First Day Anxieties

Sunday night was a nearly sleepless night. I tossed and turned and had bad dreams. In one dream, I was living in the house I grew up in, back in Ormond Beach, FL However, it was located at my current address.

I had to get to the Portland airport to fly to class. My flight left at 5:30. I had to catch a bus to PDX (the airport). It was 5:29. I finally got all my shit together and got across the street where all the big yellow school busses were waiting. By the time I got there, all but one had left. This one was going to Tigard Elementary Kindergarten. I asked the bus driver "Which Tigard Elementary Kindergarten are you going to?"

"The Tigard Elementary Kindergarten," he replied.

"But there are more than one," I said. I just wanted to know if he was going to drop me off at the school behind my house or the one in downtown Tigard.

"Look lady, this is the only bus left to pick you up. Are you getting on or not?"

So I got on, thinking I could catch a bus at the school since there are so many busses, but worried that I had already missed my flight and I was going in the opposite direction of the airport.

As the bus pulled away from the stop, I woke up. I don't know if I woke up because it was such a stressful dream, or because it was a silly dream.

Work was difficult. My closing teacher didn't do a Goddamn thing on Friday and I had to spend my one hour of paperwork time cleaning dried food off my tables, and putting toys away. I also had to pick up a dead baby bird off our sidewalk. There was a nest near our playground and we were thinking the babies would learn how to fly this weekend. Unfortunately, it was 95-100 degrees this weekend, and I think this baby may have succumed to the heat. I wanted to give it a proper burial, but it's difficult to do in a preschool yard, so he (or she) ended up in a plastic bag in the dumpster. sigh.

One of my teachers suggested I leave 5 minutes early because the bus is never on time, and usually early. She's always late to work because this is the case, so I left early. I got to the bus stop at 12:01. The bus was scheduled to arrive at 12:13. It arrived at 12:07. Had I left at 1 minute past noon, I would have almost missed the bus. I think I'll leave at 11:55 every day.

It took me a little while to find the classroom. I went the wrong way and ended up in the School of Business Administration. Ick!

My professor didn't mind that I brought my bike into class. I don't have a super chain or combo lock yet, so I'm wary of locking it up outside until I get all that stuff. I plan on doing that when I pick up my panniers at REI when they come in next week. My professor just bought himself a Trek bike over the weekend, so we had a lot to talk about.

The class doesn't seem so bad. It's Survey of Exceptional Learners. We have to do reflection papers after every class, which won't be difficult, and we have "quickie quizzes" every day. We have to do group presentations and a paper, but no final, so I'm happy.

I rode my bike all the way home yesterday. I figured I would ride until it was too hot, and then hop on the bus, but it seemed pointless. It was 100 degrees and if I stopped moving, I would just sit in heat and die. The busses don't use air conditioning on account of the price of fuel, and everyone would be stinky. So I rode. When I got home, I thought I was going to die. But I did it. I rode home in 45 minutes. Not too shabby!

Today's class is Intro to Early Intervention/Early Childhood Special Ed. I'm hoping my proffessor is just as cool about bikes in class as the last one. I hope the classroom is just as large as yesterday's so I can fit my bike in it. We'll see...