An almost holiday!

Today there are no classes before 4:00. I don't have any after 4:00. So I am not going in to school today. That is very nice. But I am scheduled to work later today...

This picture is of huckleberries! I'm thinking we picked them the last day that I had off of school. Which was the Monday after school started. Which, I think, was Labor Day. My dad and one brother and I went hiking. I think it was just one brother... ? But it was a while ago.

A picture from the hiking trip.

One of my month birthdays. My brothers helped me get a good picture. I took the cake to college group (I had signed up to bring the snack that day), and then, when I brought it home, I ate some remaining crumbs - there were no pieces left :)

Yes, I finished the last Spanish paper in time. No, I did not get 100%. And yes, I have another one due Monday. Oh, the priviledge of being in a Spanish class where we are supposed to know enough to write. (At least it can be short.)

update and my latest pirate story

So, I would like to update my blog. Instead of doing homework right now. I have an essey to write in Spanish for Spanish class. And I should make sure that all the nouns and modifiers agree with each other (after I write the paper). And then all should be pretty okay on the homework front. Meaning, I have more I could do, but that is what will be visable to a teacher by Thursday.

Today is a sun-shiney day.

Rumor has it I can buy gas today for 30 cents less per gallon than what I paid last Friday (which was ten or 20 cents less than what I paid on Wednesday or whatever day I bought gas earlier that week). So that means that I will probably pay 40 or 50 cents less today per gallon on gas than I did about a week ago. That is amazing.

ONCE UPON A TIME (i.e. it never happened), there was a dragon. This dragon lived on an island with lots of treasure. The problem is, there were lots of mosquitos there. In fact, there were sooo many mosquitos and they made such an awful noise together, that the dragon decided to leave the island. So he patched up the old wrecked ship that had decorated the beach for 38 years. He loaded all (well, almost all) of his treasure onto the old ship. And he set sail.

After three days of sailing, he realized he had three shortcomings in his character. 1. He had too little patience for mosquitos. 2. He couldn't mend ships very well. And 3. He could not sail a ship. After 5 days, he was throwing his heaviest treasure overboard and dreaming he could hear mosquitos, but he couldn't.

Then a pirate ship came. The dragon disregarded his faint fealing of forboding at the sight of a pirate flag. The dragon begged for help. The pirate was an intelligent man, and he and the dragon began moving the treasure from the old sinking ship to the sturdy pirate ship. As the dragon moved the last item onto the pirate ship, he declaired (for he was a dragon with good manners), "Thank you Mr. Pirate. Thank you SO MUCH for saving me."

The Pirate grinned delightedly. "The treasure is mine!" he said.

Today was See You At the Pole. So I got up about an hour early. The positive aspects to that were 1. seeing the pretty sunrise colors with the mountain. (Yes, I took two pictures. No, I don't have my camera with me as I right this.) and 2. getting to pray with other Christians at my school. There weren't many people there, but there were some, and it was nice. I think most of the Christians forgot or didn't know it was today or had a class at 7:00. Or they were like me last year and wanted to sleep. But the moral of the story is, I'm about an hour extra tired, so that by my third class at 11 I tried making a colorful design to stay in a reasonable state for absorbing lecture. Then I had a piece of peppermint gum, which worked quite well. Maybe I was mostly hungry. For my fourth class, following my lunch hour, I felt hyper. For my fifth class (directly following my fourth)...

That's what I especially wanted to write about. My fifth class is interpreted. I feel like I shouldn't watch it - like watching it is unfair to the interpreters. But sometimes I do watch. Today, I could see the interpreter well most of the time, and I didn't want to just sit listening to the lecture (not interesting enough or I was restless?). So I watched. The problem is, the interpreters can see me. And I'm pretty sure they can know I am watching and understanding. Eye contact and communication. Being part and yet not a part of this other world. But for a moment, or moments, I was understanding, and I'm pretty sure the eye contact was there. I miss being understood in sign language and listening in sign language.

Before long, I was walking through campus, looking at one of the impressive (for my part of the world) buildings with college students in front and thinking, "Who would go there? I wouldn't." And then remembering that I ACTUALLY was going to that college. So much for that idea. Apparently I would.

School

Well. By the end of the 5th class today, I am feeling tired and hungry. Maybe food will help. And then the final class of the day... a dance class!
But I'm feeling overwhelmed. It's one of those times when I wonder, "What have I done [by registering for these classes]? What am I doing [taking these classes]?" Thankfully, I think Mondays are my hardest days class-wise this semester. Last semester it was Thursdays, when I started at 9:00 am and ended at 8:30 pm.

The puppy's name is Rufford. (PS, next time you name a pet, consider the tongue-twister aspect, like "Ruff Rutherford.") (Or maybe you don't want to ask me at all for input.)

Puppy

Guard dog in training.

I think Belle (the older dog dog) will be tired tonight (unless she already slept enough after playing).

My family got a new puppy. He's about 3 months old, I'm told. He's very cute. He has lots of energy. I don't think his name has been decided on yet (if it has, I missed it).

change (and comments) (and more comments) (made by me, and part of the original posting)

ONE more day at the part time job that had hours drawing remarkably close to 40 hours a week. (Not a bad thing, but when I was/am working two part time jobs, and I counted up the hours scheduled on two of those weeks, and the hours scheduled in the week exceeded 50, and that didn't include driving time, well, you can immagine that I did/do feel a little overwhelmed.) It has been a good summer. I got lots of hours of work, which enables me to take lots of credits this fall in school. And I was able to go to church. Church was a big goal of the summer.

So MONDAY, my 18 credits of classes start, Lord willing. Actually, I think that every single class (except for Chemistry lab) that I'm taking meets on Monday. So Monday should be busy. (This may mean that I actually will have to finish school work on Saturday instead of trying to finish it on Monday.) (Then again, maybe I'll be able to put some of it off until Tuesday.) (Immagine finals at the end of the semester. What will it do to my finals since I take so many Monday classes?) (Do you think they will let me get out of some of my finals by having good grades up until then?) (I don't think I did so well on my last Math final.) (Either I didn't do well, or the teacher never got the final because there was confusion at the testing center.) (Because I got the grade I would have gotten if I didn't take the final or didn't do well enough on the test. -I think, but I could be wrong.) (But technically I could still tutor that math class, because my overall grade was still good enough.) (The moral of the story is, give yourself enough time to learn the material before taking exams. The secondary moral is, do well on the earlier tests that are easier for you and then you have more room for error in the later tests.) (Do you think other people will read this far, or have they given up?)

UM. School starting, one job ending. OH, and maybe I'll get my room partly cleaned tomorrow, and finish (or just continue) putting things on my walls. I got some new posters last Tuesday.