You know how "they" say that things happens in threes? I myself have often cliche-ishly said, "Third time's a charm!", but ofr my own life, I think things happen in twos. Several years ago I got a speeding ticket on Highway 71 driving home from a weekend at camp. A few months later I got another speeding ticket on Highway 71 driving to camp. I haven't gotten one since. (I just knocked on wood.) Several years ago I dated a guy named Jason. A couple years later I dated another guy named Jason. I have since sworn of dating Jasons. A couple months ago I was in a wreck. I was in another one a couple days ago. I have no intention of ever having another one.
That's why I'm REALLY hoping that my theory of twos is correct.
Monday, August 29, 2005
Friday, August 26, 2005
Collision, again
I think I need to get a bumper sticker for my car that says: "Please Hit Me!" or "I Love Wrecks!"
Driving to work this morning, I was rear-ended. Fortunately no one was hurt. And the damage to my car is minimal...cosmetic only. His car is a different story. It's not drivable at all. And he doesn't have insurance. Or a driver's licence. And he doesn't speak English. Great start to my day, but I feel like I'm becoming a pro at this whole car-wreck thing.
I'm not so sure that's a good thing.
So...grad school started much more smoothly than I thought. Parking is not going to be a problem at all. Traffic is. Especially getting home. There's so much road work being done in the evenings between San Marcos & Austin that it's really slowing me down. It took me an hour and a half to get home after orientation Tuesday night. Class on Wednesday was good. Because I'm sure I could get super geeky talking about classes, I've decided to chronicle my grad school adventures elsewhere.
Driving to work this morning, I was rear-ended. Fortunately no one was hurt. And the damage to my car is minimal...cosmetic only. His car is a different story. It's not drivable at all. And he doesn't have insurance. Or a driver's licence. And he doesn't speak English. Great start to my day, but I feel like I'm becoming a pro at this whole car-wreck thing.
I'm not so sure that's a good thing.
So...grad school started much more smoothly than I thought. Parking is not going to be a problem at all. Traffic is. Especially getting home. There's so much road work being done in the evenings between San Marcos & Austin that it's really slowing me down. It took me an hour and a half to get home after orientation Tuesday night. Class on Wednesday was good. Because I'm sure I could get super geeky talking about classes, I've decided to chronicle my grad school adventures elsewhere.
Monday, August 22, 2005
Fears
I think I've just about hit panic mode in regards to grad school. I'm not nervous about being in school, about the classroom/homework/papers/ reading part of school.
Well...not so nervous.
I do have these random, ridiculous fears like: what if I'm not smart enough for this, or what if I don't read critically enough and everyone else is finding these super-deeply profound things in the reading and I'm just enjoying the story and how pretty the words sound together, or what if I've forgotten how to write a paper, or any number of similar what ifs.
When I'm being reasonable it's easy to dismiss those fears.
The fears that are not so easy to dismiss are even more ridiculous, like: where am I going to park, what if I can't find a parking place and have to park illegally and then my car gets towed and I have no way to get back to Austin, what if traffic is worse than usual and I'm really, really late to class, what if I don't have enough money to pay for all the gas I'm going to be using driving to and from San Marcos 2 nights a week, how far am I going to have to walk from my parking space (wherever it is) to my classroom, what if I get lost while walking from that illusive parking space to my classroom, what if I get kidnapped or murdered while walking back to my car after class at 9:30 pm, etc. etc. etc.
Most of my fears have to do with parking. It's bad enough trying to find a parking place at Concordia (I didn't find one this morning...I ended up parking on the street a block north of campus). What's it going to be like finding parking on a campus 5000 times bigger than Concordia??? (Panic mode induces extreme exaggeration in me....)
I have orientation tomorrow night. I'm imagining that the only people who will be there are the panicky, uptight people like myself, and people like that just annoy me. (I know, it's a paradox, isn't it?) BUT...people like that usually ask the same questions I'm wondering but haven't gotten around to asking yet, so I'm hoping to get answers to all my parking fears tomorrow.
And then, class starts Wednesday night. I've already started my reading for the first week because I'm afraid (another fear!) of not being prepared for class. I wasn't sure if "First week's reading" in the course description meant what we need to have read by the first night of class, or what we will be reading during the first week of school and need to have read by the second night of class.
School has a tendency to bring out my over-achiever qualities.
Well...not so nervous.
I do have these random, ridiculous fears like: what if I'm not smart enough for this, or what if I don't read critically enough and everyone else is finding these super-deeply profound things in the reading and I'm just enjoying the story and how pretty the words sound together, or what if I've forgotten how to write a paper, or any number of similar what ifs.
When I'm being reasonable it's easy to dismiss those fears.
The fears that are not so easy to dismiss are even more ridiculous, like: where am I going to park, what if I can't find a parking place and have to park illegally and then my car gets towed and I have no way to get back to Austin, what if traffic is worse than usual and I'm really, really late to class, what if I don't have enough money to pay for all the gas I'm going to be using driving to and from San Marcos 2 nights a week, how far am I going to have to walk from my parking space (wherever it is) to my classroom, what if I get lost while walking from that illusive parking space to my classroom, what if I get kidnapped or murdered while walking back to my car after class at 9:30 pm, etc. etc. etc.
Most of my fears have to do with parking. It's bad enough trying to find a parking place at Concordia (I didn't find one this morning...I ended up parking on the street a block north of campus). What's it going to be like finding parking on a campus 5000 times bigger than Concordia??? (Panic mode induces extreme exaggeration in me....)
