Top 5 Tools to Stay Organized in School

Many of my classmates discovered that Part One of our midterm is this Monday. I know this makes me sound evil but I actually asked the professor to clarify the date because no one believed that the test was next week. My prof thought I wasn't paying attention but we know the real story. Anyway, in the midst of the maelstrom I was calm because I was prepared (not that I could take the exam today) and the girl next to me noticed. "You are so organized," she told me. This is my favorite compliment, possibly ever, and I'm wearing new pants. When it comes to school, I bust my hump to stay organized. This is the only way to stay afloat in challenging courses and schedules. I think this is truly one of the best parts of being a "mature student" in college; I know how to stay organized and time management is less of an issue. I say less because sometimes I blow stuff off and watch "Fringe" with James instead, like every other college kid.

So, today I thought I'd write about my Top 5 Tools to Stay Organized in School. Beyond the obvious things like keep a routine, plan your outfits, etc. There isn't an hierarchical aspect to the following, either.

01. Google Calendars will Save Your Life

I use Google Calendars for all kinds of things and share them with James. These calendars can be viewed and edited from our phones at a whim and reminders can be set to remind James to pick me up from work, etc. What isn't on here is James' work schedule because various clubs and what not are still settling in.  

For school I create a calendar for each class and spend "Syllabus Days" (the first day of class where nothing happens but syllabus review and role call) in the library between classes typing in every assignment and material covered. Looking at an individual syllabus and then flipping to another is for the birds! Please do not get me wrong; I love a hand-written calendar, too. For years I lived by my Moleskine like everyone else. But when there is a shift in the class-time paradigm the rest of the semester is off and it hurts my soul.

02. Color-Coordinate Those Classes

I cannot state how much this helps me. The colors in the calendar above are by no means random. I selected an ink color for each class for notes, flashcards, and calendar use. In a program like mine, especially, when similar information is often used in various courses, it's helpful to distinguish what I learned for which class. An example is that for SPPA 101 I may not need to know that /θ/ is an interdental, voiceless, fricative but I do need to know that for SPPA 215. So, if I have a card written in blue for 101 and purple for 215 I'm more likely to remember which requires more detail.  

03.  7-Subject Expanding File Folder

Every class, it seems these days, is run with PowerPoint lectures. This has it benefits in that I don't have to anxiously scribble everything down in hopes I won't miss any information and not really pay attention. Nor do I have to recopy said scribbles so they are legible. But the downside is that because I don't write it twice I don't always feel like I know it as well. Can you tell I am a (Multimodal) Visual-Verbal Learner? The other piece is that I have heck of a lot of paper within a few weeks. A regular folder only gives you so much storage and you need one for every class which runs the risk of one being left behind by accident. Enter the Expanding File Folder. This guy holds all of my classes at once so I can work on an assignment at any time even if I don't have x-class that day. I opted for the clear for two reasons. One being aesthetic, and liking the clean look; two is that I can see a printout of calendar through the front. Since there are two extra sections I can devote the back one to keeping a slim 2-subject spiral notebook so I can still take extra notes/write to-do lists, and so forth. Heck, I could just carry this guy around and I'd be set. I'm even thinking of naming him ("Gary" for some reason) because he's so reliable!

Gary, like myself, isn't very photogenic so this will have to do :D

04. A Bag with Plenty of Room, Like a Bag of Holding

Over the summer I got this on sale and it has been wonderful ever since. I like it so much I try to use it as a regular purse. Which, since its rather large, is not the best plan. 

The bag came from Think Geek which a great company; I've been buying stuff from them for years. I get emails from them and they often have sales or coupon codes so I saved something like $20 when I got it. I opted for the backpack version because it's 2 in 1: the messenger version is only 1. I can take the cross strap off if I want to and just use the back pack straps (very good with new textbooks). It's like an Alton Brown bag.  With a D&D reference. I mean, need I say more? 

Bonus points to a phone wallet, which forces me to carry less crap everyday.  

05. Grid-It Organizer
Now it's going to look like I'm sponsored by TG but I'm not, I promise. They now sell the bag and a Grid-It but I don't know if it is this size (the 5.125x10.25") since I purchased them months apart.  

• Multicolor pens, mechanical pencils, highlighter, and fine-point sharpie in the back zipper.
• 4GB Flash Drive & Argyle Case: I admittedly use this rarely because of Cloud tech but I keep it on me just in case
• iPhone cord (repaired with hacking putty)
• Star Trek pillcase with Tums and Iburpofren: I found this on Etsy some time ago and I love it so much. Here is a link to the shop, she makes all kinds of awesome pillboxes.
• Travel size hand lotion: because, well, its nice to have.
• Lip balm: ditto.
• Quirky Earbud Wrap: This is great, my cords don't get tangled and it's slim. I found mine at Target in the $1 bin a few months ago
• Booklight. This was actually a gift from my Secret Santa/Cousin last Christmas. She and I got each other and both did gift certificates to a book store and book-related item. It was adorbs. 

