Back to School

Ashley here, with a full report from first day of the last few months of school… OF MY LIFE!!! Woo hoo! Unlike several of my colleagues, I have absolutely no interest or desire to further my formal education.  As a general rule, I dislike school very much. I do, however, love having deadlines and tasks to complete, so school will have to do until I get a job. 

As you should be well aware by now, I am not one for staying in all day and doing nothing. I have to be occupied at all times, or else my mind comes close to melting and turning to mush. Wednesday night, insomnia crept over me. I tossed and turned throughout the night, managing to snag bits of sleep here and there. By 4:00 AM, I was completely awake. I hate to admit it, but I am fairly certain that the cause was my pre-school excitement. I was like an ADHD kid hopped up on Red Dye #40 the night before a trip to Disney.  I forced myself to lie in bed for the next hour and 15 minutes until I could no longer stand the agony. I awoke ready for the day.

I  am not completely certain if I was more excited  for school or for my beautiful, chocolate scones. Tough one.

Black coffee, chocolate chip scone, and an orange.

 I had my morning fuel, got ready and made my way to Collegeville at 7:20 AM. My first class was not until 10, but thanks to the school’s new, screwed up financial aid policy, I was forced to schedule a 9 AM meeting. After I got all of that out of the way, I waltzed over to mi primero clase of the day- The Glory of Greece. 

Enter teacher #1: Dr. F.H. This teacher is possibly the most overly excited professor I have ever come across. I think she stood on her tippy toes for emphasis at least 30 times a minute, waved her arms incessently, and spoke with with a vocal inflection that had the range of a dog howl. I realized all of this 10 minutes before class at even started. I knew it was going to be a long one, so I grabbed a snackkie. 

"Berry" delicious.

After a 30 minute syllabus explanation and power point presentation in which the word “beautiful” was used approximately 486 times, I was ready to get out of there. On to American Consumer Culture.

Enter teacher #2: Dr. M. Typical hippie-esque, environment loving, feminist professor. Totally chill, humorous, and extremely intelligent. I found that I was extremely entertained by her class, and look forward to going again. Interesting classes make for fun learning. Approved. 

By 1:00, I was seriously starved and had to scarf down my lunch in between classes. 

Rolled turkey, carrots, and GF cracks. Could've gone for another carrot.

Biff and I with our between-class meals.

 Enter teacher #3: Five minutes late, as per usual. R.K. Yes, just R.K. Not only have I had umpteen communication classes with him, but he is also the head advisor for all of the communications senior research and theses. No introduction needed. I knew exactly what I was in for. Class was bada-bing, bada-boom, and we were outta there. Basically, there is not much teaching to be done when you are dealing with several individual, in-depth research projects. That’s completely fine by me.

Biff and I had time to snag some coffee and run an errand before the final class of the day- Philosophy of Communication.

Enter teacher #4: McFarls. This is my favorite professor of all time. The reason behind the fondness is the fact that he and I are pretty much the same person. I would sum up our life motto as, “It’s fiiiiiine.” He has a nack for structuring a class in such a way that it seems to have no structure. Love it. I appreciate fluidity and learning that is guided by the students. He also spends the majority of the class drawing crappy stick figures and coming up with the most outrageous analogies you have ever heard. Happy times.

Class finishes for me at 3:45 this semester, which means I head to Journey’s End at 4. No breaks. Workin’ hard for the money (or the education). Seeing as I only had 15 minutes to get from point A to point B, I wolfed down some cottage cheese. I gotta figure out a better eating system. I hear scarfing down food greatly increases risk of choking.

Biff and I basically hung out with Flo-Rida for the next 2 hours since there wasn’t much to do around the place. After our “work”, Biff gave me my long awaited Christmas present.

Does she know me or what?

Little known fact: My nickname (according to my Biff) is Robester. This comes from the Greek word roba, meaning “one who is always wearing robe”. 

By the time I got around to eating dinner, it was 8 PM. Phew. It was long awaited. And scrumptious.

Eggs on onion/garlic bagel and a HUGE helping of cauliflower.

 I am optimistic about the weeks to come. I am going to be super busy, but it’s what I love. Busyness that is (school, not so much). 

Friday I will be joining my Grandpa-pa for RV 101 at the Tampa RV Supershow. Should be a blasty. There will be no post coming your way until Sunday… possibly Monday. Have a fantastic weekend!

Word to ya mutha.