Building off of my last post, I keep going back and forth about this whole thing. Before my daughter and I even took our first course at the college we’re currently attending, we researched it. We had considered program availability, quality, length, and whether or not we could take some of it online, due to our in-the-sticks location. After the time, money, and effort we’ve put in, we were admitted not for what we applied for, but to campuses that are ever so slightly out of reach.

So. I’m considering turning it down, and looking at other options, whether it’s reapplying next year (my test scores- they are high, and I’m an honor roll student- will still be valid), applying for a program elsewhere, or taking an entirely different course. After all, there are a lot of things one can do in life.

Decision soon to follow, hopefully by mid-April, or before my next stress-out session over it, whichever comes first.

Update – April 4

I’m taking the opportunity. Have already registered for courses.

Picture Wall

One of my hobbies during this winter break has been framing some pictures and prints to fill up our bare walls. The walls still desperately need a coat of fresh, neutral colored paint, but it’s nice to have something on them. Amy Brown faery prints go well with plaid. This little-at-a-time project has been good for calming my mind. I’ve been psyched up about spring classes, which start in January, and now also psyched out about one of those classes.

Psychology is one of the classes in the line-up, but not the one that’s bothering me. I’ll probably enjoy that one the most. The one that’s bothering me is the one for which a cat dissection lab kit had to be shipped to my home.

New Semester

That class is anatomy, and the scalpel in the kit might as well have been used to cut at my heart. I can handle the cow eye that came with it, and even the sheep brain. But the cat!! They might as well have sent me a preserved baby. Where do these cats come from? I understand that we have to learn about human anatomy somehow, and we have much in common with other mammals, but this is so hard to rationalize. Hopefully cats aren’t being raised for the purpose of becoming college dissection lab components. I’ll have to find out, exactly, and then decide what to do.

There’s still some winter break to enjoy, and the other courses (and the other parts of the anatomy course) to look forward to.

Update: Thank you to everyone who took the survey! The information enabled me to complete the lab. The survey is closed now, because of this.

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I have yet another biology lab for school due very soon (November 8th- yikes!) that requires input from a large number of people. I’ve created this survey in the hopes that I can receive enough information to do the lab while providing a level of anonymity for those who take part. The survey is part of my own site, and the information will not be harvested by some off-site service. Your e-mail address is not required, and you do not even have to provide your real name (a fake or real first name is enough). There are 9 very easy questions. If you have any sort of pattern baldness, please do not do this survey (rules of the lab). Feel free to (pretty please?) invite your family or friends to take part. Many thanks if you answer them!

School has been going well. This is the first fall in the past many that has been more sweet than bitter for me.

The classes have been interesting, and I’ve been learning a lot from each of them. Even the one on Microsoft computing, though I’m still a Linux gal. I’ve been learning how to write a decent thesis statement, the difference between pinocytosis and phagocytosis, how medical terms are constructed, and how to put a TED stocking on a resident without those two little cross wrinkles forming in the middle of my brow.

Test-out for NA class is coming up soon, and that’s nerve-wracking. On the bright side, my daughter and I were both hired by an outstanding facility, and we will be working the same nights. Meanwhile, we’ll be practicing for our skills test (part of test-out) around essays, quizzes, labs, and one more clinical. Everything should be falling into a more comfortable pace after this week.

Should be.

It’s a beautiful fall day, breezy, sunny, and fragrant from backyard cookouts. I’m about to take some English Comp reading outside, so that Gracie can jab me in the ribs with her ball until I throw it, over and over. One evening last week she ran after that ball for nearly three hours while I looked over biology. It’s a pretty nifty system for both of us.

I haven’t posted on here for a few weeks because of how busy things have been. But that’s not the whole reason. Many of my past posts have been about politics, since political issues get me pretty fired up sometimes. But I’ve been so content that not even the most divisive, poisonous topics have been able to turn my head for long.

I’ll be starting an additional college course in the middle of this month, so my schedule won’t be lighter until mid-November. I am starting to get comfortable with school expectations and how things work, though. So the yarn I’ve been crocheting into squares between assignments could be exchanged for a yarn posted here soon enough.

With my youngest graduating from high school this spring, I have had some decisions to make. I’ve been raising kids for the past twenty three years, home schooling them for part of that. This new freedom allows me to pretty much go in any direction. I’ve chosen to go to school for nursing (pre, LPN, then RN). My youngest has picked the same. Our pre-nursing classes will start in less than a month, and I’m very excited about the upcoming education (a couple of biology classes, English Comp., a computing class… for the fall semester, and maybe CNA, if we add it) as well as about the future.

Applying to the college has been even more of a challenge than I expect the classes to be- LOL! It’s hard to track down records after so many years, and the required forms appear to be a labyrinth at first. Thank goodness for helpful and patient college staff!

And thank goodness for my very supportive husband! I probably wouldn’t even have the drive to make such a change without him.