A better day today

This is what I've been working on for my art class. I took this picture yesterday, and have since put a couple more layers on the front of this face. She looks a bit less wrinkled now, I think. I hope. This mask is one component of the cabinet I'm decorating. That's not a good way to describe what I'm doing, but it's the best I can come up with at the moment. I feel better, happier, more satisfied having worked on the mask this evening.

It's been Monday all day. That's not unusual for this time of the week.

I took the midterm exam in my Wellness class. It was simplistic. Simplistic is on the annoying end of the spectrum. It's better than frustratingly inaccessible, though.

And speaking of inaccessible, I dropped the Social Psychology class today. Yay! Sing and dance for joy, everyone! That course offers nothing that is in any way significantly useful to my life. That's one less midterm exam I have this week, too.

Today has been better than yesterday. Diva and I were not in the same house together for more than perhaps a couple of hours, and then we were in different rooms. She's asleep now.

I have an annoying headache. I'm trying to think it away. So far it's not working.

And I need to study for my Death and Dying midterm. First of all I have to read two chapters in the book. It gets more complicated after that. I take that test on Thursday.

Oh, do you remember last week, was it Monday? I had an exam in my Behavioral Stats class. Guess what I made on that test. Go ahead. Guess. Oh, I can't stand the suspense. I made a 97 on that puppy!! Yes, I feel good.

Off to study now. Think happy thoughts. Clap for Tinkerbell. Et cetera.

Sunday and whatnot

• To answer rjjs - I saw "The Blind Side" for my film class. It's a very good movie. I want to see "Precious" too, but it isn't coming to this podunk town. I want out of this town. Anyway, I finished writing the review for the movie and emailed it to the instructor last night. I only have the final exam to do for that class. It's being conducted on Thursday. I'm not going to think about it until Wednesday, or perhaps Tuesday evening for a few minutes.
• Diva was baptized in the Baptist Church this morning. Her decision. This has little or nothing to do with any meaningful spirituality on her part, and Superman and I both think she shouldn't have done it. I am in favor of baptism in general, so long as it's done for the right reasons. She did it because it was the cool thing to do, or perhaps because she was pressured into it by the zealots in that congregation. I dunno, but there's nothing to be done about it now.
• Superman's bicycle was stolen from our locked garage yesterday afternoon. I was napping and Superman had taken the kids to the park. Whoever it was also stole Diva's bike. The friendly neighborhood police man came over to take the report. Who knows if we'll ever see the bikes again. I'm pissed. Superman is super-pissed.
• Our podunk town is conducting a podunk Christmas parade this afternoon. I'm not going, of course. My point, though, is that Diva gets to be in the parade. She has been taking cheer leading lessons at the YMCA, and the class gets to march in the parade. Isn't that lovely? I might send my camera with Superman so he can snap some photos. Yes, I found my camera.
• I started reading the material I need to know to write my journal article. Slog, slog, slog. I'm supposed to be reading more now, but I'm goofing off. Later I will deeply regret goofing off. It's the way I work, unfortunately.
• I spoke briefly with Sproing this afternoon. None of us is going to visit him today. We only have one car that works right now (the truck is "resting") and Diva "must" be in the parade. Eh. I don't have the 4-5 hours necessary to make the trip even if I did have transportation. Anyway, Sproing talked to his Daddy longer than he talked to me. We had a brief dialog, then he asked to talk to Daddy. From what I overheard from their conversation, he seems to be doing fairly well. Don't have that from the therapist's point of view, but we see her next Sunday. He said it was OK if I didn't come today. I apologized.
• That's about all I know. I'm going to go study some more.

Shhh, I'm supposed to be studying. Don't tell the Study Police

• I just got this request in an email:  "I have recently went back to college on line and I need to download microsoft office word."   Yes, honey, this time please pay attention in your English and Ethics classes.

/elitist comments.

• According to my counseling textbook, the homosexuals among you are considered a "special population." Don't you feel better now? You seem pretty normal to me. 
• I survived my Psych Intro exam this morning. I think I did well, at least on most of it. I hope I guessed well on the other bit.
• LOLcats and Bach's Brandenburg Concertos are good for what ails a sad soul. They don't necessarily fix anything, but they are good for the soul nevertheless. I have the even numbered concertos on my playlist tonight. 
• I have all my classes in one building. It's a small school, but not that small. My courses don't cover a broad range of topics this term. The water fountains on the second floor give a better arch of water and are easier to drink from than the ones on the third or first floor. 
• For some strange reason the toilets are mounted at different heights, even in stalls that are not handicapped accessible. These are wall mounted toilets. One on the second floor seems about the right height for 5 year olds. 

On the agenda for Saturday

I have been either studying or pretending to study since mid-morning. As I type this the time is 10:44 p.m. To help keep myself on track I made a prioritized list of subjects to study and assignments to complete. So far I've completed an assignment in one subject and studied for a test in another. 

I have three tests this week; a psych 101 exam on Monday at 8:00 a.m., the first exam in counseling on Tuesday, and our second exam in developmental psych on Wednesday. I'm really glad they aren't on the same day. I feel almost ready for the psych 101 exam. It covers 2 chapters, and I've been cramming the info from the second chapter into my head most of the afternoon. I had a very firm grasp on the Chapter 1 info a week or two ago, but I need to refresh my memory. I'll do that tomorrow. I've had enough of that one today. 

