5/28/16...

This week's post is going to be a hodge podge of random thoughts.  Why?  Well....I'm in the middle of MOVING HELL and I'm a bit tired.  Okay.  More than a bit.  I have the feeling that I'm forgetting something, but no clue what it is.  I suppose when I completely move in and have a moment to actually sleep, I'll remember what I've forgotten.  In the meantime, that feeling is haunting me like a bad case of heartburn.

There are many, many, MANY reasons why I miss my son these days.  Only seeing him during Christmas season, and then briefly, is very difficult.  He's been in Seattle for the past five years.  And while as a parent, we always hope that our kids are happy in their lives, I think we can't help but be a tiny bit selfish and also wish for close proximity of those said lives to our own.  I can't begin to tell you the number of times I've wanted him here so that we could do dinner or I could share with him something that was happening with school (like last week's award ceremony).  I can now add to that list....moving.  I never realized how much he physically did to help me move in the past (the last one was 6 years ago).  As my friend and I were trying to get my queen-size pillow top mattress up the stairs to the second floor (yes, I truly thought I would die), I wanted Michael home to assist with this.  Or getting the dresser up those same stairs (I was the bottom person) and we reached the turn in the stairs and had to lift it up and rotate it 90 degrees to make the turn...and the weight of this wooden double dresser was resting solely on my chest...all I could think was, "this is going to leave a mark".  

I am learning all about my inner strength (not to mention my physical strength).  If anyone ever said to me at the beginning how much I would learn about myself by going back to school, I would have thought they were on crack.  Here we are three years later, and well....it's true.  Being a non-traditional student is all about finding those hidden pockets of strength within yourself.  It's about perseverance and  sacrifice.  It's about cutting through the shit and figuring out what your bottom line is.  And in the case of this move, it's about downsizing now in order to have what you want later.  In no way is this place a dream.  But I know it's temporary to get me through this next year of school.  

Speaking of school, I figured out that I'm now at Senior status at UA.  And I'm pushing to graduate December 2017.  Pretty.  Damn.  Amazing.  I'm telling you...it goes really fast!  I'm beginning to think that last semester was the hump that I needed to endure to get to the other side.  Oh yeah.....being a student (especially one pushing 50) means enduring. When you throw an older dog into a pool of puppies, you get to be patient and endure a whole lot of nonsense.  I didn't notice it so much at Pima as I do at UA too.  A community college is more geared toward non-traditional students - those doors are open wide and welcoming to people of all income brackets and experiences.  At the university it's vastly different.  The culture is more geared toward younger, fresh from high school students.  Yes, there is a pocket of students who are either graduate students or like me, have gone back mid-life.  But we are the DEFINITE minority - perhaps below minority even, and just the exceptions.  I find it much harder to make genuine connections to other students at UA (with a few exceptions) than I did at Pima.    Maybe this coming semester will bring a change in that too.  

I've been mulling over minoring in Italian studies, and I've chosen my foreign language election as Italian too.  Dr Kaye (my Italian Culture professor - Fall 15) recommended me as one of her outstanding students for the Humanities/Italian program.  I registered for another culture class with Dr Kaye this fall - it's a continuation of the previous class I had with her.  I'm really excited about it.  And once school ramps up again, I can make an appointment with the college and talk about what's needed for minoring and how it fits with my plan.  If nothing else, I find everything about Italy fascinating and it breaks up the tedium of art classes that tend to be contentious.  It's nice to have a professor welcome you wholeheartedly in class, instead of putting you constantly on the defensive.  Unfortunate but true.  

Back to moving...  I have to break down and pack my home studio next.  Bittersweet to say the least.  I spent over a year getting it to it's current stage.  Sigh.  I have to remember short-term and not forever. And I have to remember to label the boxes so I can find things again.  Ha!  I packed my drinking glasses somewhere and now can't find them.  I was drinking out of a large yogurt container last night.  See?  I told you.  Random thoughts this morning!!  I do hope this break from my art is minimal, and I can get back to my normal creative self here shortly.  I miss painting!  Summer break won't last forever, and I have things I want to do while I have some time.    

Well, my brain is over-processing my to-do list.  I'll end this for now.  

Have a great week everyone!