My math class rocks. My teacher could not be more ideally suited to my temperament and my style of learning. He's young, slightly goofy, addicted to gentle irony, and mellow. I actually understand everything he teaches us. He believes there's more than one way to solve a problem, and he doesn't care if we use one method over another. He gives quizzes and tests at the end of the class so the slower people have extra time to finish. I am thrilled to pieces. My stress level has dropped way off. Algebra isn't very easy for me, but I'm remembering how much I liked my Beginning Algebra class, the one I got a B in at MTSU. I'm remembering it's just manipulation of numbers, a bit like solving a puzzle.
I'm shocked at how much the supplies are, though. My book and my graphing calculator were each just shy of a C note. My credit card is groaning, and so am I. Last time I was in college my math books cost $45 apiece and I thought that was bad. The school textbook business is quite a racket. On the other hand I'll need my calculator for Statistics, too, so I'm trying to amortize it by thinking of the cost spread over 32 weeks. And it is a pretty nifty calculator. It's a TI 83 Plus. I don't know what the Plus bit is. I can barely make it store values of X.
When I'm not trying to remember whether to subtract or multiply exponents I'm running around trying to get ready for our housewarming this weekend. The house is a sty. It looks like a herd of librarians took up residence in the living room what with all the genealogy diagrams, birth and death certificates, cemetery association publications, and maps of Germany lying around. There's eighteen thousand loads of laundry waiting to be done. I still have to finish mounting the towel bar in the bathroom. There's cat hair on all kinds of unlikely surfaces. The cats shed so wantonly and inconsiderately. I blame them for the state the house is in. And they crowd us at night, too. It's summertime, why aren't they lolling on the floor or the cool bookshelf next to the window? Sleeping on our feet is a winter activity, I thought. No, hemming us in so that we dream we're mummies or trapped in quicksand only to wake and find a cat wedged up against our legs is a year round activity now. If you can call sleeping an activity.
That reminds me, I went through the college catalog and picked out all eight of my remaining General Education requirements. Remember Life Long Development? It's one credit in Health Science, one credit in Library Science, and one credit in Phys. Ed. Yes, they're forcing me to be active for at least a semester. Luckily, I discovered Wuthering Heights CC offers weight training; that's my kind of PE. Lots of standing in one place hefting chunks of iron and turning myself into a muscle-y goddess. The LSci should be a snap, it's one hour a week of poking around the library looking things up. And guess what? There's a Health Science course called Beginning Herbalism. Three weeks of messing about with herbs. Gardening for credit, wahoo.
The rest of it's pretty standard: Speech 120, Oceanography 100, Biology 110 plus lab, Statistics (taken through the Psychology Department, thank you very much), and California State and Local Government. If I'm lucky I'll be able to take two classes a semester, one 5 credit course and one 1 or 2 credit course. I could be done in four more semesters. I would be very happy if I could arrange it that way.
But for now I'm busy working forty very full hours a week while planning a party and trying to remember where the decimals go in scientific notation. I'm pleased about being back in school after a four year break. I'm profoundly grateful for lucking into the perfect classroom situation for my final stab at passing high school Algebra.
You know, I really think I'm going to make it this time.
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