The counseling class, however, isn't so firmly ensconced in my brain. Not the raw facts I need in order to pass the test, anyway. I haven't even finished reading all the chapters that the test covers. That one is now high on my priority list. But right now I'm writing. This is my reward for finishing the other stuff today. 

But I wanted to share something interesting I found in my psych 101 book. It's about aggression. Psychologists have developed a frustration-aggression hypothesis. It states that frustration produces aggression. duh (See? College isn't so hard) But that's just the framework for what I want to show you. "People often become aggressive when they are in pain or are exposed to loud noise or foul odors. Extreme heat has also been linked to aggression in several studies."(Wood, Wood, & Boyd, 2007)* That explains my story right there. Of course "extreme" is a subjective concept. In my condition anything over 80F (27C) accompanied by humidity above 50% is extreme. Oh, and check this out: Berkowitz (no, not that Berkowitz) has used these findings to propose an idea he calls the cognitive-neoassociationistic model. WTF? Can you say that three times, really fast? According to my textbook, he "suggested that anger and aggression result from aversive events and from unpleasant emotional states, such as sadness, grief, and depression." (Wood et al., 2007)* Well gosh, it's a wonder I'm not a whole lot more aggressive than I am. 

Although there is much more reading and thought organization waiting on me, I plan to go to bed now. A good night's sleep is critical to proper brain function. I know that's in the literature somewhere, but I'm too tired and I can't think clearly enough to find it. 

*Wood, S. E., Wood, E. G., Boyd, D. (2007). The world of psychology, portable edition (Vol. 6). Boston: Pearson Allyn & Bacon. p. 817.

Coming up for air

I love school! I'm so pumped just being in class. I wish the class periods lasted a little bit longer. Especially my Mon/Wed/Fri classes, which only last an hour. Tues/Thurs I'm in class for 1.5 hours, and that's better. I feel more alive than I have in a long time.

...in some respects. In other respects, I'm dead. As in "dead tired." I may have mentioned that my iron levels are low. I'm taking an iron supplement, but it takes a while for that to make a difference. I haven't been sleeping as long as I should. I stay up late studying then get up at 5:30 to start the new day. All my classes are back-to-back, so I don't have a break between them, but once I get a break I'm done for the day. 

There is an awful lot of information coming at me really fast. I have always been a thinker, so the brain work isn't too different. I just haven't had to think this big and this fast in a while. Hopefully I'll get into the swing of it and it won't seem quite so, I dunno, intense. 

All but two of my classes are freshman level courses, and sure enough there are a lot of freshmen around. 18-19 year olds are stoopid, irritating, thoughtless, clueless, and really try my patience. I smile and shut up mostly. I met a woman who is in a situation similar to mine. She's in her 40s, has 4 kids (teens in high school and a couple of 20 somethings out of the house), is getting a degree in psych and minoring in business for a mid-life career change. We were both extremely happy to see each other in the two classes we share. 

I have yet to finish the first chapters in two of my textbooks. I start them, read about halfway through, then either fall asleep or get pulled away to something else. I've glanced over the rest, and looked over the power point slides for one of them. But I have tests and stuff next week. I plan to get through the chapters this weekend, to read and understand the whole thing. 

I am exploring the campus. I wandered all over the student center building the other day and discovered a secret hallway. Well, it's really not all that secret, but it isn't obvious. Many of the student support services have offices there. This is a stretch for me. I'm great at driving down different roads to see what's there. But to walk around and chance a personal encounter with another human being is more bravado than I usually muster. The biggie was going into the cafeteria. It is big and strange and full of people. There are social expectations, those unwritten codes of behavior that if violated make you look like a dweeb. 

It's a fancy modern cafeteria, with different stations for different types of food. There are no trays and no tray runways. It works a lot like a buffet restaurant, actually. Diners get a plate and use tongs to pick up various food stuffs. There are a few places where a cafeteria lady dishes out portions. I suspect they do that to keep the boys from scarfing all the more expensive food. There's a salad bar, an area with the main entree and side dishes du jour, a pizza station, a sandwich station, a deli type area. (I think that's what it is. I haven't been to that one yet. There is also a dessert station and an array of cereal dispensers. Cheerios, frosted mini wheats, raisin bran, chocolate rice crispies, sugar coated puffed wheat, and a few others. I think there are 8 different cereals. 

There are a couple of drink stations. It's a Pepsi campus! Pepsi is my favorite, and around here there are lots of Coke-only establishments. The drink stations offer soda and juice, healthy or flavored fizzy sugar water. And milk. Coffee too.  Of the cookies I've sampled I like the oatmeal raisin the best. Those cookies are fantastic dipped in the coffee! I saw a soft serve ice cream dispenser, but haven't had any of that yet. The food is excellent, the facility is comfortable and welcoming. If you are looking for a good school based on the quality of the dining facilities, I recommend Lander. 

The thing I miss the most is visiting your blogs. I haven't had time to post or read much of anything. I barely keep up with my email. Hopefully I'll establish a routine of study and home obligations that allows me to slip in a bit more blog time as well. 

That's all my brain will reveal right now. If I could post on the go I'd have shared all sorts of little snippets of insight or interesting tidbits that crossed my mind during the week. Unfortunately I didn't write them down and now can't remember much.