Yes to Staying In More

Ten years ago (almost to the day, in fact!) I started working at a cafe in my neighborhood. I left last year and it's still strange to think how many major life events occurred there. I didn't go straight to college and those major milestones of the late teens to early twenties all occurred there. I still refer to friends I made at that time as "college friends" because it's about that period of my life, less so the setting.

Since school started last month our schedules have become crazy. 11 hour days five days a week. Phew! When I was 20 I was working 11-12 hour days four days a week; getting to work at 6:30 and staying up until 2AM half the time (and consuming copious amounts of alcohol to boot.)

How did I do it? Our alarm goes off at 5:45 M-F and I'm usually in bed by 9:30 at night. Sometimes I crash on the couch watching "Fringe" or "The West Wing" around 8:30 I won't deny. BuzzFeed really nailed it with their "Life In Your Early Twenties vs. Your Late Twenties" list.

So, what have your favorite nerds been up to these last few weeks? Sleep! Homework! D&D! Renn Fest!

I humbly present one of my favorite photos of the two of us (short of wedding photos) ever taken:

We went for the Snooty Rulers look.
(There are two more people in the shot but since they don't
write a blog I don't think it's fair to post their photos.)

Classes are kicking my butt a bit. ASL is really cool but really challenging since I'm super upcoordinated. Phonetics is my favorite so far because it's so much fun and nerdy as all get out. I mean, we had to make magnets for an assignment. IPA Magnets. Dee-lightful.

Hearing Science has been tough, it's a lot of math which hasn't been too bad because my Trig professor from last year was so great and I have (a little) confidence. I prefer the physics to the straight math refresher, admittedly. The other two courses are rather blah, mostly material I have learned before. The downside to changing majors as many times as I have is that I have taken A LOT of basic psychology and development courses. Sometimes it's tempting to skip but I only get one a semester so I have to be careful.

SLP Summer

I have been accepted into the SLP program for Fall 2013. After some minor issues, just my transcript not arriving on time, I was one of the 70 selected to for the this year's cohort. I am beyond thrilled. And relieved!   My degree will be in Speech Language Pathology & Audiology. From this I will need to enroll in graduate school and receive my master's degree before I can practice.

The classes this fall are a lot of background in SLP that I'm excited to take. I will be taking:

• Intro to Human Communication & Disorder
• Language Development in Children
• Phonetics of American English 
• Articulation and Phonological Disorders
• Anatomy and Physiology I & A&P Lab Component 
• Hearing Science

I am excited about all of them which is really comforting and makes me feel like I made the correct choice. I have orientation coming up in the end of July and I will register classes and receive my student ID card, etc. Until then I've taken care of the small incidentals like getting vaccinated and tested for Tuberculosis. James very sweetly treated me to a Fishamajig afterwards since I didn't cry or nothin'. The reward from being 8 still work when I'm 28, which is good to know. Also, after the appointment I walked to the nearest library and hid among the books. The apple does not fall far. James laughed when I told him I took out a few more titles; my current checked-out total is somewhere in the double digits.

My other school related summer project is to do research into getting an iPad. My  current laptop is beginning to fail (I have had it for three years) and it's driving me crazy! I know that there are lots SLP-related apps and the like for iPad. In fact, right before Dad passed away he was going to get one to help him. I also really like the interface and ease of transport. It's the pricetag I'm not thrilled about! I know some of our family members have iPads so I would love to hear your thoughts on them (tell me the good, the bad, and the ugly!)

James is working a summer job for the school district and seems to be really enjoying it. I know it's better than being at home for the summer, which drives him crazy every year.

In other news, we finally got a grill and have been BBQing as often as we can. It's been monsoon season here in the city and the poor Beagle hates every second of it. (I'm working on a beagle photo post so just you wait!)

School's Out For Summer!

Poor little blog. I abandoned it like a big jerk. To be fair, I was working pretty hard in my classes. School wrapped up two weeks ago today. I'm free! It was such a great feeling to walk off of the community college campus and know I'd never be back there. I started in 2007 so it's a long time coming! School's out forever (at least that particular school) so here is some Alice Cooper and Muppets to celebrate:

This last semester I took Biology for Health majors. As you may know I took Biology for Non-Health majors a few years ago when I was still studying to be a teacher. I can now say with authority that there is quite a difference between the two (which, of course, makes sense!) I knew this class was supposed to be tough, students only spoke of it in hushed tones, but on the first day I was informed Bio 110 has  forty percent pass rate. Gulp. 60% of students fail the class. Wow. Talk about scary, huh?

These were my cards for the whole semester. 

