The biggest difference

I'm into my third week of classes now and I already feel in the groove. Maybe it's that second semester thing. My English prof said he senses that Spring semesters are less frantic than Fall. I think he's right. I'm taking more classes than I did last semester but the pace seems very different. Probably just because we all have a semester under our belt and know better what to expect.

I'd say the biggest change in my life since I retired would have to be the change of pace. I'm no longer quite as rushed to fit all of "life" into the hours available. I still get up at the same time (5 a.m.!) and pretty much go to bed around 9 p.m., but everything just fits better into the daytime hours. I really love having more control over my day.

The $3.00 lesson: I learned a good lesson the first week of classes. There is a major difference between a 9 a.m. class and a 10 a.m. class - available parking! Last semester I could usually find a good parking spot in just a few minutes of cruising before my 9 a.m. MIS class. And for my 3:30 p.m. English class, people were leaving campus in throngs. But at 10 a.m. it's a different story. Second day of school I left the house around 9:20 a.m. and was unable to find a spot in any of three parking areas on the south side of campus. In a panic, I had to use the pay parking garage that charges by the hour. It's very close to my Math building, thank goodness, so I still made it to class with a couple minutes to spare, but at $3.00, I'd better not use it too often!

So I've made it a practice to be out of the house at 9 a.m., not only so I can find parking, but I'm in a better frame of mind if I'm not rushing from the parking lot straight into class. I even have time for a Starbucks drive-thru, thanks to a generous Christmas gift card from my brother. Just a short coffee with cream (I'm boring, I know!) and I'm set for the morning.

Back at it!

Ahhh... I'm enjoying my last day of Christmas break - trying to wrap up the home projects I got started on in mid-December and getting my stuff/act together to have a go at another semester!

I haven't had this much time off in 28 years! A little more than five weeks. It was GREAT to truly feel "retired" for a while but I'm anxious to get into a routine again. Juan had two weeks off and we got some fun stuff done like putting in a garden, and purchasing the recliners we'd talked about getting for the past several years. Now our "Arizona" room is put to good use as our media room and we enjoy relaxing in there after a long day.

Since I was selected for the MIS Preceptor thing (see previous post), I've decided to drop my Justice and Virtue class and cap my credit hours at 13. With working at H&R Block 20-30 hours a week, it just seemed like I was taking on too much at 16 credits. The Preceptor commitment won't be a traditional class, but it will take 5+ hours a week averaged over the semester. Standard classes generally take 6+ hours a week including the study/homework time so I didn't want to push it.

I'll get more info when our Preceptor "class" meets for the first time later this week, but here's what I know right now: I'll be involved in three aspects; grading (approximately 50-60 projects at a time for five different projects), proctoring (three exams and a final), and flex-lab (assisting students in the computer lab probably once or twice a week). It sounds like a lot of fun and a change of pace from the ordinary class format.

So here's how my schedule pans out:

- Monday: Math 109, Modern Latin America, H&R Block
- Tuesday: Math 109, English 102, homework
- Wednesday: (see Monday)
- Thursday: (see Tuesday)
- Friday: Modern Latin America, H&R Block or homework (alternating months)
- Saturday: H&R Block, homework
- Sunday: homework!

The Preceptor grading can be done from home and will occur only every third week with flex-lab on the other two weeks.

The funnest part about a new semester is obtaining the syllabus from each class and getting everything coordinated into my calendar. I had to chuckle at one of my fellow classmates last semester who whined that the teachers were "really piling on the work" at the end of the semester. No they weren't! Just read the syllabus!! Ah, youth!