First Week of Class

As I begin writing this it is about 4:30 on Saturday afternoon and I just finished my homework for the weekend.  I'm tired.  School (and new things in general) can be rather exhausting. 

I started the week off by receiving a 9 page syllabus at 8:15 on Monday morning in my Intro to Sociology class.  From there I went to Math where the syllabus was one page.  It basically said, "Here's the sections of the book that we are going to cover.  When we finish a chapter we'll have a test."  Of course in a Math class you can count on doing homework every night so how more detailed does the teacher need to be?  He also told us we were going to start slow and that if we thought it was easy that didn't mean we should be in a higher class.  So far it's been pretty easy.  One new experience I had was having a professor swear during his lecture.  That would be my Intro to Psychology prof, if anyone cares.

Medical Terminology is like learning a new language.  At least I've done that before and my French has been some help to me already.  I've been spending lots of time on that.  In fact, it seems I'm spending a lot more time studying now than I did 25 years ago during my first college experience.  My housemate tells me that is normal.  After all a) I am older and b) I need to figure out how to study again.  She has assured me from experience that it will get better.  I sure hope so.  I'm also reminded that intense mental concentration burns off as many calories as exercise.  Maybe that's why I'm tired and also eating more than usual.  I did take a break yesterday evening and went to watch a French movie at the Alliance Française.  It was nice to hear French again even though the movie reminded me why I don't like most French movies.

Why do you celebrate?

Friday night I went to an unusual party.  One of my uncles threw a surprise party for his wife.  He took her out for supper and then acted like he'd forgotten the tickets for the event they would be attending so they had to return home to get them.  In the meantime friends and family had gathered in their living room.  A son had driven 7 hours to make it home for Mom's party.  Some had driven 4 hours (or more since they got stuck behind an accident) and one couple had taken a two hour flight.  Some were old college friends and others from around the corner.  All those people kept it a surprise and I think it is safe to say that Aunt Nancy was overwhelmed when the blindfold was taken off and she discovered a house full of guests whose sole purpose was to celebrate her life.   That's what made it unusual.

About 10 years ago Nancy was diagnosed with breast cancer.  I was on another continent at the time so I know few of the details of her treatment or what that road was like for her and her immediate family.  I do know that she came through the treatments and is now cancer free.  That is reason enough to celebrate.  But there is more.  Everyone in their home Friday night was very thankful that Nancy is a cancer survivor but we are also thankful for her character.  Several told of how she had been a comfort and encouragement to them.  She knows what not to say and because she had walked a hard road she has accompanied others on their hard roads in a way she couldn't have before.  Her story has added depth to her character and strength to her faith.

I read this past week about how none of us like to go through hard times whether they be physical, financial, vocational, relational or any other ___al.  We like comfort and ease.  But as any athlete, musician, artist or student knows, progress is not made in comfort and ease but by being pushed and stretched sometimes beyond what we think is our breaking point.  We don't like that discipline but we do like the results.  I'm sure Nancy and her family wouldn't chose to walk down that road again but I think I can safely say that they grateful for how it has changed them and helped them grow.   

There were a couple of other cancer survivors there last night.  One of those is Aunt Suzanne.  She has brain cancer and is currently undergoing a second round of chemo treatments.  Yet she's a survivor; she's already lived longer than the average with her kind of cancer.  She and her family are in the middle of a longer road than Aunt Nancy's.  We don't yet know what kind of meadow will open up for Suzanne when she comes out of this valley.  But, as one of the women said last night, whatever happens it will be alright. 

That's why we can celebrate.  It's not because Aunt Nancy is a 10 year cancer survivor or Aunt Suzanne has beaten the average.  It's because of Jesus and the hope he gives.  Without him, no celebration lasts.  With him the celebration is eternal.

Heat

I grew up without air conditioning.  I've lived the past 18 years without AC.  Growing up I remember it being hot and humid enough that we wanted to sleep in the basement sometimes - and I think once or twice we actually did.  In France the humidity was low so it wasn't that bad.  I'd take a shower to cool off right before going to bed and with a fan blowing on me, I'd sleep pretty good.  There were summers when I didn't once use the fan at night.  Taking that into account I figured it wouldn't be that bad to move into an old house near downtown without AC.  How lucky I was to move in during the hottest week of the year.  By the end of the week it was over 90° in my bedroom at 10 pm.  Needless to say I didn't get a whole lot done.  I got some things put away, but I really didn't do much organizing.  It was just too hot.

