Things I've discovered:
- Algebra is as awful now as it was in high school, only now I have to pay for it.
- Community College is just as hard as any "regular" college - any prejudices you might have about that should be officially throw out the window right.... NOW.
- I really love writing with a pen, on paper.
A technique the author pushes right off the bat is "fastwriting", which means keeping the pen moving, and giving yourself permission to write badly, poor grammar and spelling be damned. It's an idea-generation process, and it really works!
One of the first exercises was to spend 10 minutes fastwriting about a room in which you spent vast amounts of time as a child. Mine was about *my* room specifically, although it was an amalgam of the many rooms I occupied growing up. Writing that way brought back smells, sounds, and extremely vivid visuals which makes me sound like I licked a toad first but honestly it was just really evocative!
So that's a good class.
Math?
Well, I shouldn't complain. I got very lucky with this teacher and her book choice. It's pretty cool, actually, the whole book is not only hard-backed but also accessible online. While doing homework online, if you get stuck on a problem, you can do one of several things, including seeing an example, looking at the actual chapter in the book in a clear, color digital format, or in some cases seeing a video of someone working the problem out and explaining as they go.
So while math does, in fact, appear to still be a convoluted mess of extraneous information (unless you're an engineer, in which case I solute your perseverance in that venture), at least the teaching methods have evolved from just "memorize this" to "memorize this, but here let me explain why".
I still hate fractions though. I can't help it.
The Child's high school experience is going fairly well. She's going through a few things I knew she would, like separation from closer grade school friends. Her friend M doesn't even share lunch with her, much less any other class or a locker nearby, and as a result they don't do much more than text now and again. Of course it's only been a week, but you know that's just an eon in teen-years.
M is also a social butterfly, so her calendar is pretty full, all the time. She also, over the past summer, experienced her first obsessive friendship. You remember those, don't you? The friends you absolutely worshiped and would move heaven and earth to see? It wasn't romantic, it was just really focused. M found that kind of involvement with a brother & sister team, and although they aren't in the same school as she is, it makes it all the more painful for her, and all extracurricular time is dedicated to them.
It doesn't leave much room for other friends.
It's tough to watch The Kid deal with this, but I am pleased to report she's making new friends of her own, and getting into stuff at school. Yesterday she went to the Fall play meeting (well, it's more musical theater, but same diff). She's not interested in being on stage, but rather being part of the crew! She'll be doing lighting, which is amusing only because my old friend Quinn did the same thing during our high school time together. She even made a career out of it!
She's also working hard on Roller Derby still, and even worked her way into being Lead Jammer again last Sunday!
She's definitely working on her own life.
It doesn't make those inevitable changes, those changes to tradition, any easier.
Oh and here's something scary...
Next Spring?
DRIVERS ED.
Oy.
Well this weekend should be fairly calm, though filled with lots of hither-and-yonning. Tonight might include an appearance of Miss M mentioned above, though I'm not holding my breath for obvious reasons. Either way I'll be doing some serious math homework.
Tomorrow, more of the same, hopefully with a little time for sewing fit in - I really want to make these tank tops I've been aiming to make for the Florida trip! They shouldn't take too long, but that still means finding the time.
In the evening we'll be headed up to Fabulous Greeley to hang with the fam there and get The Kid's hair dyed a little bit... only the ends, Mom, I swear! I successfully talked her out of dying the whole thing, because in order to dye her hair at all it will involve bleach. Bleach the whole head and you ruin your hair completely. Just the ends though? Eh. That can get cut off.
Sunday, it's Roller Punks again, and I'll be going to check in on TR's cats, who are lonely and need some company! It'll be a struggle having to cuddle with 2 cats I adore for an hour or so, but I'm sure I'll muddle through.
Happy Friday!
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