But after weeks of toil I was rewarded:

And I've submitted my application to the Speech-Language program at TU. It is a pre-screened major and a cohort program so they only accept a certain number of students each Fall. The decision is based upon GPA and the grades received in five pre-req courses. My GPA is 3.66 (I wish it was a teeny bit higher but James think I'm crazy) and I have 4 As and 1 B in the pre-reqs. This should make me a good candidate but I don't want to count my chickens...

James' school year is almost finished, also. He is in exam review mode right now and has no more new material to teach. He has a summer job working for the school system and he's really excited about it. I;m gonna be a little lonely this summer while he's working but the house will never be cleaner or more organized I expect!

And that means I might remember to blog about all the fun stuff. The bottom floor is really coming together and I'm excited to show you all in the next few weeks!

Landmark Weekend!

Two very big things happened (one to each of us) and we enjoyed celebrations all around. And since it all came at once we really got to toast to them.

First up was James' 30th Birthday Party -- that's right, he's officially old now. I threw him a Star Wars themed shindig, complete with a hand-painted Jabba the Hut above the couch. I even got some gold ribbon in case anyone wanted to be shackled to him Leia-style.

That was a laborious process but I loved every second of it. Maybe it's because I haven't been doing a whole lot of artwork recently, but it was like when you have a really good workout and your Endorphins are all high. I've had a few people ask me about ol' Jabba so here's how he came to be:

I knew I wanted him to be stretched out by our lazy spot, the couch, so I quickly grabbed the measurements of our good buddy. (We seriously love this couch, so much so that I tried to talk some friends into buying one for their new space.) I have a roll of paper that I bought so I could use it like a table cloth in restaurants where they give you cups of crayons. It's great for brainstorming!

We use our old dining table as our desk up in the office which is great since it offers so much space. Rarely are the two of us up there at the same time (we have very different learning styles and study habits) so it's really easy to adjust the table to how each of us likes. I did a quick sketch to grid out Jabba's body and convert it into a larger size. Math is not strong in this one, but that B in Trigonemetry gave me the strength to try. I realized as I measured out that the main body of Jabba would be the same length as the table, and his head about the same width -- talk about serendipitous!

Using a pencil I drew his bare outline, I knew it would show through the water colors but I was okay with it, I like the look of that for some reason. I chose water color for two reasons. One, a friend of mine (a legitimate artist, he's amazingly talented) recently posted his pieces on Facebook and they were so beautiful I wanted to work with them. And, two I was on a tight budget. (A secret third reason is I was running out of time.)

While I was doing all of this, I was buzzing on really good news I'd received earlier that afternoon but more on that later!

I only did his face the first night. The body came the next day when I'd gotten some more watercolors. Smart thing that I am, I only bought one pack which got me exactly that far. Lucky for me, James picked up another pack , all the while not knowing about he super secret art project, which just made him all the more curious. 

I finished Jabba up the next afternoon. A friend and neighbor took James out for a few hours so I could finish the rest of the preparations (decorating cake and house, mostly). 

I almost forgot about his arms! Thanks goodness I took a close look at my inspirational image!

After that, all I had to do was cut him out and apply him to the wall. I'm not going to post any photos from the party since I want to respect our friends' privacy and all that but here's a photo of James and Chloe napping together under the gaze of Jabba:

So. Part One of Awesome Weekend? Ready for Part Two? Both involve a long time span. But this one is all  about me!

I was accepted to Towson University! I may be 27 and this may seem like 10 years later than most "kids" but since when have I done everything "by the book"? I just had a conversation with a neighbor of ours who also took about 10 years to get her Bachelor's and she looks at it in a similar light. We both changed our majors a few time but found a better fit and got to learn a whole lot of other interesting things in the meanwhile. She and I are "much better conversationalist[s]" for it, as she expertly put it.

We didn't take any photos of the moment, partially because we were bringing groceries in for the week/party and also because I was too darned excited. So, in its stead I'll post a few animated gifs from the ladies of NBC who represent a lot of my personality

Source

Source

Entrez-vous!

Everyone wants to walk into their home and feel relaxed, right? Like you've left behind the troubles of the world and come to private sanctuary. And then there is Jon Hamm to remove my coat and hand me a glass of wine.. yes, but in reality I just want a place in which I can drop my keys, put down my bag and easily get to the couch where ac ertain beagle is supposed to sit and wait for me to get through.

I've been playing with this setup for a few months now, editing it and expanding it to include our school bags, Chloe's needs, mail sorting, what have you.

Our trusty expedit has been a part of the journey.

Originally the poor thing was just slammed against the wall as a catch-all for fantasy books and various mystery paperbacks. This was not exactly the classiest thing to look upon after a long day. No one wants to walk in and think, "Oh right, I have to clean all of this up now, too."

So embarrassing!

At some point, I cleaned it up, moved books around (my life story) and made a system.

