The last 24 hours can be summed up by one word: productive.

I had a 2:00 meeting yesterday with my soon-to-be-on-Sabbatical advisor*.  As it turns out, as part of the Social Sciences department, he is the one who can make the decision about whether or not the class I want to transfer in will count, not someone in the education program. He approved, and made note of it in several places in my file. I also learned that I can “graduate” this fall, with a second major in … either History or Social Studies. I don’t really remember. The form for this second major has been filled out and signed (and I presume will be submitted), but I’ve decided to wait to “graduate” until I’m actually done.

See the thing with that whole “graduation” thing (have you noticed the quotes?) is that it wouldn’t really mean anything, other than a slip of paper, at the moment. It would mean I have a second Bachelor’s degree, which in my current situation gets me absolutely nothing. Were I interested in giving up my current job (and the benefits that go along with it) and substitute teaching, for instance, it might be worth it. However, we have good health insurance, and it’s kinda hard to give that up, especially for something as unreliable as substitute teaching.

So when I got home from my  meeting, I quickly called up the registrar’s office at the other school to see if I actually needed to apply or if there was some secret back door for Metro students (they do, after all, share a campus, and I’ve had classes that were nearly 50/50 Metro / MCTC). The student worker I talked to was not incredibly helpful, but I got the information I needed.

I then quickly filled out the application (which is basically giving them your contact info and a list of the schools you went to – no essays, transcript requests, etc) and submitted it online. And then waited….

While I waited, I called to try to schedule an appointment with that third advisor (the post-baccalaureate one), because my first advisor (the subject one) said he might be willing to waive the requirement that I be accepted to the program and I could take an education class this semester. I left a message, and haven’t heard back yet.

At this point, it’s slightly after 4 pm. It was a very busy two hours (which included nearly an hour in transportation).

Our driveway was about a week overdue to be swept (acorn season is nearing its close, for which we are happy), so I did that.

After dinner, I went back outside and weeded. I weeded like there was no tomorrow. For the amount of time I spent, I covered a relatively small area (the front garden area by the driveway), but did a lot of work. In maybe two hours, I uncovered the actual edge/border of the garden, removed weeds, and got the grass in line. Grass is a pesky bugger. It seems to want to grow where you don’t want it (i.e. gardens) and doesn’t want to grow where you do want it (i.e. lawns). There was about a square foot at one corner of the driveway that was completely covered over with dirt and had lots of grass growing in it. That took forever to get rid of. The end result was not exactly pretty, but I wasn’t going for pretty.

To reward my hands for all their hard work (and boy, do they feel it – painful fingernails on my thumbs), I gave myself a mini manicure.

This morning, as soon as I got the email saying my application was accepted, I paid the fee, and then promptly spent almost 15 minutes trying to log in to the website. Do you know how difficult it is to come up with a 6-digit pin? Yeah. It can’t be the last six of your social, or your birthday, or start with a 0, and has to be all numbers. Only six digits. Exactly six digits. Grr.

Eventually, however, I did get into the site, found the class (Native America), and registered for it. Then I hopped on the the bookstore’s website, found out which books I needed, and proceeded to save myself 53% by ordering them used from Amazon. (Bookstore’s price for 5 new books: $81.79. Bookstore’s price for 5 used books: $61.50. Amazon’s price for 5 used books: $38.71, almost half of which is shipping.)

What all this means is that Saturday morning I will not be sleeping in until my usual hour of 9 am. I might have to get up at 8, which is still a far cry from 5:30. Class starts at 10 downtown Minneapolis, and I just have to figure out the best method of transportation.

It also means that and I have spent some time today researching hard drives, because my netbook needs a serious upgrade. I was waiting until I knew I was taking classes before spending the money, and I guess we’re here now. Unfortunately, Windows 7 is still not out, so my netbook will have to go through that upgrade later (I’d love to get it all done at once, but I really need my netbook to be speedier sooner rather than later, so I’ll have to deal).

I realize the last few posts have been quite boring, and that posting has been sporadic lately. I haven’t been very inspired, hence the lack of posting. I have been busy, but I haven’t been taking pictures, and just haven’t felt the need to share. There have been quite a few out of town visitors, some work on the house, some cleaning (though not as much as necessary), and some crafting (most projects are in some part of the process not called “done,” so there’s really no point in sharing that). My blogging mojo will come back eventually, and I’d guess sooner rather than later. We all have dry spells. Thanks for hanging in there.

*To clear up the whole 3 advisors thing, which I now mostly understand, here’s the deal. I have an advisor for the program, I have an advisor for my subject area, and I have an advisor because I’m not a traditional student (i.e. I’ve already got a Bachelor’s degree, and am therefore a post-baccalaureate student). Whew! Unfortunately, my school’s website only lists that I have one advisor (the program one), and she is the one who is out until the end of September.