SAHM no more

Well, maybe that's a bit melodramatic, but technically it's the truth.

The fall semester started today and I also started my part-time job on campus. Of course, this also starts my 3 1/2 month stress-ball known as "what to do with the children". This is probably why it took me almost 12 years to start college again. And of course, I waited until we had 3 kids to try this. I know, not the brightest of ideas, but hey, you take what you can. I was able to get childcare for the little ones, but she couldn't watch Emma. So, I spent all weekend frantically looking for someone to watch Emma. I finally found someone, but it required driving across town and then racing back to campus before my first class this morning.

One other thing I had sort of forgotten about until this morning (oops) was now that Jeff has his own vehicle, that means he also has the only CMU parking pass. So, on my way after dropping Emma off, I was searching through my purse for quarters and scouring the parking lots for open metered spaces. I finally found a space, but only found enough change for 90 minutes. Between my class and work, I would need 3 hours.

I parked for class and made it there just in time. This is my Fundamentals of Interpretive Reading (aka public speaking). It seems like it's going to be an interesting class. We have to do 4 in class monologues and 5 papers. There's a twin bed in the front of the class. That seriously made me do a double-take.

After class, I went back to my meter and saw I only had 30 minutes left-and was due to go to work in 20 minutes. I ran through the options in my head: leave the car there and walk the 1/2 mile to work, and have to walk back afterwards OR park in the commuter lot and take my chances with getting a ticket. I decided to take my chances with the parking police. If I had known what the fees were for each, I would take hiked and stayed at the meter: $25 fee for no parking pass, only $10 for an over-meter fee. Cause yeah, I got my first ticket...ever. And of course, I was at work for 2 1/2 hours, and got the ticket only 10 minutes before my shift ended.

Wonderful.

I think that officially inoculated me into the whole "college experience".

Luckily my next and only other class is in the evenings, when they aren't prowling the parking lots looking for suckers. It's English 101, which also is part of my Competency Requirements. We're reading 2 non-fiction books for this class, which is nice. They're both about the Iraq war, one written by an Army soldier which is a collection of his blog posts while he was deployed. The other is by a journalist written in the Green Zone of Baghdad. We have 5 papers for this class. So I will be writing a LOT this semester, which is fine by me. I need all the help I can get with that. Cause most of the things I put down on paper doesn't make much sense except to me.

And a few other people who have a twisted sense of humor.

So, that's how my semester is going to go: school/work/school/kids/hubby/home. We'll see how this first week goes.