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Dominic's babysitter requested some time off last week, so I took some vacation days and spent time with Dominic. We had a great week!
We weren't able to do anything on Tuesday because Dominion threatened to shut off my gas if I wasn't home to let them in to take a meter reading. They gave me an 11 hour window appointment time. They finally got to my house around 4:30 in the afternoon. The meter reader was nice. He brought a remote meter with him and said that the woman who made my appointment should have made the appointment not for a meter reading, but for installation of a remote meter. He took the final reading, wrote it in permanent marker on the new meter and installed the new remote meter. Now they'll be able to read the meter every month from outside the house, though they'll still want to take a physical reading at least once every 3 years. So I've got 3 years to let the junk pile up around the gas meter in my basement! Yay!
On Wednesday Dominic slept in until 9:00 am. This was exciting for me because it meant that he wouldn't need an afternoon nap and I could take him somewhere fun all day. I decided to take him to the Great Lakes Science Center in Cleveland. I paid for entrance into the science center, the special Darwin exhibit, and one OmniMax film. We played around with the general exhibits for about an hour until our movie started. Then we got our seats high up in the OmniMax theatre. Those movies always make me dizzy. Ours was a movie about the Grand Canyon. Dominic was awed. During the third whitewater rafting scene (about 45 minutes into the 1 hour-long movie), Dominic announced he had to pee. I was grateful to leave. I just don't think I'm cut out to enjoy OmniMax. I got him some pizza at the center's cafe and then took him to play at the Polymer Playground until 4:30. I tried to get out of Cleveland before rush hour and mostly succeeded.
On Thursday I decided to take Dominic to the Harry London Chocolate Factory. He fell asleep in the car on the way down to Canton. I pulled into the lot and went to get him out of his car seat. I whispered, "We're here," and his eyes popped open and he practically bolted out of his seat. He was remarkably well-behaved during the tour. He kept shushing me and telling me to follow the tour guide (these were unnecessary instructions, btw. I was also well behaved). They always end the tour in their retail store and Dominic kept asking me to buy him stuff. He finally decided he wanted a small packet of chocolate cars. I picked out some chocolate covered cherries for Justin and got a bag of their "Old School" chocolates for myself.
Friday was my "Destination Kent" event. I hit campus at 8:00 in the morning and made my way to the Kent Student Center. They had several tables lined up for registration. I found my table, gave them my name and they gave me a packet of paper, a name tag, and a schedule. I went into the ballroom, got a cup of water and started reviewing the schedule. I noticed it was very different from the one they mailed to me. It started a whole hour later than I was expecting. I decided to use that time to take care of getting my student ID card and on my way downstairs noticed another table, set apart from the others and facing away from the door I had entered through. It was labelled "Adult Student Registration". I walked up to the table, said I'd registered "over there" and asked if I also needed to register with him. He smiled, said yes, gave me another packet, and said I had a class on the third floor just starting. So I hightailed it upstairs, found the class, and got settled. There were maybe 20 other people in this class and they were not a talkative bunch.
After an awkward q&a session, we went to the KIVA to watch a presentation on financial aid. The other adult students and I were scheduled to take our placement tests at 10:30 a.m. and the financial aid presentation went long. Many of us left the presentation early in order to arrive for the test on time, but we were stopped just outside the auditorium. A Kent State student guide said to us, "They know we're running late. Just wait here and I'll escort you to the Bowman Building when everyone is ready."
The Bowman Building is right next to the KIVA, so it was just a short walk. We went upstairs to a computer lab and two students set us up on computers to begin our tests. The English portion of the test was an absolute breeze. It was the sort of thing I used to do here at work until Mike hired an executive secretary to do all the proofreading. I moved on to the math portion, which was more like a foreign language to me. I was able to work the word problems and most of the algebra looked familiar (although I couldn't remember what I was supposed to do with it) and some of it was like a foreign language. There were symbols I'd never seen before. But after an hour and a half, I had completed all of it and walked back to the student center to get my ID before lunch. Getting the ID was painless. Somehow they managed to make me look like a deer in headlights. It's funny...I've tried to get my IDs to look like that on purpose in the past, but this time they managed it with no special effort.
