Suzanne Calling

This marathon of dealing with le Junque de Jane is in the final segment. We spent a lot of time at the apartment today, sorting, pitching and consolidating. Ed wrapped up the rest of the tzotzkes and boxed them up and friends came to look at that monster huge entertainment center. As huge as it is, the center section is 2.6 inches too small to hold their television. However, smart cookie that our friend is, he figured out that we didn't have to install the shelf that is currently above the TV and could spread out the side units. Guess we're so wiped from dealing with this crap that we didn't consider that a possiblity! The bad news is that we have to move the stupid, heavy monstrosity one more time. The good news is that we'll never have to move it again!

If there is one piece of wisdom I can pass on to you, kind reader, it is this: the nondescript eating establishment that always has tons of cars in the parking lot is worth trying. Especially one that has a disclaimer on top of the building "Warning: Our burgers are habit forming." Thing is, it is the absolute truest statement a place has ever made Game Teen attended a school near this place in South Lakeland, so I'd passed by it a handful of times and tucked the observation away that there were always cars at the little white building. Always. That they advertised those burgers, when I'm something of a burger snob meant that sooner or later, I'd pass by when I was hungry. Then I started at Poly. There were days when I'd have a kid who missed the bus, or I'd have to go to the school for some reason. Not one to make wasted trips, if I was called down to that part of town, I was heading to campus to study. Pretty soon after beginning at school, fate i...

Polytechnic is defined as 'many disciplines.' You've probably heard of a handful of schools with the Polytechnic designation, Cal Poly, Rensselaer Polytechnic, NYU Poly, and a handful of others. You may have even heard of my alma mater, USF Polytechnic. I proudly wear my many tee shirts emblazoned with the school name that my student activity fees bestowed on me and got asked more than a handful of times "what exactly IS a Polytechnic?" Oh, I gave the definition above and expanded further that the polytechnic model is applied learning with an interdisciplinary approach. Netted down further-it is a hands on environment where you use the skills of more than one subject in each class. That first time I visited the campus and spoke to an admissions advisor, the explanation sold me on going to that campus instead of driving a little further to Tampa, where the course offering catalog gave many more options for times and sections of classes. There are trade offs, t...

One of the assignments for my Interactive Media class was a group project conducting a Usability Study of a website, finding four to six subjects and observing as they used the site. I lucked out with some great (and understanding teammates) and we all ended up playing to our strengths. T was good with identifying what we could test, M made some fantastic materials with which to conduct our observations and I wrote the report summarizing the data and providing interpretation. It was rough to do, but only because it has been hell to concentrate on anything with all that's been going on. The report got finished at 3pm for a 5 o'clock class. I worried that my teammates would find it lacking. Meanwhile, they both looked at the finished product and were pleased with it. As I had the professor's rubric close at hand while I wrote it up, I suspect we'll have minimal revisions to make next week. All those Psychology papers definitely paid off, because the format was stra...

I have no time to be sick. We're still moving Jane's crap, I have to drop off paperwork to the nursing home, I've got two big group projects this week, I have two other assignments to do as well. Between now and Friday, I'm supposed to be on the Lakeland campus for the four Provost candidate public interviews, on the Tampa campus for a Grad school session with one of the candidates to replace a retiring professor and probably a half dozen other things I am forgetting in the brain fry. There is.NO.time. to be sick. Period. Then, factor in that Ed had the flu, Chef started being sick late Thursday night and GameTeen started in with the cough last night and fever this morning, the deck is stacked against me. I had my flu shot, courtesy of USFP, but the menfolk did not. Just in case that wasn't enough, today, I made a big pot of Chicken Basil noodle soup, which I consider an update to Jewish penicillin. If you eat bowls of chicken noodle soup before you get sick, c...

Remember last year, when I was diagnosed with the Chiari I malformation. My neurologist kindly suggested not lifting anything greater than 15 pounds, nor should I yell, because both would exacerbate the bitch-kitty headaches that I always seem to have. Right. Since then, I've sorted through Jane's stuff three times now and moved it twice and will have to move some more of it a third time in the coming week. I can report that yelling is at a minimum, but the other restriction? I kind of ignored it because this crap has to be moved. As the past two weeks have progressed, the various trouble spots in my body have announced their presence with authority. The neck and shoulder kind of hinted they were going to raise a ruckus, but they waited until today. It's been craptacular. I'll be honest, I'm trying to avoid medicating the Chiari headache and neck and shoulder because I've got too much work to do on two projects for Monday's class, but I hurt too much...

In the pursuit of degrees beyond the current one, I had a meeting on campus today. Afterwards, I mentioned to Ed that Dr. Smith and I spoke about my plans. He had a question for me "Did you ask him why he stowed away?" Nope, he wasn't Zachary Smith. However, I revealed to Ed something that I thought when I was very small. In watching "Lost in Space" with my siblings, then later watching "Mr. Rogers Neighborhood," I was confused. See if you might understand. This is Lady Elaine Fairchilde: And this is Doctor Zachary Smith: Do you have any question why a preschooler might wonder how the guy was a puppet on one show and a real person on another? You probably now have questions on whether I really am up for the challenge of a doctoral program, don't you!