15 June 2004 - Something new here...will change as time allows. Well, my big news is that I now have my Associate of Arts degree (with Honors) from Fullerton College. I graduated May 26th. Most of the Rayburn clan, along with a few Cisneros' came out for the ceremony. Extremely loud. Very proud of the fact that I got to wear my Phi Theta Kappa stole, cords and tassel (not to mention being able to walk at the front of the crowd...). All that work paid off. I actually started classes at Cal State Long Beach in January. Now have a 4.0 for my first term on campus there...managed to get 100's for my final papers in a few of my subjects (Pagan Culture, Neo Classical/Romantic Art, U.S. Women of Color and Byzantine Art)...got A's on all my mid-terms and final exams.
I will be honest. It is really difficult to make the transistion to a full-fledged university campus as a middle aged women. There was exactly ONE other student I ran into the first week of classes who I knew from Fullerton. Lucy, however, was in her late teens, and after seeing her twice the first week, I never saw her again... The first students who deigned to speak to me early on were graduate students. I've made friends with a dozen or so of them now, along with finding the handful of other undergrads who are middle aged. At last. More than a few of the women in this group felt the way I did, and wanted to cry the first month or two on campus - they felt as invisible as I did amongst the youngsters. The teen-aged and early twenty-something students basically ignore anyone who appears to be over the age of 30. If they do speak to you they mistake you for a faculty member, then return to ignoring you (unless they have a study question about the coursework) after discovering you can't help their grade. Not a lot of fun. It was an extremly lonely, isolated feeling. However, I can write that there are a few youngun's who discovered that us old farts can be amusing and informative and have decided to befriend their wrinkly classmates. It's helpful not to act like a mom...does a better job of making friends...
What has happenned since I last wrote...oh yes...the new house in Fullerton. Work is coming along. Our little house was a 1923 Colonial Revival bungalow. Originally 700 square feet, now about 1140 square feet. 3 bedrooms, 2 bathrooms needling a lot of work. John has torn out the Guada -La Habra- styled fence (iron and brick) out front and is in the process of replacing it with a white picket fence. The kitchen had been remodled (badly) by the previous owner, but the rest of the house leave something to be desired. Along with ripping out part of the patio in the side yard (which is bigger than the back yard), John is switiching out one of the bedrooms with the current dining room, and will be replacing the window in the former bedroom with French doors. The exterior will go from peach (sigh) to Williamsburg blue eventually...one of our neighbors used to refer to this place as "the pink house."
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