I was studying a map of the campus when I saw some of the people in my group walking towards the dorms where we were to have lunch. I caught up with them and began chatting with the director of the student center. I ended up eating lunch with a girl in my group and a friend of hers who is set to graduate in the spring. The friend drove a bus for the school and was talking about how rude most of the student body is. She said nobody ever says hi. When it was time to meet with my advisor, I told her it was nice to meet her and that if I saw her around campus I'd be sure to say hi.
I walked back to the Bowman Building (which is the main building for the college of arts and sciences where I've been accepted) with another man from my group. He just got out of the Marines and since he signed up post 9/11, he gets a full ride.
I met with my advisor who was extremely enthusiastic about my placement test scores. I tested in the 99th percentile for english. I'm pretty proud of that considering I haven't taken an English course since 1996. She mentioned in a warning kind of voice that I would be required to take a foreign language. I said, "Well, actually, that's the course I'm most excited to take." She got really excited then, and even more excited yet when I mentioned that I'd like to take Russian. Overall, she was just about beside herself with enthusiasm for me to the point where I expected her to start jumping up and down and cheering. It was entertaining! She tried then to get me enrolled in beginners Russian. Unfortunately the lab necessary for that class was closed. So I ended up in Recent American History and Music as a World Phenomenon. I also have to take an Adult Student Orientation course once a week for the whole first semester.
Now I'm just trying to get childcare for Dominic worked out. I'm asking all my friends and also my neighbor. I'll have class 4 nights per week.
Other things I still need to get worked out include parking (they expect freshmen to park by the stadium and take a bus onto campus, but I just don't have time for that), and making sure I have enough money to cover my education. I've been approved for more money than necessary to finish my first semester, but I'm not sure if the federal money covers just my freshman year (33 or so credits) or if it covers a single academic year. In the first scenario, I'm kind of screwed as I'll need to come up with $10k all on my own. In the second scenario, I'm sittin' so pretty it ain't funny. I'm hoping for the second.
Dominic has been enjoying Doctor Who lately. He especially likes the Cybermen (he calls them "cybermans"). I took him shoe shopping on Saturday and tried to talk him into a pair of hightop chucks. He really liked them... until he saw the Skecher Hot Lights that look like police cars. Suddenly, he didn't like the "Doctor shoes" any more and just wanted the "Hot lights! Light up the night!" Two steps forward, one step back...
We weren't able to do anything on Tuesday because Dominion threatened to shut off my gas if I wasn't home to let them in to take a meter reading. They gave me an 11 hour window appointment time. They finally got to my house around 4:30 in the afternoon. The meter reader was nice. He brought a remote meter with him and said that the woman who made my appointment should have made the appointment not for a meter reading, but for installation of a remote meter. He took the final reading, wrote it in permanent marker on the new meter and installed the new remote meter. Now they'll be able to read the meter every month from outside the house, though they'll still want to take a physical reading at least once every 3 years. So I've got 3 years to let the junk pile up around the gas meter in my basement! Yay!
On Wednesday Dominic slept in until 9:00 am. This was exciting for me because it meant that he wouldn't need an afternoon nap and I could take him somewhere fun all day. I decided to take him to the Great Lakes Science Center in Cleveland. I paid for entrance into the science center, the special Darwin exhibit, and one OmniMax film. We played around with the general exhibits for about an hour until our movie started. Then we got our seats high up in the OmniMax theatre. Those movies always make me dizzy. Ours was a movie about the Grand Canyon. Dominic was awed. During the third whitewater rafting scene (about 45 minutes into the 1 hour-long movie), Dominic announced he had to pee. I was grateful to leave. I just don't think I'm cut out to enjoy OmniMax. I got him some pizza at the center's cafe and then took him to play at the Polymer Playground until 4:30. I tried to get out of Cleveland before rush hour and mostly succeeded.
On Thursday I decided to take Dominic to the Harry London Chocolate Factory. He fell asleep in the car on the way down to Canton. I pulled into the lot and went to get him out of his car seat. I whispered, "We're here," and his eyes popped open and he practically bolted out of his seat. He was remarkably well-behaved during the tour. He kept shushing me and telling me to follow the tour guide (these were unnecessary instructions, btw. I was also well behaved). They always end the tour in their retail store and Dominic kept asking me to buy him stuff. He finally decided he wanted a small packet of chocolate cars. I picked out some chocolate covered cherries for Justin and got a bag of their "Old School" chocolates for myself.
