Mommy is Back in School

Let the insanity begin! I started my very last semester this week. I have 15 weeks of classes, one week of final exams and then I am DONE! I decided to go ahead and participate in the whole cap and gown froohaha. I wasn't sure if I really wanted to, but I've had a lot of encouragement to walk with the graduates since I will be one of them.

The first week back was stressful and overwhelming.

I have three classes: History and Commentary of Literary Theory II, Sacred Texts, and Infant and Child Psychology. The two literature classes fill up the last two requirements of my literature degree and the psychology class completes an upper level general education requirement.

The Theory and Sacred Texts classes are both only offered once. So, I had to take them on the days and times offered, no choice. Theory is in the mornings and Sacred Texts is in the evening. Nothing like spreading them out!

To complete the general ed requirement, I could choose from a few classes. My choices were: Family & Marriage at 9am, Infant and Child Psychology at 1pm, or Youth & Society online. Online? Yeah! I want that one! But, it filled within the first hour of registration and I missed it.

I filled out a waitlist form back in November. No response. So, I filled out another one in December. No response. I emailed the instructor. No response. I emailed the secretary for the Sociology Department. No response. I emailed her again. She responded with "fill out a waitlist form and email the instructor". Rats! I did that already! I called. Nothing. I went to the Department offices, nobody there. I emailed the instructor again. Nothing. With all this unresponsiveness, I was starting to think I wouldn't be able to crash the online class.

I decided to try both the 9am and the 1pm classes and decide from there which one I would keep and which one I would drop.

My first day of class, I knew I had to get there early. Parking would be awful! It really was awful! I didn't get to the building until 9:40! Well, that decision was easy, I'll be dropping the 9am class. Traffic was a bear and parking was worse! With getting the kids to school and babysitters and fighting my way through the crawling parking lot they call "the freeway" I don't see me ever getting to a 9am class on time.

The 1pm psych class seems like it will be pretty easy. But I'd rather take the online class to minimize the time Libby has to be at a sitter. So, I went back to the Sociolgy Department and asked again. This trip wasn't wasted! The secretary emailed the instructor and next thing you know I got an email with permission to join the class! I had to register with a super secret permission number and I was in!

First thing I did was check out the syllabus. Whoa! What is this? There is a required Community Service Project? Spend 40 hours tutoring in and after school program in a school that is an hour away from my house? 4 hours a week for 10 weeks done in 2 hour increments? That is called Being There Twice a Week! What kind of online class require a commute and 40 hours of actual being there? What part of ONLINE did I not understand? Well, all that begging and hassle to get in and it was for nothing!

I think I'd be better off staying on campus and taking the Psychology class where I don't have to add two more commutes to my week. I'm disappointed that the online class was not really online. I think I'll drop it and email the instructor and the head of the Sociology Department explaining that the term "Online" was extremely misleading. Not that a big email whine-fest will help, but it'll make me feel better. I'm glad I didn't drop the psych class before I looked at the syllabus for the online class! Then I would be stuck!

Libby came with me to my classes this week. She didn't care much for Sacred Texts. She was right, it was really boring. My pen and paper attended that class while Libby and I hung out outside. She did well in the other classes though. She won't be able to attend class very often because she'd much rather be the center of attention rather than the quiet baby in the desk in the back.

I will take her to the Theory and Psych classes again this week but she's going to have to stay home for the evening class. That will be a 5 hour stretch of time without mommy. I'm nervous! Even though Daddy has never spent more than half an hour with her, he seems to think he can handle it. I don't think I'll attend for the entire class session. Maybe half. Or maybe I'll set up the webcam and watch from my laptop in class. Libby should be able to start going to the babysitter in February. I guess I'll skip a class every day to make her time with the sitter as minimal as possible. I'm not sure how this is going to work. If she would take a bottle I would feel better about leaving her.

By the way, in the next 15 weeks I will be reading 13 books. None of them will be light or entertaining. But, I'll be so much smarter in a few months!