Back to School!

After a wonderful week with nothing to do except a lot of laundry and cleaning, things are back to the new normal. I'm back in class and the house looks like Port Au Prince. It's so good to be existing in chaos once more. I missed it for those few days, well not really. I was digging sitting on the couch downstairs watching "Buffy the Vampire Slayer" while folding laundry that hasn't been done since the start of the CNA class. My first class, Biology, started Jan 19th. Not the best day as I had to go downtown for the tri-weekly blood draw and clinic visit. As what usually happens when I'm in a huge hurry, Crook County decided that it was a fine day to shut down two lanes on the Eisenhower Expressway to fill potholes. T-4 hours to class and I'm inching along wondering what in the blazes all these people are doing on the highway at noon. Don't they have jobs??? Waiting for bloodwork took hardly any time at all. VICTORY! The wait in Oncology was the usual. DEFEAT! Ugh! I had to be out of there by 3 no later. I watched the hands on my watch tick tick tick. Finally, they call my name but only to tell me that the NP was in a meeting and would be back after 2:30. No..sorry. I just can't wait. They put the page into the clinical trial nurse. I turned in my med diary. Told him I had nothing to report and I was on my way. I paid for parking and decided to go to the bathroom before I left as I knew there would be no time to go home for any length of time. As it usually takes 15 minutes to retrieve the car, I figured I had time. WRONG! Bathroom closed for cleaning by the slowest male sanitation engineer in the history of Earth. A line conglomerated outside while he changed toilet paper rolls. 10 minutes later, he allowed the line to clear before proceeding further. THANKS! Of course, my car was waiting out front. Of course, I couldn't go anywhere because the valet had my keys. Of course I had to wait and then was LECTURED by the valet for not being there and he was busy and had things to do. GRRRRRRR!!!!!! I could have given him a few words and reminded him about where he was working exactly. The DCAM at the U of C is not a clinic for those with the flu, a cold, an inner ear infection, a normal pregnancy, diseases that can be cured easily. As the word Center for ADVANCED MEDICINE would imply, those of us who are seen there, have medical issues that confound and challenge Dr's and some of those patients DON'T FEEL WELL. But that's ok. I was in too much of a hurry to educate the Valet on the patients he was serving and their needs. I grabbed my keys and left.....and sat.......in traffic....all the way to the suburbs. An accident, not even on my side of the highway, 20 miles from where I was inching along, gummed up the works. I made it to class with 2 minutes to spare. I am taking a basic Biology course. I don't have to but as the NLN exam, the Nursing school entrance exam, tests us on basic Biology and I haven't had a Biology class since before my classmates were born, I figured it would be wise to review, hence, BIO101. It's a little out of place with BIO160, Human Anatomy, but it's a perfect non-major class that will teach me about Arthropods and plant parts which are all covered on this entrance exam. Thus ends the first day of class. My classmates avoid me. Yes, I know this. Some snicker. Some look at me oddly curious as if to say, I didn't realize we'd have a living breathing example of a fossil sitting in class with us. I am waiting for the boy scouts to come help me cross the street. Occasionally, I catch someone middle aged walking through the buildings but even in my Anatomy class, there is a shortage of middle aged students returning to school. I found I had little to talk about with my lab partner. I have every confidence I'll carve out a place for myself eventually and get used to sharing knowledge with kids slightly older than Kris in a non-mom role. My Bio teacher/professor/instructor also teaches at the Chamberlain College of Nursing and told me that most of the students there are moms returning to school. Hmmmmm.
When I went to college the first time, I was the world's biggest procrastinator. So many other things were so much more fun to handle, bars on Fridays and Saturdays and Sundays and any other day in between, finding Mr. Right, yakking with the roomie till all hours, cranking the Calculus Professor at 3am because I was angry he was sleeping and I was studying for a dumb test and doing all those other stupid college tricks. In some areas, I still am the big distracted procrastinator. But, so much is riding on me doing well in this Anatomy class that I surprised myself when I opened the book weeks before the night before the test, and started to study and memorize. Yes, there are different challenges this time. Emily keeps grabbing my book. Kris and Cassie erupt in loud arguments OFTEN. The cat (any one of the 6) sits on my lap. There is loud blaring GOD AWFUL whatever the heck kinda music Cassie listens to coming from the radio upstairs. Every other second I hear the word "MOM!" But despite that, I learned some things last night. I bought a pocket Anatomy guide that I keep where it belongs, in my pocket. At work yesterday and when it was slow, I memorized the abdominal quadrants, the directional terms and the planes. I did my homework for Bio DAYS before it was actually due. There is hope for me yet :)