Friday was my "Destination Kent" event. I hit campus at 8:00 in the morning and made my way to the Kent Student Center. They had several tables lined up for registration. I found my table, gave them my name and they gave me a packet of paper, a name tag, and a schedule. I went into the ballroom, got a cup of water and started reviewing the schedule. I noticed it was very different from the one they mailed to me. It started a whole hour later than I was expecting. I decided to use that time to take care of getting my student ID card and on my way downstairs noticed another table, set apart from the others and facing away from the door I had entered through. It was labelled "Adult Student Registration". I walked up to the table, said I'd registered "over there" and asked if I also needed to register with him. He smiled, said yes, gave me another packet, and said I had a class on the third floor just starting. So I hightailed it upstairs, found the class, and got settled. There were maybe 20 other people in this class and they were not a talkative bunch.
After an awkward q&a session, we went to the KIVA to watch a presentation on financial aid. The other adult students and I were scheduled to take our placement tests at 10:30 a.m. and the financial aid presentation went long. Many of us left the presentation early in order to arrive for the test on time, but we were stopped just outside the auditorium. A Kent State student guide said to us, "They know we're running late. Just wait here and I'll escort you to the Bowman Building when everyone is ready."
The Bowman Building is right next to the KIVA, so it was just a short walk. We went upstairs to a computer lab and two students set us up on computers to begin our tests. The English portion of the test was an absolute breeze. It was the sort of thing I used to do here at work until Mike hired an executive secretary to do all the proofreading. I moved on to the math portion, which was more like a foreign language to me. I was able to work the word problems and most of the algebra looked familiar (although I couldn't remember what I was supposed to do with it) and some of it was like a foreign language. There were symbols I'd never seen before. But after an hour and a half, I had completed all of it and walked back to the student center to get my ID before lunch. Getting the ID was painless. Somehow they managed to make me look like a deer in headlights. It's funny...I've tried to get my IDs to look like that on purpose in the past, but this time they managed it with no special effort.
I was studying a map of the campus when I saw some of the people in my group walking towards the dorms where we were to have lunch. I caught up with them and began chatting with the director of the student center. I ended up eating lunch with a girl in my group and a friend of hers who is set to graduate in the spring. The friend drove a bus for the school and was talking about how rude most of the student body is. She said nobody ever says hi. When it was time to meet with my advisor, I told her it was nice to meet her and that if I saw her around campus I'd be sure to say hi.
I walked back to the Bowman Building (which is the main building for the college of arts and sciences where I've been accepted) with another man from my group. He just got out of the Marines and since he signed up post 9/11, he gets a full ride.
I met with my advisor who was extremely enthusiastic about my placement test scores. I tested in the 99th percentile for english. I'm pretty proud of that considering I haven't taken an English course since 1996. She mentioned in a warning kind of voice that I would be required to take a foreign language. I said, "Well, actually, that's the course I'm most excited to take." She got really excited then, and even more excited yet when I mentioned that I'd like to take Russian. Overall, she was just about beside herself with enthusiasm for me to the point where I expected her to start jumping up and down and cheering. It was entertaining! She tried then to get me enrolled in beginners Russian. Unfortunately the lab necessary for that class was closed. So I ended up in Recent American History and Music as a World Phenomenon. I also have to take an Adult Student Orientation course once a week for the whole first semester.
Now I'm just trying to get childcare for Dominic worked out. I'm asking all my friends and also my neighbor. I'll have class 4 nights per week.
Other things I still need to get worked out include parking (they expect freshmen to park by the stadium and take a bus onto campus, but I just don't have time for that), and making sure I have enough money to cover my education. I've been approved for more money than necessary to finish my first semester, but I'm not sure if the federal money covers just my freshman year (33 or so credits) or if it covers a single academic year. In the first scenario, I'm kind of screwed as I'll need to come up with $10k all on my own. In the second scenario, I'm sittin' so pretty it ain't funny. I'm hoping for the second.
Dominic has been enjoying Doctor Who lately. He especially likes the Cybermen (he calls them "cybermans"). I took him shoe shopping on Saturday and tried to talk him into a pair of hightop chucks. He really liked them... until he saw the Skecher Hot Lights that look like police cars. Suddenly, he didn't like the "Doctor shoes" any more and just wanted the "Hot lights! Light up the night!" Two steps forward, one step back...