My feisty typing-challenged mother turned 68 years old yesterday. Her great-grandson, my nephew, gave her a cold for her birthday.
Her baby girl (that’d be me) neglected to tell the world that yesterday was HER day. Her head was stuffy, her throat raw, her nose runny, and her cough constant. But despite her condition she fielded happy birthday phone calls from her four oldest children, her brother, an old childhood friend, and had finally given up and went to her bed. When finally she got the call from that horrible youngest child. And then, she had to listen to that horrible child (again me) talk about her bad day.
My only redeeming quality is that on Monday when I took Autumn to Gaylord to get the MRI-type dental x-rays, I brought my mom along and she went out to lunch with Autumn and I. On that day, I mentioned her birthday, and bought lunch, claiming it was an early birthday thing. But truth is, I would have bought her lunch anyway. I hadn’t seen her in person since Justin’s birthday (Jan. 7) and I haven’t been that good about calling. I am a bad daughter.
Lately, my husband has been doing a tremendous job filling in the gaps, parenting wise. So I can be a bad mother and my kids don’t suffer because he makes it up by being a very good father. But there’s no one there to take up the slack if I’m being a bad wife or daughter. I need to remember that.
There have been attempts to see Mom since Justin’s birthday and before last Monday, but they’ve failed for one reason or another. Doesn’t really matter. I’m just glad that even though it was after 9:30 at night, I finally came up for air long enough to remember that yesterday was mom’s birthday and I hadn’t called her yet. I’ll have to thank my sister, Dee, for reminding me. I think I’m still rather shocked that it’s March. Already! Yikes!
College wise — I’m grateful for that this week is spring break. I told Steve this morning that it will give me a chance to get caught up with everything I’m behind on, and he expressed surprise that I’m behind. Technically, I’m not really behind. However, two of my classes involve big projects at the end and this is going to be the week that I finalize what those projects are, and getting them going. Having this free week to do that is a luxury I plan on taking advantage of.
I have met with my adviser and mapped out my plan for my degree. One of the big questions was if I was going to go the thesis route or the student-teaching route. But since I’m already teaching, and I plan to continue doing it, I can’t do the student-teaching thing since I’m already doing it. So it will be a thesis for me. On Tuesday, I looked at a few thesis projects done by other grad students and learned more about how it works. Have you ever seen a published thesis?
The ones I saw on Tuesday were bound books about an inch thick. The book was oversized, probably 11×17 in size. The books were brown in color with gold lettering, identifying it as the thesis statement of Joe Student to satisfy part of the requirements of the X degree at CMU, then the date. As another student said, it’s like something you take hom to Mom to hang on the fridge. It’s impressive. Substantial. Terrifying. Oh wait, that last one was just me. I want THAT.
Last night driving on CMU’s campus I realized something. I’m a different student when I’m driving then when I’m walking. CMU has a pedestrian right-of-way campus. Which means, students walking to class are not expected to stop at the side of the road and look both ways. In more than one place, they just keep walking right out into the road without even considering vehicles that may be coming or going.
But on my way to class yesterday, I was driving and the road conditions were not good. I usually get to class when the sun is setting. That means the sun is reducing my visibility, and a student can easily hide behind the bar that comes down to hold the left side of my windshield in place. So it means I was very aware of the students walking, and fearful for them because all it takes is one mistake, and with the sun, ice and blind spots, it wouldn’t be hard for one to happen. I was hyper aware as I was driving on campus.
The worst part of the drive on campus is the parking lot. Because there are blind spots, and you are trying to drive, but there are also people walking. Students walking throught the parking lot as a short cut. They step out from vehicles, and emerge from blind spots. Again, I’m alert, because it’d be so easy.
Then I parked, and I grabbed my stuff and started walking to class. And I become one of those stupid students that are just walking without even considering there are thousands of pounds of metal around me. I step off the sidewalk with barely a glance, knowing I have the right of way. But conveniently forgetting about the road conditions, glare from the sun, and distracted drivers. What does that say about me?
I learned one more thing about this whole Grad school process. I am doing too much. My professor on Tuesday asked about when my kids see me or if my husband has seen me lately. I responded by saying I have a very GOOD husband. He has really stepped up and is doing what he has to do to help me get this done. Plus, we are looking at this as temporary. It’s basically a two-year program, and two years can go by so very fast. Look how fast this semester has gone! We’re halfway through. As my adviser, my professor ordered me not to take more than two classes while teaching two classes. I’m taking three grad classes, plus that pesky job at the paper.
This summer I’m going to take two classes. They meet four hours a day for twice a week. A normal 16-week class is condensed into six (or is it 8 weeks?) weeks with the same workload. I don’t anticipate being able to do very much work for the paper during that. I won’t be teaching at then either. So, my husband will wonder immediately — how do I anticipate making money then? Hmmm. Good question. 
Don’t panic yet, Steve.
