First Week in the Books

I just finished my first week of classes.  Admittedly, it was a short week thanks to the contributions of Dr. King and the fact that my only classes on Fridays are discussions which don't meet during the first week.  Here's a quick rundown:

Geography 360: Quantitative Methods of Geographical Analysis -  Sounds scary right?!?  Basically it is simply a statistics class for both the Geography and Cartography/GIS majors. (I am double majoring in those two.)  I imagine this will be my most difficult class because it has been a while since I have done any significant math.

Geography 377: Introduction to Geographic Information Systems - It is what it sounds like.  This is going to require quite a bit of time outside of class doing projects using GIS software that I have never used before.  This class is the foundation for all the later more interesting GIS courses.  It was important that I made it into this class as if I didn't it would push my coursework back a whole year.  Fortunately I was the last one in.

History 432: A History of Scandinavia since 1815 - Trying to do a little learning about Kelsey's heritage.  Like did you know Finland isn't actually part of Scandinavia?  Or that the King of Sweden during that latter stages of the Napoleonic wars was actually a Frenchman?  Weird.

English 167: British Literature of the 19th Century - I had to take this class for a literature requirement.  I was not excited about this as I figured I would be forced to read some Jane Austen text for the umpteenth time in my life.  I have yet to enjoy any of it.  Then I got the syllabus and no Jane Austen!  Of course the instructor had to talk about her in the first lecture, so I didn't totally avoid it.

LCA 421: Survey of Tibetan Buddhism - My teacher was a Buddhist monk for 25 years then woke up one day and decided he wanted to see what the real world was like.  "It turned out it wasn't as much fun as I thought it would be," he said.  "I didn't know I would have to do so much work."  Should be an interesting class, though there is a guy in the class who is definitely going to be a nuisance.  Already the first day he was asking questions about how the instructor could believe in someone other than Jesus.  If you can't go into this with an open mind, why even take the class?

Gotta get the kiddos to bed so I can start reading the 300 or so pages that I have to get through before school next week.  It begins...

What a difference 8 years makes!

So, for those of you who aren't aware of my current life situation, I am officially enrolled in courses as of this morning at UW-Madison.  Turns out that was the easy part.  The hard part is figuring out how to get all the paperwork that they need to them.

Was it like this 8 years ago when a "normal" person is entering college at age 18?  Did my parents have to do all of this? Surely, if they did, they didn't have a 4 and 3 year old to drag around from office to office compiling a to-do list that rivals War and Peace.

Normally, an 18 year old doesn't have to worry about where their kids will be while they are at school.  I'm in the process of finding a second daycare that can watch the boys in the afternoons 3 days a week.  The other two days they boys will have to be in full-time care but the school that Owyn is currently at is awesome and is able to fit them into a full-time class on Tuesdays and Thursdays.  Since Cayden hasn't been there, they need his immunization records as well as the specific date and time of every splinter or knee scrape he has ever had.  (That goes double for the new day-care which needs that information for both kids.)  Also, because we have (in my professional opinion) the most out-of-date, inefficient medical record systems on the planet. (Okay, I suppose places like Sub-Saharan Africa might be worse off, but only because they don't have access to the technology. I bet if they did, they could come up with a better system than we have.)  Anyway, because our system sucks, I have to call every clinic the boys have been to since we have been in Madison and see if they have forwarded information to the next, and so on, and so on.  So there goes my Tuesday. Not that I had anything better to do.

Also, every department in the whole university needs a copy of my 2008 taxes.  I went to our taxes folder, found 2008, and wouldn't you know, no tax return.  I have all of the W2's and 1099G's and KRS-One's (Hip-Hop joke for the un-informed, good stuff, check it out if you are into that kind of thing).  I think we had to give it to some bank, or credit union, or some other institution that charges you more money the less you have. We must have forgotten to get a copy and given them the original.  I got a hold of the IRS but apparently it takes 10-15 business days to find a file, print it, put it in an envelope, and send it off.  That said, I'll be calling our local IRS office to see if I can oversee the opening and printing process and pick it up in person.  I doubt that will help, I mean, they probably have 7 or 8 of them to do today, if it isn't some crazy government holiday.  So there goes my Wednesday. Again, not that I have better things to do.

Hypothetical

Imagine you are in the park one day.  You are just relaxing doing whatever it is that you prefer to do.  Maybe it's sun bathing, maybe reading your favorite book, playing with your dog, whatever.  A mysterious looking man comes to you and offers you the following proposition:

"I am going to give you a choice between two trips.  You can spend the next year on the continent of your choosing.  I will pay for everything that you want to do. That includes food, shelter, sight seeing, and anything else that you can imagine as long as it is legal.  The other option is a very simple one.  I will pay for you to spend 15 minutes on the moon."

So, what will it be?  I'll be back later with my answer.

Random Thoughts

#1.  New deodorant!  I had to make a quick shopping trip to Shopko because certain children who shall not be named decided it would be cool to push up my entire deodorant stick and use it as both the writing utensil and eraser on a beautiful drawing.  This of course rendered my body odor masking agent useless.  So I go pick up deodorant and grab what I think is the same thing.  I apply it in the morning and I feel instantly different.  What is it? It's a tingle! Not in my underarm, but in my brain.  I'm now using the "Official Scent of Confidence."  Unintended purchase, but unbelievable results.  Thank you Old Spice.

#2.  I kinda want to be a private eye.  I know it's probably boring the vast majority of the time.  Sitting in your car waiting for somebody to come out of a building doesn't sound like a lot of fun.  But, imagine the thrill when your target steps out of that building and you follow them around the city taking pictures, keeping a safe distance.  You'd probably find out that your target's life is as boring as yours is, but what if it wasn't.  How awesome would it be to break a big case and go tell your client that their business partner has off-shore accounts and they are embezzling money.  "And I have the pictures to prove it!"  So rad.

#3.   New Years resolution. I'm in a bind here.  I don't really believe in resolutions. Mostly because I feel I'm about as good as I'm going to get.  Can't mess with perfection right?  So maybe a good resolution would be to tone down my coolness for the year, which will leave me with a great opportunity for next year to improve myself back to my previous perfect self.  Actually, maybe I should resolve to tone down the sarcasm a bit.

#4.  Joe Dirt...Good Movie

#5.  Oh, lastly, it's "I couldn't care less", not "I could care less."