wednesday, september 19, 2001
rushed week

for most universities, rush week is the first full week of classes. so for my uni, that would start next week. for me, however, i have been rushing since last friday getting ready for school, among a dozen other little things that have been demanding my attention (and none of them including writing). there's been shopping...and more shopping, and even more shopping, and, when i'm lucky, appointments. i've pretty much gotten everything done and ready for school, although i've gotten no writing done.

so, what have i done?

friday: supplies, supplies and more supplies. spent a fortune at staples. everyone is covered for the moment, although the word is i will need to get more highlighters. no surprise there, highlighters tend to go pretty quickly and my favorite snappers are no longer being made. nearly anything else will run out quickly and cost a fortune in replacement costs. with two of us in a highlighter frenzy, i better get used to the expense.

friday night was the most chaotic game yet, and no, i will not go into it again.

saturday: spent a small amount at wal-mart and an astonishingly reasonable amount at payless.

payless was wonderful. four pairs of shoes for about $50! funny thing is colors must be out in good ole cali, all that was available was black, a couple of beige, and white tennies. i stuck with the black. i ended up buying slightly larger than what the sizer indicated, but i couldn't get my feet in the size it indicated. on the one hand this was somewhat depressing, on the other, comfort is the name of the game.

sunday i slept (hey, everyone deserves a day off).

monday: shebop's first conference at the new school. astonishingly enough, this teacher says she is no more active or distracted than any of her other children. this seriously makes me wonder about the rest of her class. ;) but seriously, the good news is she's doing well.

tuesday: books shopping, electronics shopping. being an english major, most my books were novels and the uni store had only used. unfortunately, some days my brain works slow. i didn't even think about amazon.com until we were finally on out way home. once i got home did some checking and wala! new books at just about the same prices (or better) than the uni used ones.

i also loaded my backpack. just thrilling, isn't it? lol

today: returned used books and a program i bought. then off to my son's doctor where we discussed changing his medication. he's going to go over to concerta since the ritalin is losing it's effectiveness by about 4:30. the transition is going to be a rough one though. he takes a second medication she wants him weaned off of and that second med has helped him go to sleep at night. reducing it means more long nights for me as i won't go to bed until he's asleep. once he's off it though, we can use the ritalin to help him settle down at night to go to sleep. in the mean time, yikes!

i also spent the afternoon looking over mfa programs, as the one that i thought was an online program isn't actually, it just has an online component with required summer residencies. i was very unhappy to hear this, but saxy is being supportive. if i can find an mfa program in creative writing, he wants me to do it even if i can't do the credential at the same time. since most distance programs require residency in june and january, there's no way i could do the credential at my current university while doing an mfa.

tomorrow is the first day of classes. i will be gone tuesdays and thursdays from now until november 30th as i leave the house at 9 a.m. and won't be back until about 9 p.m.

no wonder the stress is starting to show.