Americorps

Tomorrow I start a week long orientation for Americorps. For those of you who are unaware of this organization, it is a nationwide volunteer organization that helps out with everything from building homes to literacy. I'll be working on the literacy end in a family program which promotes education to parents and children. Members receive a living stipend for a year of service, and an education award if you complete a specified amount of hours. This is actually my second year (you can only do two), but I'll receive an education award of $4700 dollars which will go a long way towards paying for my tuition. If you're interested, check out the site at www.americorps.gov.

It's getting closer, and I'm not talking about school

As you can see from this picture, I truly have the ugliest bathroom in New Orleans. Most of the nasty peach tile is gone. I'm not going to take up the tile on the floor, but tile over it with larger porcelain squares. I plan to extend the tile work on the wall, but for the tub surround I"ll have to go with what's call an 'easy up adhesive wall set'. This is the problem with older homes. Nothing in them is standard sized. I couldn't find one hard wall tub surround that would fit in my bath, so the 'easy up' set was my most economical option.

My brother is in town to help me put up new drywall as well as the surround. Once I tile the floor and wall, I can put the toilet back in place. At present, it's sitting in a corner of my bedroom covered by a pretty shower curtain, but it's still a little close for comfort.

This renovation has taken a little longer than I thought it would. It's been raining for the past few days, which makes it hard to use any kind of adhesives because of the humidity. Of course I wanted to have it finished by the 24th, but that's not going to happen and I have to be okay with that. Just rethink the plan and make a new one; that will have to me my new motto for the next three years.

I hate to beat a dead horse!

They were staring at it like ancient cavemen who had just invented the wheel. Of course this observation can be used for any instance involving the cleaning of anything. I'm referring to the Holy Grail of slovenly family habits; putting a fresh roll of paper on the roll. Why?!?!? It's like they've barely graduated from rubbing against a tree like bears. By the way, just how stupid is that commercial? When they first came out, their biggest selling point was that this particular brand of tissue didn't leave any lint behind. All I could hear was that it didn't leave any lint on your behind. I guess that's why they changed the wording. Regardless, if that's something which bothered you, you are either a contortionist or clearly have too much time on your hands.

The Final Hurdle

Today, I went back to the college to get my parking pass and ID (one of the worst ID pictures I've ever taken, so I hope I don't actually have to show it to anyone). The only thing left to do now is to go to my first class, which is a week away. I'm feeling kind of ambivalent tonight. On one hand I'm really excited, but on the other, I really wonder what I'm getting myself into. Do I have the tenacity to put one more huge thing on my already overflowing plate, and how can I juggle family and work with it as well?

In the meantime, I've taken a look at some graduate level papers, and I feel that if I'm careful about content and structure I can handle it. One thing the professors shared with us is some of the same advice I've shared with my daughters, which is to ask for help when you feel you're beginning to flounder, not when you're ready to hang yourself. I think I should write that on the top of each of my notebooks.

This time I really want to do it better. My undergrad career was all about getting away from my parents' home and having the life I didn't' have as a teenager. The problem is you can't always do that and have a successful academic career as well. There are a million things I would change about those years, but the problem with changing the past is that your future would be substantially different. And there are things in that future I'm just not willing to part with.

Orientation

It took three and a half hours! I had no idea orientation at a small college could take so long. And I'm still not finished. The ID machine went down, and I didn't have my proof of insurance or registration, so I couldn't get my parking pass. So it's back to school tomorrow (or the next day) to complete those things.

Ever since I applied, I've wondered what to expect on the first day. At today's orientation, the professors stressed how important writing skills would be, and that if you had any deficiencies in this area to take the non-credit graduate writing course. I write all the time; fiction and non-fiction, manuals, etc. but I think I'd better go to the library and look at some graduate papers to see if I need this course. I don't want to be derailed just because of a lack of technique.

So easy a caveman could do it....

It's not true you know. On the evolutionary scale, when it comes to the simple motor skills of replacing a roll of toilet tissue, cavemen are smarter than my family. I even have a built in excuse now. Remember my kitty cat burglar? In addition to her many talents as a high wire artist, she likes to indulge in shredded toilet paper art as well. So, I tell the family to put the tissue on the roll to avoid this. What do I find the very next day? Empty brown tubes on the rolls, and toilet tissue on the floor. Husbands and children are missing the 'tidy' chromosome, aren't they?

Oh, I forgot to mention.....

I hope you'll enjoy the pictures on my blog of the Greater New Orleans area. The birdhouse in the last post is from City Park's Botanical Garden.