Run for the Pancakes

Wednesday April 28th 2010

The Shoes!
Here they are, the second pair, the new and improved, the not falling apart at the seams, and now PINK running shoes. I have decided that instead of "blinging" them out right away, like I did with the last pair, I will simply add one piece of "bling" for every run I go on. So, take a good look, this is the last time they will be with out "sparkle".

In the spirit of wanting my shoes to gleam I got up at 6:00 this morning and went for a three miles run/walk with Sam (who did every well and only tired to trip me twice - we're improving)

Then, it was home to get the house moving and talk dear hubby into making me his, now famous, pancakes. YEAH. I think this should be a routine, I get up go run and when I get home Chris says "Good job running honey, here's your pancake".

Food and Diamond sparkle - who could ask for more? (out of a run anyhow)

The rest of my day was filled with studying and laundry until it was 'signing time' or ASL class.

The Drive/crawl to school.
It was raining on and off all day today. These kinds of days are fairly normal for Portland, in the spring, fall and winter, but for some reason the highways were a total mess. My normal trip to school takes me about half an hour, (with good traffic) so I generally leave an hour before class starts to allow for traffic. Today that allowance was not enough.

Here is my drive on hwy 84.
Per Google maps this stretch of highway should be "5.4 mi – about 5 mins" well let just say it was a bit longer then that.
Here's the on ramp. Lots of pretty red lights.
Notice the time in the lower right corner - 5:56pm.Up to this point it was slow, a 15 minute drive had taken about 40 minutes BUT we were moving so I still had hope I might make it to class on time.

Originally these pictures started as a catalog to show my deaf professor, making it easier to explain my tardiness. It didn't take long, though, for them to at a turn to still life.
(Proof that grass will grow
anywhere but my front yard.)
Nearly 45 minutes later I could see the off ramp! I was on my way to being on the 5!! Never had I thought I would be this excited about getting on I-5. Not that it was smooth sailing from there, but after spending a little quality time on the Marquam Bridge, traffic started moving again. Don't think I let Q/T on the Marquam escape me, oh no, I got a really nice picture of the city scape from that bridge. Now, If I had been thinking I would have rolled down the dirty, rained stained, dog licked, window and gotten a really great shot - but as it is I am still happy.

All and all I was about an hour late for class but the teacher didn't seem too mad. He let me know that he leaves two hours early just for this reason - I cant see leaving that early on the off change that I will be spending an hour on a five mile stretch of Hwy BUT then again, maybe on rainy days.

Back to School!!

So Back to school I go. Kids are growing and both will be off to school themselves by fall. No time like the present to get started, right? Well as easy as that might sound I have to admit there was some hesitation on my end, when would I find the time to study? It has been quite a few years since I was in school, would I even be able to pass the classes if I took them? And truly I was just SCARED, but I pushed myself on. Got online, found the program I wanted and MADE THE CALL - one big scary step out of the way! I set up a time to go in and talk to someone within the interpreting program, get some guidance. There, there it is the first time I saw the sign to the sign language department. Another moment full of fear, what if they just laughed at me, what if they could just tell by looking at me that I wasn't fit for their program? Well that is not what happen, of course, they were every helpful (even if they gave me some wrong information - I mean this is community college right? Not everyone will give you the more current information) So I set up a time to come back and have my ASL skills tested. With a sigh of relief I turned to head home. I had did it - two big steps to starting back to school! This is the view of the drive home very beautiful and reassuring, or so I thought. And then back home, back to the WA side. My OR adventure for the day was OVER but, I had done it :) There was plenty of paper work and phone calls and a trip back to the sign language department for a placement test (where I was assessed at ASL 102, so I was able to skip ASL 101, which was helpful and mildly reassuring), two more trips to a different campus to straighten out my application with the school and my transcript and a few more phone calls, then back again to figure out my financial aid situation. Then after all these extra steps it was time to register!! PROOF that I am back in school :o)

I ended up taking two classes, my ASL 102 class and then a Psy 215 (human development) class. Both are prerequisites for the Interpreting program I am hoping to join Fall 2011. My ASL class is on Mondays and Wednesdays 6:30pm - 8:20pm and my Psy 215 class in a tele-web class (but honestly takes much more time and I will be glad to see that class over)

Everyday I get more comfortable with my new identity (student) and even though it was scary and overwhelming at first (not that the homework isn't NOW overwhelming) it just feels right. I am so happy that I pushed myself and walked through my fears. Now I get to laugh every Monday and Wednesday night - my ASL professor is AMAZING. Here is a sample of what my classes are like here he is talking about a couple that are pregnant and describing how the woman is growing through the months. :o) I am sure that even though he is deaf and using sign alone you will be able to understand. (Sorry about the poor quality, it was taken via my phone.

C