Unfortunately, the photo is lost. But I assure you, each cube was be a home for some aspect of our daily needs. Starting from the right it was Library Books/Borrowed items, Chloe's leash, harness and bags, Files and household binder, and finally Grab & Go Items (where I stashed my purse an lint rollers hid). Then on the bottom row, a stack of random books (haha, you can lead me to water but you can't make me drink), a basket for hats and gloves, canvas grocery bags, and a recycling bin for unwanted mail.

I tidied up the top as well, removing the old mail center which was more of hassle than anything. By moving the household binder downstairs (it used to live in our office) I was more likely to instantly file and store bills, statements etc. The three pocket guy I bought from Target worked well before we were married and lived with a roommate.But we needed to move on. Not too long ago I re-did our tea organization. Instead of digging around the large (and often unsightly) boxes. I dug out a wooden box in which cheap silverware had been bought. It worked perfectly and as I looked around my house trying to think of something to upcycle I realized that the other cutlery box would do perfectly.

So, the new system worked well for a few months. The downside was that it was across the room from the door and during Christmas we had to move the coat rack away to make room for the tree.Basically, it just wasn't working.

What to do but turn it around, move it around. I kept hearing "Bend Me, Shape Me" by The American Breed (althought I thought of Bender & Angleyne in Futurama.) I tried puttig against the same wall as the door which just ended up blocking the stair well and the door, sigh. Then I tried a whole other piece instead which was a massive fail. James was feeling ill and trying to nap as I lumbered shelves and pieces up and down the steps. He was very sweet and offered to help but I was good to go (and it's usually best to stay out of my way, am I right?)

Then (and this did require help) I decided to flip it vertically. Ooh. 

That was interesting but still on the wrong side of the room. Let;s scoot it to the other wall. (Oh, and I've moved our stereo from the dining room to the living room and it's been in use much more often, happily.)

Now that's better! I changed up some of the cubbies so now we have the key-bowl/grab and go in one small area, house files and mail center (filing and bill paying is so easy!), My University supplies (more about that next time!), hats/scarves/gloves basket, records, Chloe's gear, and empty spot for James' briefcase so it doesn't get kicked around, and grocery bags.

I love it this way and so does James. That being said, how many weeks before I change it up? I can't say, I might paint it, though...

The Program's the Thing

I emailed the Department Heads at the two local universities that offer degree-programs in SLP. I explained that I had been studying Secondary English until Dad fell ill. I also noted that I have waited a little while so I could be sure it was my calling and not a knee-jerk (psst! Merrian-Webster’s Word of the Day today) reaction to Dad’s suffering.

The problem with one school is that it is a cohort program so I couldn’t start until the Fall of 2013 and I only need 2 pre-reqs nonetheless (Math and Bio for health majors).

The other school, purportedly has a better program, but it MUCH more expensive. But I admit, I want to go there more. I’m now able to get Financial Aid too, so I might as well run with it…?

Oh to be almost 27 and halfway through an amalgam of a Bachelor’s degree. #angst :P

To Boldly Go

It’s funny to think that “To boldly go” is such an iconic phrase if not completely terrible for any grammarian in your life.

So now that I’m someone’s old lady, I want to get my life started more than I ever have before. And this means I need to get back to school so I can get my degree and then my Masters to become a working Speech Pathologist. In the next week I simply must perform two tasks:

Contact three schools about transferring, setting up meetings to discuss the madness that is my current state.
I am currently 63 credits into a program at Community College that still does not exist. I have been told repeatedly for the the last three years that there “is just a little more red tape” to sort through and to “continue on the suggested track”. Yeah, right. Even more “amusing” at this point is that I want to change my track from Secondary Education - English to a plain Jane English degree. After that I can do a one-year transfer program and then a two-year Masters program at the best school in the state for SLP. I have contacted folks about this before but that was over a year ago before my father became ill and passed away.

Select an art course that I want to be able to fit into my fall schedule.
I started college as an Art major, actually as a Computer Graphics major, and I soon realized that I wasn’t up to design for other people over myself. Selfish? Kinda. Pragmatic? Yeah, I s’pect so. Anyway, I have since stopped drawing, exploring art, and generally doodling be it on paper or in pixels. It’s driving me batty! My skills are dwindling and my drive has all but disappeared. Time to fix that!

The husband and I (hehe) realized a few months ago that we could afford to do this life with only his income. This was back when we were pregnant and hadto look out our budget without any income deriving from me. When we lost the baby I dared not suggest that we continue on with my “retiring” from the cafe job I’ve had for almost nine years and go to school full time. I didn’t want to seem like a drain on him, especially since he was such a prince last summer during Dad’s illness. Low and behold, I gave him such little credit, he suggested it to me. My prince! My knight in shining tin-foil taking up my hand and going to battle to allow me to go to school! Or something like, that anyway.