I did discover a few ways to escape the heat.  One was to go to the river which is about a mile away.  Wed morning I was determined to go for at least a spin despite the heat.  I went down along the river and when I got back I noticed it was over 5 degrees warmer at the house.

That afternoon I also took a book and went to the neighborhood library to read.  I wasn't the only one who had that idea.  I don't know how many people are there on a normal afternoon, but I'm sure there were many like myself looking for a place to cool off and wake up.

By Saturday it had cooled off.  My parents came and brought a few things that wouldn't fit in my car at the beginning of the week.  One of Mom's first comments was, "It's hot in here."  I sure didn't think so.  It was actually below 80° in my room last night.  Maybe tonight I'll actually need some covers.

What's next in the story?

The last two books I've read to my niece were set in Africa and included plenty of danger from both wild animals and people.  When a chapter always ended at a point where the suspense was at its height Elizabeth would look at me with her big round eyes and declare, "Keep reading!"  A good story always has some suspense or tension.  We keep reading because we wonder what's going to happen next.  How will this get resolved?

Over the past few months I've read snippets from Donald Miller as he talks about viewing life as a story complete with characters, ambition and some conflict.  I was reminded of that this week as I spent a day shadowing two OTs at a nearby hospital.  I got a glimpse of some of the stories that were currently set in the rehab unit or acute care.  The goal for the therapist(s) in acute care was sometimes just to get the person sitting up at the edge of the bed and to get some movement in the upper body.  The patients in rehab are able to handle three hours of therapy a day so there is more intensity there.  Some of them are learning to dress themselves with their new (and hopefully temporary) physical limitations.  Others are working to get their strength back after a serious accident.  Whatever their situation, each one is at a point of crisis (suspense, tension, conflict).  Like a good book, it made me want to go back the next day to learn more about the characters and find out what would happen to them.  When will the man whose left side wasn't responding after a stroke be strong enough to get moved to the rehab unit?  Will he make enough progress to be able to use his left side?  When will the young accident victim get his strength back so he no longer has to use a walker or sit in a wheelchair and his handshake is once again firm?  Will the swelling go down enough for the man who had the diving accident so he can gain full use of his upper body? 

I've found myself feeling rather apprehensive this week as I prepared to move to Minneapolis on Monday.  The unknowns seem overwhelming at times.  But when I look at it as a story, I can enter the new situations with anticipation: What is going to happen next?  How will each need I have get met?  What people will come across my path?  And best of all, it is good to know the Author of the story, the Sovereign Lord who lovingly always does what is best.  It may not be easy, but that just makes for a better story.

Prerequisites to the Prerequisites

Since attending an informational meeting about the Occupational Therapy program at the U of Minn, my plan has been to take a heavy load of classes this fall.  Applications for the OT program need to be turned in by sometime in March or April to have a chance of being accepted for the following September and 5 of the 7 prerequisites have to be completed before applying.  If I want to start the OT program next fall, there is no other option.

At least that was the plan until Monday when I talked with someone at the registrar's office at the community college I'll be attending this fall.  Five of the classes I need have prerequisites.  Two of those are one of the other classes on the list and in order to take Anatomy I need to take chemistry and biology (in that order).  For some reason the classes I had in High School don't count.  Besides that, I also need a certain level of math in order to be able to sign up for Statistics.  My college degrees waived the reading and writing placement test but not the Math.  After looking at a sample test online, I knew I'd better brush up on my Algebra.  Four years of math in HS assured that the problems didn't look completely foreign but I hadn't a clue how to solve many of them.  I guess that's why prerequisite classes have to be taken within the past five years.  The day of reviewing Algebra helped but I still didn't do as well as I had hoped on the math placement test.  As things stand now, I get to take 3 classes before they will let me into Statistics.  My Math skills are still good enough to figure out that when I add the prerequisites of the prerequisites to the prerequisites it will take 2 years before I have them all completed.

My niece asked me this week why I was wearing my glasses all the time.  (I had previously wore them for reading.)  I told her I was getting old.  She responded, "You're not old.  Anyone who is still in college isn't old."  There you have it! 

I am now a licensed driver in Minnesota and my car has MN plates.  What amazed me was that I needed to furnish no proof of residence.  They actually took my word for it when I said I lived at my address.  It felt very strange walking in there without a file of papers to prove that I'm who I say I am who lives where I say I live.  The bureaucracy in this corner of the US is still pretty simple - at least compared to my experience in France.

