October 7, 2006

I went back to college this semester. Since mid-August I’ve been taking two classes. Both are library technology/science classes. On Monday nights is Children’s Services and on Wednesday is Audiovisual Services. The Monday class is laid back, and a pretty fun class. The Wednesday class is not so much fun.

The Children’s services class has assignments of reading and reporting on ten children’s/young adult books, plan a storytime, read a book to a class, and tell a story using some form of media (such as puppets or flannel board). The tell a story part is something I’ve been worrying about a bit because I’m very unskilled in making things and can’t afford to buy stuff. Other than that I’ve found the class enjoyable for the most part. It’s a nice break compared to AV. The AV class might be fun for some people but as for myself and Cindy and Evvette (the two women in the class I do the lab work with), it is not fun at all. Forty percent of the class grade depends on the Performance Exam. It’s an approximately hour long test in which the student has to set up, hook-up, and demonstrate how to use several pieces of audiovisual equipment. Thankfully I am registered with the Disabled Students Programs and Services office at my school because I am mentally ill. Part of my special accommodations is time and a half/distraction reduced on any test. Because of this additional time I was able to complete all parts of the exam within the time and a half time I was given for each part of the test. Another ten percent of the class grade depends on the Midterm exam, which I took this Wednesday afternoon. I will update this log when I find out what I got on it. I do not feel I did very good on it. I studied as much as I could until I would lose concentration, which was difficult for me. However, I felt I had a good grasp of the information that had been given to us in the first half of the semester. When I got the test I blanked out. I couldn’t remember crap. The Audiovisual class also requires three hours of lab time each week. We’ve covered Audio players, projectors, video recorders, camcorders, planning an instructional video, digital cameras, and Photoshop Elements so far. The second half of the semester I have PowerPoint, video editing with MovieMaker, publisher, closed captioning, and a few other things to look forward to.

How do I spend the rest of my time? Well Monday mornings I see my therapist at 9am then go to a psycho-education group until noon. On Tuesday I go to a processing group called Living Well from 2pm until 3:30pm. On Wednesday and Friday I go to the social/psycho-education groups from 9:30am-noon. All my free time is spent either sleeping, eating, or sitting at the computer chatting and studying and nodeing. I also go to Disneyland a few times a month. I have a Premium Annual Pass for the Disneyland Resort. I love going there, both with my family or with my friends. I’m going with my family again on Sunday. Last time I was there was last Sunday. The whole park is decorated for Halloween. It’s pretty if you like orange and jack-o’-lanterns.

She called at 5:31 a.m. from the South Street Seaport, Pier 17, her voice, once again, barely able to contain her excitement and happiness.

"I'm freezing," she said. "And I already know how I'm going to pack better for next year."

On the flight up, she said the pilot had announced her name plus the three other walkers going up for the event. She chatted with the two women from Daytona who completed the walk last year. The hotel she stayed in with three other women was nice. She did not mention her back, but then again, she wouldn't.

In the background I heard hundreds of similarly bubbling voices -- all of them walking to end breast cancer, some of them in memory of those who have passed, some of them as a testament to fighting it.

"It's amazing here. I just wanted to call you before we left."

I told her I loved her and that I knew she would have a terrific time.

"Oh yeah, yeah. It's going to be great."

We hung up. Not her words but her joy echoed with me. I stayed in bed after that longer than I had intended, stretched across both my side and hers. The sun had warmed up the bird songs tuning in the tree-lined chamber of the backyard, and a door opened in the hallway.

RunningHammer came in brandishing two wooden backscratchers like swords. "I'm a ninja, Daddy, and I love you." As a jogger floated through the drops of sun and shade on my street, I walked out to get the paper, coaxing my Achille's toward something resembling usefulness, both envious and proud of Vix, who will take many more steps for others before tomorrow is over.