Things are slowing down a bit here so I figured it would be a good time to catch up with everyone. I realized that life is too busy to post to this blog more often than once every few months or so, but that has seemed to be a good number in the past. So what have I been doing lately? Well…
I’ve just completed 2 sessions of summer school. They were difficult to keep up with and took most of my time because the nature of summer courses involves taking all of the information from the regular course and jamming it into 5 weeks. I took my fist semester of Precalculus and a women’s studies course which fulfilled two general education requirements. The math class was extremely difficult because it has been 10 years since my last math class and we covered 2-3 chapters a week. The women’s studies class was less stressful, but still took up 2 hours a night, four nights a week and involved writing a 5 page paper every week. Of course this is me, so I couldn’t just skate through with Cs. I pushed myself to the limit and ended up with As in both classes. I am happy to say that I will not be doing that again! But because I did, not only will I not have to take Calculus during the summer, but I don’t have to take any of my labs during the summer either (that would be too insane for even me to try)! I’m basically through with my general education classes (with the exceptions of a Nevada history and an English lit class which sounds like a lot of fun). All that leaves me with is a majority of biology and chemistry credits to complete, with a few math, statistics and physics courses thrown in just for fun. According to my academic plan, I should be graduating with my BS in Biological Science in May, 2012. My employer has kindly been reimbursing me for my tuition, so I should be able to stay on track. This fall semester, I’ll be taking Introductory Chemistry (the high school chemistry class I never had) and Precalculus II (Trig). Then I’ll be all set for Calculus in the spring, along with a biology course.
Last month, I took a quick trip to Utah and was able to see my mom and a few good friends. I would like to have had more to see everyone, but I will definitely make time to see the rest of you on the next trip. It will either be Thanksgiving or New Year’s, but we haven’t made any specific plans yet.
Aspen is doing well and just returned home from a visit to Grandma’s. She is excited to start middle school on the 27th, and will be attending a school which specializes in the fine arts. She hopes to be accepted into the dance program (based on availability not ability), but if she doesn’t get into that, then she would like to learn to speak French and Spanish. We attended orientation yesterday to help her get acquainted with the new school. She’s ready to go!
Work has been going well. I’ve been cross-training in the Septics Department and learning things about solid waste control I never knew. I haven’t had the opportunity to inspect a septic tank up close, but the inspector has promised to take me along on the next fun one. Hey, it’s a dirty job….but it’s our responsibility to insure the health and safety of the community and our environment by making someone else clean up the mess!
I’ve been on the receiving end of a new Psoriasis laser therapy treatment lately. It’s a UV laser which targets only the affected areas so as not to cause damage to otherwise healthy skin. The first treatment, as some of you witnessed, caused extremely painful blistering, but I’ve had 2 successful treatments since and my skin is starting to clear up. Yay!
And with all that, do you think I had time to read Harry Potter? Of course! Harry cast his spell on me last Saturday afternoon after finals were over with and it was just the thing I needed to leave the stress of the world behind me. The minute I opened the book I was whisked away never to return again until 10 hours and 759 or so pages later which went by in a blink. It is truly magical when a book can still do that! It was good to finally draw to an end what many of us HP fans have waited for, but at the same time, we’ll miss not looking forward to the next book. (I’m not going to spoil it here, but feel free to e-mail me if you’ve read it. I could talk about Harry Potter all day.)
As you can tell by my lengthy recap alone, I’ve been overwhelmingly busy for the last few months and the time has really flown by (more than usual that is). Unfortunately, I’ve had to prioritize things by date, and my marathon training was something I had to reluctantly place on the back burner. My body is feeling it. The last few times I’ve gone for a long run (12 miles and 10 miles) I’ve ended up with a few sore muscles and learned a few lessons, namely not to go too far too fast, even if that means being the last one to cross the finish line in the short term. The smart thing for me to do is to swallow my pride and gradually build my strength until I can catch up with the rest of my group. I’ve modified my training schedule to reduce the mileage and gradually build back my strength. Now I have the time to focus on my next goals: the Disneyland ½ Marathon on Labor Day and the Las Vegas Marathon on December 2, 2007.
Well, that pretty much takes care of it. I'll write more in a few weeks.
Korie
