Saphhous

It just dawned on me that0there is something very surreal about my daily life. I have gotten used to it and everything seems very easy and normal, but to someone on the outside, it probably looks a little insane. Why an epiphany now? Well, for over a year now I have known it is much easier to do homework in the morning when everyone's asleep than to do it in the evening when everyone is clamoring for attention.

So, here I am, at barely 6 a.m., coffee in hand, doing stoichiometry problems for chemistry. It's definitely not the stereotypical college scene.

In more interesting news, I applied to be an Apple campus rep. One guy I work with just started and it seems pretty cool. I can't make a link from the treo, so until I edit the post, the link is: http://www.apple.com/education/campusreps/. I think Mike Baer should do it.
(Sent from Treo.)

So, here I sit, pecking away at my treo instead of studying for my chemistry test. I set up an address to which I can email entries, but this is the first time I've tried it. So, if you can see this, it must have worked right.

The treo is pretty freaking sweet. It' a 650: I had been talking about wanting one (there just a little out of my price range) when my mother-in-law got one. I tried not to be too jealous. But, after a few months, her boss decided to put her on the company cell plan, so they had to buy her the sprint version of the same phone. And she, being the generous person she is, decided instead of making a few hundred bucks selling her other one on ebay, she gave it to me. The rep that did the number transfer remarked that it was like "having someone just hand you $400."

And I have been tearing this thing up, too. I still hit the wrong buttons all the time, but I'm getting there. I'm looking for a free AIM client for it, but no luck yet.

My recommendation for you technophiles out there is to get one of these ASAP.

(Sent from Treo.)

Summer School

It's a dilemma -- I don't know if summer school sucks because it's during the summer, of if I like it because the classes are short and I'm only taking one at a time (a la Cornell College). I had a three week class on the history of Jazz, which my sorry tone-deaf, musically-inept self managed to pull off an A. It's hard to screw up with the class is only three weeks long. There's no time to slack off, get behind, or forget anything. So three credit hours in three weeks -- not bad. Now I'm taking CHEM 101, which is really the most ridiculous thing I'll ever do in my life. Why? Because this was my math/sci courseload in high school: algebra I and II, geometry, pre-calc, AP Calc, intro chem, chem I, physics I, AP Physics. (Along with bio, etc., but you get the point.) We've been learning about conversions and scientific notation. I'm loving it. The professor is actually wonderful; he does a lot of demos and elementary and middle schools to get students interested in science, so he's gotten good at being entertaining. The second day of class involved an extended demo complete with accompanying song. This class runs 5/30 to 6/30, and then I'm off till Aug. 21.

On that fall semester note, they processed financial aid for the school year. I got offered a $22,000 package altogether -- funny, because tuition is just over $6,000 a year. Sweeeeeet! So I turned down all the loans, and just kept the scholarships and grants -- I still ended up with $10,000 in aid. Plus, Dylan has a very similar package. He's supposed to graduate this fall, but we're talking about sticking him in a class or two in the spring so that we can get his spring aid, too. And, I should get a comparable amount the year after, which makes going a fifth year much more rewarding. It'll all go to paying off credit cards and other bills to improve our credit score, and the rest will go into the house building fund. Plus, I have a $1,000 scholarship from my department on its way to my bank. I guess we'll start paying some interest on the loans we already have, since it took getting married to get the good money.