Life doesn’t always go as planned

A few days after I arrived at my parents we started rearranging furniture in my bedroom to make room for some of the things I'd sent on the container. That led to the discovery of a water problem – at least in my room. Last Thursday morning my bleary eyes became wide awake when I stepped in water as I entered the bathroom. A quick look around showed that water was pretty much everywhere in the basement following about 6 ½ inches of rain during the night. I'm not sure what any of us had planned for the day but I know "completely empty the basement" was not on the list. Thanks to the help of my brother and one of his friends (thanks Randy!) everything that was in the basement (except for what is on shelves in the storeroom) is now either in the living room or in the garage. Dad even arranged it all so two cars will fit in the 3 car garage. In the process I made enough trips up and down the steps that my calves were sore the next morning. If you stop by during the next several weeks you are welcome to sit in the kitchen or at the dining room table. If you want something that is normally found in Dad's desk or in the sewing room, you'll just have to wait awhile. For now we have fans and dehumidifiers going to dry out the carpet as we try to figure out what can be done to try and prevent this from happening again. We've heard stories of someone who had waist-high water in their basement (thanks to 10 inches of rain) and another basement in the area that caved in. The dampness in our basement is inconvenient but so far all that's been thrown out is carpet pad.

Friday afternoon we headed north to De Smet SD with my brother's family. Elizabeth has loved the Laura Ingalls Wilder books so a trip to see where most of the stories in her books happened and the pageant sounded like a good weekend getaway. We spent all our time at the Ingalls homestead which is a great place to take kids. You can't go wrong when the first rule is, "Please touch, feel and climb on anything you want." Elizabeth jumped in with both feet and loved it all. She even washed clothes twice using a washboard. The woman in the replica of the Ingalls home had a great rapport with the kids and an hour later as we came by again she called Elizabeth by name. As the evening went on the clouds became more menacing and once again the weather changed our plans. Shortly after we got back to the hotel rain was coming down in sheets. Elizabeth was disappointed (and so were the rest of us) but there is always next year.

As I go through this time of transition it feels like nothing is stable. I was just getting things unpacked and remembering where I'd put them when I had to pack them all up again and now it's all out in the garage in different boxes. I was reminded this morning that no matter how things change or how unpredictable life becomes Jesus is the one who was, who is, and who is to come. He is the same, yesterday, today and forever. He never changes and he's sovereign over all the change in my life. That is very good.

Some small town culture at the County Fair

I couldn't turn down Elizabeth, my 7 year old niece, when she asked me to take her to the horse show at the county fair this week. She loves horses and I enjoy spending time with her. It turns out that she had a friend with her and Mommy came along too but she wanted to ride in my car. It was a warm afternoon as we pulled in a few minutes late – though I didn't need to be concerned about that since the schedule is approximate. Back in my 4-H days (30 years ago) I took some things to the fair but I have little memory of it. I certainly never went to the horse show. The actual judging had been done the day before so we were there to watch the games. They included: carrying an egg on the spoon while trotting, walking and then galloping (none of the eggs lasted very long at a gallop), barrel racing, poles, the key hole, the softball drop… Horses all have their own temperament and one in particular wasn't excited about getting too close to barrels, poles, buckets or anything else it was supposed to go around. A crowd favorite was the little pony with its junior rider who looked pretty good in each game.

Elizabeth's attention span was up before the games so I walked around the rest of the grounds. There wasn't much in the 4-H building but the number of animals in the barns made up for it. Maybe that's why I found the fair on the internet as the "Osceola County Livestock Show". The noisiest animals were the sheep. They were bleating pretty much non-stop. The hogs were pink and clean and it was hot enough they were probably missing some mud. The beef cattle looked like they had lots of thick steaks in them. I was able to discover the name of the best jam and salsa makers in the county in the open exhibit building. The commercial building was pretty sparse. The company reps who had made the trip looked pretty bored. Osceola County is too small to have a mid-way but there were several inflatable slides and jumpers for the kids. The one ride was the local REC (Rural Electric Company) boom truck that would rise to full extension (maybe 30 feet) and make a 360° turn. If that isn't enough excitement for you, you could have put $10 into the demolition derby raffle. The winner gets a car to drive in the feature demolition on Saturday night. It wasn't specified if the helmet was included.