sounds interesting on the surface, but just wait...

I've taken this class before, and failed it miserably. It's about grain. Grain's history. Grain's transportation. Grain in the global economy. Grain and the value of the dollar/yen/ruble/whatever. It's incredibly INCREDIBLY boring. It's 15 weeks of grain. Last time I took the class, I sifted (pun) through the huge expensive textbook, and looked for anything remotely resembling testable material, and didn't find anything. I sat in lecture and followed what seemed like weeks of idle chatter about railroad cars and stock markets. I could never see where any of these points were connected for us; so I tried to figure it out for myself. Big mistake.

But I will do it this time. I'm organized, and I have time and resources to throw at the problem. Global grain trends will be my life's new passion. I can do this. Surely there is some universal truth to discover in grain, and I will see it this time.

Do I sound convincing?

It made me laugh to deal with MSU again. Some things never change. I had to call three different offices and fill out four pages of forms to be readmitted. Then I attended an advisor appointment on Monday, which took far longer than usual, since my poor advisor had to break out a calculator to compute my quarter-system credits over to semesters. She is one of those cutesy little old ladies, and I think I actually heard her take the Lord's name in vain under her breath. (Yah, now I'm corrupting little old ladies.)

After my appointment with her, I had two carbon copies of a form in hand, one to go home with me, and the other to be taken to Erickson hall. So I hiked to Erickson Hall, where they told me that I needed to go to room 250 in the Administration building to get my enrollment status updated.

So I walked to the Administration building's second floor, where a nice lady informed me that I needed to be on the first floor, insead.

Then the lady on the first floor informed me that I didn't need to see her after all.

All the way back to the car, all I could do was shake my head and laugh. These things used to really piss me off when I was a student there. The staff and faculty have no respect for a student's time; or at least they don't take it into account when they are making systems for paperwork. This used to irritate me. Now I just see it as signs of institutional incompetence. They need a good systems integrator, like me, to come smooth things out. For Pete's sake, they could at least discover the wonders of FAXING something.

To put the final touch on my on-campus experience, I had to pay $2.30 for all that parking time. Wwhhheeeee. At least I didn't get a ticket.

It gets even better!

I got to my office, and immediately sat down to enroll in my class. It turns out the only open section is at 8 AM 4 days a week. Ugh. Grain at Wells Hall at 8 AM in the wintertime. That sucks. I took myself firmly by the shoulders, and made myself add it to my schedule. The computer denied me, since I don't have the prerequisites. Well, of course I don't. This is an ISS class, after all, and those were only instituted my second year of school, after I'd completed my 'Gen Ed' requirements on the quarter system. They don't have 'Gen Ed' anymore, you see, it's been replaced by 'Integative Studies' (IS). What's completely ridiculous is that I've taken the course before. It's on my record. I ought to be able to take it again.

So I called the ISS office for an override, and discovered that the lady on the phone had no idea what I was talking about, and the only person who could help me would be Bigelow, who is in Traverse City until Monday.

Isn't MSU hysterical?

Tonight I have a test in taekwondo, this one over the taeguks 1 through 8. At the end of this semester, if I'm able to perform satisfactorily, I'll have completed all my colored belt forms, and be ready to learn my first black one, Koryo. (I don't know how to spell that in English. Hmm.) I'm excited about tonight's test, which I shouldn't be. I need to be calm, and focus, so I can concentrate as hard as I ought on getting everything perfect. It's really easy in forms to get distracted and then lose one's place. It is kind of like memorizing 8 poems, all of them comprised of the same random words and rhymes mixed up in different order. It's hard to keep the 8 of them separate and distinct from each other in one's head. I certainly wouldn't want to try to perform a series of monologues like that!

I've decided that since I'm going to school in spring, I'm definitely not going to be able to do bell choir. It's going to be hard enough on myself and my family that I'm planning a wedding, going to school, working full time, possibly acting in Twefth Night and studying taekwondo. On top of those things, Kirstin has her two choirs and violin lessons, and her regular homework load (just as big as mine will likely be) and Forest has his usual list of activities, too. It's just too much for a family to be doing. Bell choir is an evening every week, plus about 20 concert and tour obligations. There's just no way I can do it.