Three Weeks!

As of today, I've been in college for three weeks. Holy crap. This past Thursday night, I had my first real exam. It was in psychology. I studied, I took notes, I wrote a page of notes in the teeniest print I could write to take with me for the test. Most of it, I knew and surprised myself, but a few questions left me wondering if we had been reading the same chapter. Speaking of chapters, I have to get this new one read before Thursday night.

Algebra is going well. I have my first exam tonight, but I'm confident I will do well. It's mostly memorizing the rules. I can use a calculator on the actual math if I need to, I just have to show my work and prove I know how I came to the answer. Should be fun. Ha.

Music...what can I say about that class? Exam tomorrow night that I need to study for tonight. I'm not sure why I need to know about tone and color as it applies to music, but I am willing to learn. I do love classical music, so at least I'm not bored. I have to pick two concerts to attend this semester and write reviews. I would love to go see the ballet, but even with my student discount, I'm not sure I could afford to attend. There's lots of free stuff on campus, but I've never been to a ballet. Maybe it's a good thing. I'm not sure I would want to be taking notes while I was trying to experience something new. The professor was kind enough to include his OWN performance as an option on our list. He also promised not to be offended if we panned him. Yeah. Uh huh. Not going to be using that one for a grade. Or do I? It's a brave, bold move... going to have to think on that one.

Argumentative writing class. Learning to write in a persuasive manner. No sarcasm. No first person. What am I going to do??? (See? Sarcasm AND first person. I just can't get away) My professor has a great personality and I love going to class. I do like that I'm learning the basics of writing and not just being told "Here's your topic. Dazzle me.". Baby steps. This weekend, I had to read a chapter in my text book and write a summary about each section using third person. I was more worried about how I was going to say what I learned instead of staying in third person. I hope I did well. I worked pretty hard on it.

I'm also still working the weekends. I take some kind of homework with me everywhere I go, so if there's a quiet morning at the store, I can read a few pages or take some notes. I can't do anything that requires more than five minutes of concentration at a time, because it never fails that the moment I get into something, I have a customer walk in. And since I'm working.. well, it's not like I can be angry with them for interrupting me.

I was able to get myself a tablet for classes last night with my financial aid. Now that I know what to expect from these classes, it's going to be easier to follow along with the power point lessons and instead of printing my algebra notes, I can pull them up on the tablet. Ink is expensive. I need to save it for my writing assignments. It's an Android device, which I LOVE. It's like my phone and laptop merged into one device. I can use it pretty much anywhere, since my phone is a wifi hotspot for it. Getting the tablet is going to be my only splurge. The rest of my financial aid is going to pay for my monthly expenses since I'm not working full time any more. The electricity has to stay on, even though I'm only working 25 hours a week.

My biggest issue has been adjusting to a new schedule. I have been a night owl for so long. I'm trying to get used to being up early and going to bed before midnight. It gives me more time to focus on my school work and lets me spend more time with my family. I'm doing pretty good with it. I have to be up early for work on the weekends, so that sets the tone for the rest of the week. If I have to be up at 5 in the morning, then I'm tired and fall asleep when I'm supposed to, instead of being wound up from working the night shift and staying up until 3 in the morning.

It's about time to get ready for my classes today. I will be sure to update with any test grades as I get them.