strange little girl

I was poking around online, rather than work on my Capstone course, when I found this video. I have always loved this cover of the song, and the sort of misplaced misfit it describes.

This was, as I have mentioned, a fairly uneasy spring. But things are getting better. I haven't hit the lottery, but the wolves aren't pressing their noses to the second-story windows, either.

when geography majors dream

peanut butter jelly time!

This poor bastard suffered just as badly as I did in the interest of promoting fruit and vegetable consumption. But I passed my TAC! Peanut butter jelly time!

back in the saddle again

Today I rejoined the ranks of the adequately gainfully employed. I am relieved, of course; it has been a rather uneasy spring for me.

I have also begun the Capstone Course. That will take up a good portion of my attention for the next four months. In addition to the Service Learning Activity (more on that later), I will have some fairly significant writing assignments to keep me out of trouble. This blog will probably begin to more closely resemble its original form, where it was a place for me to chew on nursing theory and research out of earshot of the easily offended. Good news for you if you are a nursing student, or a clinical psychologist studying psychosis in the academic environment.

However, if your favorite post so far has been the photo essay on my shoe collection, don't despair. I am sure I'll have other things to rant about besides midrange theorists and integration of nursing philosophy into practice.

sixteen hundred bucks later. . .

I pled my case to the folks in Albany, and was granted admission into Capstone for this summer. The ramifications of this boon follow:

1. Tuition of $1100 was due on the spot. I had it, but jeez. I need to start working full time again just so I have something to occupy my time other than spending money on my career. (The other five hundred was for the privilege of submitting my video and paper for TAC.)

2. Based on my last two online cohort courses, I need to plan to spend at least thirty or forty minutes a day during the week participating in the discussion threads. Shouldn't be a big deal, provided I don't do any major travel. And while it beats driving to class, it is also annoying. Think Myspace, but run by the PTA.

3. Even if I have to redo TAC, in its entirety or in part, it ENDS this summer. I am, as I am sure I have mentioned, smoked. I don't care what I have to do. It's time to stop the bleeding.

4. Holy shit. I had better start doing push-ups.

final lap?

We might finally be in the home stretch, loyal readers. Excelsior finally got around to grading my Research exam, which I passed with a B. Of course, I would have liked an A, but it really doesn't matter; with 122 credits in the bank, my average isn't going to change much regardless of what I do now.


Excelsior is also in receipt of my Teaching Across Cultures project. That is a fairly extensive thing to grade, so I won't feel put out if they take the full six weeks to return a grade. However, that didn't stop me from sending them a note to ask for admission into the Capstone course this summer anyway. The class is only open to people who have completed all of the other degree requirements. I don't know much else about it, other than that it is a cohort online course, like the Health Assessment course from last fall, and that it includes a requirement for students to complete a volunteer project. The rationale is that they want students to become familiar with the needs of the patients in their communities. You know, because I haven't spent any time doing that during the last nine years of my life.


I've been enrolled in Excelsior for four years this summer. I am smoked. Forget about the reason I signed up for this. I want closure. I want my diploma and I want a party.