I have orientation tomorrow night. I'm imagining that the only people who will be there are the panicky, uptight people like myself, and people like that just annoy me. (I know, it's a paradox, isn't it?) BUT...people like that usually ask the same questions I'm wondering but haven't gotten around to asking yet, so I'm hoping to get answers to all my parking fears tomorrow.
And then, class starts Wednesday night. I've already started my reading for the first week because I'm afraid (another fear!) of not being prepared for class. I wasn't sure if "First week's reading" in the course description meant what we need to have read by the first night of class, or what we will be reading during the first week of school and need to have read by the second night of class.
School has a tendency to bring out my over-achiever qualities.
Tuesday, August 16, 2005
For some reason this quote/saying from camp/Concordia days came back to me over the weekend: "All women are evil temptresses."
I don't remember who it originated with, but Dave Moerbe's use of it led to my being known among the daycampers as "Evil Sherrah". I don't think the 7 & 8 year olds quite understood what temptress meant, which is probably a good thing....
I don't remember who it originated with, but Dave Moerbe's use of it led to my being known among the daycampers as "Evil Sherrah". I don't think the 7 & 8 year olds quite understood what temptress meant, which is probably a good thing....
Saturday, August 13, 2005
Dorms
Classes start this week at Concordia. Students start moving into the dorms tomorrow. I always like this time of year. It brings back lots of memories.
I remember moving into the dorms my freshman year. I'd had these ideas that my roommate and I would be best friends, and we'd do everything together and be in each other's weddings and one day our kids would play with each other..... Those ideas went out the window when I met my roommate. Almost everything she brought with her was black, and she was sullen and had absolutely no desire to be there but her parents were making her.
She moved back home at the end of the semester and I got a new roommate for the spring. During the summer, roommate number two decided not to come back, so I was already on roommate number three when I moved back into the dorms for my sophomore year.
Number Three was a freshman from Maryland who was originally from Hong Kong. There was a night that first week when we were about to turn off the lights, but all of a sudden she screamed and jumped across the room from her bed to mine, yelling that something with a tail and stripes across it back had just run across her bed and that I had to get rid of it. It was a gecko. I hate geckos. Their tails fall off and wiggle and totally freak me out. I grabbed a wad of paper towels, picked it up, and, I'm sad and ashamed to say, I flushed it. (I was already in my PJ's and didn't want to have to walk downstairs and outside. It was easier to flush it.)
Number Three and I lasted one semester and decided we'd be better friends if we didn't live together, so I moved in with roommate Number Four during my fourth semester of school.
When we came back for our junior year, Number Four and I were still roommates. That was a fun start to the semester. During the first couple days in the dorms, a gas leak was discovered, so they had to turn off the gas in the dorm, which meant that we had no hot water. If we wanted to take a hot shower, we had to either go to one of the other dorms or to the locker rooms in the gym. That lasted for about two weeks. At the same time, we were having electricity problems and could only have one major appliance plugged in at a time, so it was either the refridgerator or the TV or the computer. That lasted a couple weeks, too.
Number Four and I were still roommates when we came back for our senior year, but we had moved to a new dorm. Three years in Studtmann Hall was enough for us, and we'd decided to try out the old Inn. I moved in the day before Christine did. I had accumulated so much stuff that Mom had to follow me to Austin in the station wagon. She was not excited about me living in the Inn. "Are you sure you want to live here? Don't you want to go see if they can move you back to Studtmann? You're so close to the highway. Someone could break your door down without even trying...." And many more such comments. I'm sure Mom & Dad both prayed for my safety every night that year.
Those were fun times.....
I remember moving into the dorms my freshman year. I'd had these ideas that my roommate and I would be best friends, and we'd do everything together and be in each other's weddings and one day our kids would play with each other..... Those ideas went out the window when I met my roommate. Almost everything she brought with her was black, and she was sullen and had absolutely no desire to be there but her parents were making her.
She moved back home at the end of the semester and I got a new roommate for the spring. During the summer, roommate number two decided not to come back, so I was already on roommate number three when I moved back into the dorms for my sophomore year.
Number Three was a freshman from Maryland who was originally from Hong Kong. There was a night that first week when we were about to turn off the lights, but all of a sudden she screamed and jumped across the room from her bed to mine, yelling that something with a tail and stripes across it back had just run across her bed and that I had to get rid of it. It was a gecko. I hate geckos. Their tails fall off and wiggle and totally freak me out. I grabbed a wad of paper towels, picked it up, and, I'm sad and ashamed to say, I flushed it. (I was already in my PJ's and didn't want to have to walk downstairs and outside. It was easier to flush it.)
Number Three and I lasted one semester and decided we'd be better friends if we didn't live together, so I moved in with roommate Number Four during my fourth semester of school.
When we came back for our junior year, Number Four and I were still roommates. That was a fun start to the semester. During the first couple days in the dorms, a gas leak was discovered, so they had to turn off the gas in the dorm, which meant that we had no hot water. If we wanted to take a hot shower, we had to either go to one of the other dorms or to the locker rooms in the gym. That lasted for about two weeks. At the same time, we were having electricity problems and could only have one major appliance plugged in at a time, so it was either the refridgerator or the TV or the computer. That lasted a couple weeks, too.
Number Four and I were still roommates when we came back for our senior year, but we had moved to a new dorm. Three years in Studtmann Hall was enough for us, and we'd decided to try out the old Inn. I moved in the day before Christine did. I had accumulated so much stuff that Mom had to follow me to Austin in the station wagon. She was not excited about me living in the Inn. "Are you sure you want to live here? Don't you want to go see if they can move you back to Studtmann? You're so close to the highway. Someone could break your door down without even trying...." And many more such comments. I'm sure Mom & Dad both prayed for my safety every night that year.
Those were fun times.....
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